Member of the Australian Directors
Guild board
PO Box 211
Rozelle
NSW 2039
Australia
13th Dec 2016
Dear Samantha Lang, Ray Argall, Nadia
Tass, Michela Ledwidge, Jennifer Peedom, Stephen Wallace, Jonathan Brough and
Jeffrey Walker
I have received no response to my
letters of 21st Nov. and 6th Dec. I think it fairly safe to
draw one of the following conclusions:
You don’t want me as a member or the
Australian Director’s Guild?
or
If I were to become a member the ADG
would not advocate my right to be appraised of the evidence that (a) led to my
being banned in May 2012, (b) my being banned in May 2014 and (c) my being
banned in May 2016?
It follows that the ADG would
likewise not utter a peep of protest if I were to be banned again in May 2018.
This is inevitable given that I have no intention of being intimidated into
silence by Screen Australia.
Two things have emerged from this ongoing
farce:
Screen Australia can act against the
interests of Australian film directors and the ADG will remain silent.
Australian film and TV directors
would prefer to remain silent about whatever misgivings they have about Screen
Australia than to suffer the same fate as myself.
And I think that there is another
conclusion that members of the ADG must surely be contemplating:
That the ADG, in its acceptance of
funding from Screen Australia, has entered into a tacit agreement not to
challenge this film funding body in any meaningful way; not to bite one of the few hands that feeds it; not to defend
ADG members against Screen Australia bullying.
The ADG’s lack of industrial clout is
evidenced by your collective refusal to stand up to Screen Australia in
relation to its partial funding of the six-part TV series to be made of
“Picnic at Hanging Rock.”
After the horse has bolted the ADG is up in arms
because half of the series will be directed by a Canadian!
Says Kingston Anderson, CEO of the ADG:
“Australian directors are amazed and astonished at
the choice of a foreign director to work on a classic, especially as it is not
a co-production and is being fully financed in Australia.”
Is this the best that the ADG can come up with in
Dec 2016? To be “amazed and astonished”.
As you all know I was one of its founders of the ADG
(under a different name) more than 30 years ago. The ‘initiating incident’ for
its formation in the 1980s was the regular importation of overseas directors to
work on productions for which there were eminently qualified Australian
directors to work’ productions financed primary with Australian tax dollars
through 10BA.
We decided that being “amazed and astonished” was not
enough. Action was called for. Directors needed to unite to defend our right to
tell Australian stories for Australian and international audiences – unless
there was a compelling reason why an overseas director was better suited to a
particular project. And so the ADG was formed.
From a recent article in IF magazine:
“Anderson said that this was an ongoing issue,
particularly on TVCs, claiming that as many as 20 foreign directors were
granted 420 Visas each year without meeting the requirements.”
If this be the case, of what value is the
Australian Director’s Guild in its representation of directors if all it can do
is be “amazed and astonished”?
Kingston Anderson again:
“It saddens the ADG to see Screen Australia, Foxtel
and Fremantle Media supporting Canadian television directors at the expense of
Australians.”
That’s it!? The ADG is ‘saddened’? The ADG is a union! How about some industrial
action?
From the recent IF Magazine article:
“The ADG also announced that it will launch a
campaign for better recognition for Australian directors, focused on
"rights, respect and remuneration". It argues that directors’ rights
have slipped behind those of all other screen industry workers. “
Really! More than 30 years after the problem of
overseas director imports was identified, the Australian Director’s guild is
now going to launch a campaign!? Directed at whom? And to what end?
Another question:
Why is Screen Australia, seemingly so concerned about
the under-representation of Australian
women directors in film and TV, backing a project in which a Canadian director
gets to tell a quintessentially Australian story for a predominantly Australian
audience?
Do Graeme Mason and the powers-that-be within Screen
Australia (including the SA board, which presumably approves of such imports) believe
that there are no directors in Australia (male or female) qualified to work on
“Picnic at Hanging Rock?”
Has the ADG asked this question? Has Screen Australia answered
it? Are we, in the film and TV community, entitled to know what justification
Screen Australia provides for its decision to back a Canadian director at the
expense of an Australian one?
The bigger and more significant question that “Picnic”
as a TV series raises is this:
“Is there such a dearth of original ideas for films
and TV programmes in Australia that we must, as an industry, as a culture,
resort to re-makes?”
If the Australian Director’s guild is not to become an
irrelevant organisation you, as board members, and Kingston Anderson as CEO,
need to develop some spine and be prepared to go into battle with any and
everyone (including Screen Australia) who acts in a way that is not in the best
interests of film and TV directors. If you do not I suspect ADG membership
number will decline and bring about its slow decline and eventual death.
I trust that you will appreciate, in the absence of
any support whatsoever from the ADG (or anyone else with the film and TV
industry) that my blog is the only ‘weapon’ I have at my disposal to obtain a
just resolution to this close-to-five year dispute – other than utilizing the
services of the Supreme Court to obtain the evidence of my alleged offenses
that should have been provided to me in May 2012.
best wishes
James Ricketson
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