Supporting Survivors in The Release Phase
Filmmakers have the opportunity to make a social impact by hiring survivors to create honest portrayals of their experiences, as well as shift the public narrative to help educate viewers about rape culture, rape myths, career retaliation, and more. By providing proper resources that pertain to the subject matter of their work, filmmakers can connect their audiences with the agencies and services they may need.
In the current moment, the value of inclusion is clear. As audiences demand more storytelling that features new voices, the film industry must respond. Showcasing historically marginalized groups is no longer an option; in an era where entertainment reflects our values, captures our attention, and fills our time, inclusion is a necessity.” – USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative
It is essential to engage your audience in order to create conversation around important subject matter that your projects may explore. Hire Survivors Hollywood can assist with the following steps, or connect you to the people and resources you might need to complete them!
Education & Social Impact Strategy Pt. 1
- It is essential to make it known that your project, company, production, etc. implemented steps to hire survivors and create a safe and equitable work environment for all.
- At no point is it appropriate to require any self identifying survivor to disclose the details or nature of their abuse, including (but not limited to) details about who abused them, when, or how. It is essential that everyone involved is trauma informed, and respectful at every point in the hiring process.
- Create screening opportunities for survivors and Silence Breakers. Actively seek out nonprofits, community groups, and survivor-led initiatives to partner with for pre-release screenings for direct audience feedback from the survivor community. Once a project has been released, create screenings and talkbacks for those same communities. Ensure talkbacks are led and moderated by actual survivors and Silence Breakers.
- Build a press plan that celebrates the efforts your project has made to be inclusive of survivors while creating a safer and more equitable environment for all. Focusing on the talents survivors have brought to your projects – and how being inclusive of this community is a benefit to any project – not only creates positive press for you, but encourages other filmmakers to make similar efforts in future. This also creates positive press for the survivors involved and helps reshape the often harmful narratives that currently exists about survivors.
“By authentically depicting the nuanced and complex way that mental health conditions intersect individuals’ lives, media can introduce audiences to new ways of thinking, ways to ask for help, and ultimately create necessary shifts in our cultural beliefs about mental health. In doing so, media can cease to be an engine for stigma and one source of solutions.” – Dr. Stacy L. Smith – “Mental Health Conditions in Film and TV: Portrayals that Dehumanize and Trivialize Characters”
Education & Social Impact Strategy Pt. 2
- When designing your press strategy, ensure that the survivors and Silence Breakers you’ve hired are prioritized when doing press, whether the project focuses on “survivor issues” or not.
- Ensure that your press department has a clear understanding of what subjects and questions are off limits for each individual survivor and make sure those boundaries are respected during press junkets, interviews, etc. so as neither to trigger survivors nor to allow the press to use their abuse, rather than their work, as the headline.
- Ensure that any press done by survivors is guided by the survivors themselves. For example, some survivors may want to discuss their survivorhood and activism and how it may relate to their role/job and project, while other survivors may want to solely focus on the work. Both should be respected and celebrated.
- When releasing a project that may relate to survivor issues, create educational materials and support resources for audiences to access if they want to learn more or are feeling triggered. Add a CW or TW for subject matter that may be triggering, activating, or sensitive. This goes for issues of abuse but should also be added for projects that cover things like racism, antisemitism, fatphobia, ableism, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, etc.
