Around 20 UK film and TV crew members held a demonstration outside the opening night gala of the BFI London Film Festival (LFF) at Royal Festival Hall today (October 4), which was attended by guests including Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley and Barbara Broccoli.
Under the name ‘Crew Call For Change’, the demonstration aimed to voice concern over the lack of support for crews during the US strikes by reminding industry employers that crews are suffering. The protest was platformed by the anonymous Instagram account BritCrewStories.
The march gathered at The Waterloo Tap pub before making its way to the balcony outside the Southbank Centre where it held signs above the red carpet for LFF’s opening gala film, Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn. Some demonstrators walked along the ticket queue chanting “you can’t make it without us”.
Mel (who asked not to give her surname), one of the organisers of the event and a standby art director, was keen to stress that the protest was not “anti-LFF or anti-Saltburn”.
“It’s a prestigious event. A lot of people are going to be here,” she said about choosing the LFF. “There’s a lot of British producers, industry people here that need to get their act together and they need to start looking after crew as well.
“Solidarity with the strikes but it needs to be about everyone in this industry.”
Katie Newton, a member of both the Writers Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) and the crew workers union Bectu, said crew want more protection when work starts up again.
“When the dust settles, we want British crews to get the treatment that we deserve. We need to have some reassurances in place because this can’t continue,” Newton told Screen. ”We can’t continue to make all this quality content that people love when people are basically on the bread line.”
Many passer-buyers voiced their support for the demonstration.
The protest was separate from the one being held by Bectu in Leicester Square tomorrow (October 5).
A BFI spokesperson previously said: “We have anticipated that protests centred around the Writers’ Guild of America and Screen Actors’ Guild (SAG-AFTRA) strikes and related disputes are being planned and that these will take place during the BFI London Film Festival. The BFI respects the right to peaceful protest and in common with film festivals and major media event moments all over the world, it’s not unusual for protests to take place at or during the LFF. We are prepared for these situations with policies and procedures in place for managing our venues and events in all such situations. Our priority is to create a safe space for audiences, guests, staff and protestors at our events.”
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