2018 Irish Equity AGM

NOTICE FOR MEMBERS: The 2018 Irish Equity AGM will take place in Liberty Theatre, Liberty Hall, Dublin on Sunday March 25th doors open at 2.00 p.m. There will be a speaker on Bullying & Harassment in the Arts.

Gonna Let Nobody Turn me Around

Check out this video from the Resistance Choir in support of the national demonstration calling for an end to #housingcrisis.
Join us on #April7th
1pm Parnell Square – #LetOrganise

Actor/Director ‘Speed Dating’ evening

The Equity Executive in conjunction with The Screen Directors Guild of Ireland, held an Actor/Director ‘Speed Dating’ evening on Thursday, 1st February in the Liberty Hall Theatre. What a perfect way to build your network in the acting world • Join Irish Equity!

Podcast: Amplify Women’s Harassment Toolkit

In response to the revelations of harassment in Irish theatre, the #MeToo and #IrishWeinstein hashtags, Amplify Women, an umbrella group that represents, works with or carries out research about women working in the cultural and media industries, has produced a toolkit for dealing with harassment and bullying in the workplace.

Olwen Dawe, Sarah Durcan, Karan O’Loughlin and Sarah Kieran have all been involved in creating the toolkit over the past year and they spoke to Róisín Ingle all about it. LISTEN HERE

Read the Amplify Women’s Harassment Toolkit

Dignity at Work

On Wednesday 22nd November Karan O’Loughlin (left in photo) and Andrea Irvine (right in photo) of Irish Equity met with Minister Heather Humphreys to discuss recent reports of harassment & bullying.
Amplify Women have compiled a toolkit of supports and resources. You can access it here – please spread the word. ow.ly/AdMf30gGHik

 

Congratulations to our friends in Australia

Congratulations to our friends in the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance Australia for all their hard work campaigning for a yes to marriage equality in Australia. Love conquers all!

FIA declaration on sexual harassment discrimination

The International Federation of Actors (FIA) Executive Committee unanimously approved a Declaration on sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation in the entertainment and media industries on 26th October 2017. The Declaration, authored and sponsored by the American performers union Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), recognizes the rights of all performers to a safe and harassment-free working environment and urges the industry to work in good faith with unions and performer organisations to develop a long-term strategy to achieve discrimination, harassment and retaliation-free work environments. Read the declaration

Dignity at Work Seminar

Bullying and harassment is never acceptable.
On Friday 10th November, Irish Equity ran a successful Dignity at Work Seminar in partnership with Screen Producers Ireland, Screen Training Ireland, the broadcasting Authority and The Lab. [Read more…]

Irish Equity calls on Minister to go further to combat sexual harassment and bullying

Irish Equity has criticised, as not going far enough, the announcement by Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys, that board members and senior staff in arts organisations are to take part in special workshops on sexual harassment and bullying in the workplace.  

Irish Equity Organiser, Karan O Loughlin, said: “Reminding organisations of their responsibilities is always welcome but any initiative to tackle the problem of bullying and sexual harassment in the arts needs to have teeth. We are specifically calling on the Minister to create a direct relationship between funding and good practice. Arts organisations applying for funding should have to demonstrate that they are operating good practice in this area as part of the application procedure.

“We note with interest that the Minister has invited the heads of eight leading theatres, including the Abbey and Gate, to meet with her and the Arts Council next week to seek ‘ways to create a change in culture for the arts’. Before this meeting happens, those eight organisations need to be asked to demonstrate how they handle these issues currently, what procedures and policies they have in place and whether these practices and policies are up to standard.”

She added: “If unacceptable behavior is to be driven out of the sector there must be consequences for those who do not adopt proper procedures. Access to funding must be in question if organisations are not operating to the best standard on this matter.”

2018 IFTA Film & Drama Awards – Call for Entries

Call for entries deadline is; 5pm on Friday 17th November

Elegibility period is 1st January 2017 to the 31st January 2018. Full details about the Categories, Rules & Guidelines and submission details are all available here: www.ifta.ie/submissions.php.
Contact the Submissions Desk at IFTA – either by phone: 019053599 or email: submissions@ifta.ie

15th Anniversary Year
The IFTA Film & Drama Awards take place on Thursday 15th February (immediately prior to EFM at Berlin, and the BAFTA Film Awards), and will be broadcast primetime on RTÉ One. 2018 marks the big 15th Anniversary Year for the annual Awards. The positioning of the Awards into the international Awards season in February, is part of the Academy’s new phase of development for the industry which also includes the re-positioning of the IFTA Gala Television Awards into April on the annual Calendar of events. This new move will see IFTA working very closely with BAFTA across their respective Awards ceremonies which will take place on the same week.

About IFTA
The Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) is the all-Ireland organisation whose mission is to encourage, recognise and reward excellence in Irish Film and Television and to provide a platform for inspiration, creative development and collaboration across the entire industry. As part of this remit, the Academy also organises c 50 industry events each year within its industry Learning Programme which have recently included some of the world’s most respected filmmakers, such as Martin Scorsese, Michael Moore and Liam Neeson, and the upcoming 15th Anniversary Year will see an expanded lineup of exciting high profile talent and events throughout the year of 2018.