The ‘RESPECT’ group (Responsiveness, Ethics, Safety, Professionalism, Efficiency, Trust, Transparency) was born in autumn 2023, at a time when victims of sexist and sexual violence and harassment (SGBV) in the film industry were speaking out powerfully. While a number of associations and unions had already been working on these issues for several years, courageous and powerful testimonies generated a general awareness of the urgent need to tackle this systemic problem at its roots and in all its components.
Producers Caroline Bonmarchand and Alice Girard, who have both had to deal with reports of VHSS on their sets, are at the origin of this group. In record time and in great isolation, they were forced to make radical decisions, guided mainly by their activist culture and existing resources (White Paper of the 5050 collective and CNC documentation). They have thus experienced the absence of a clear and precise protocol to follow in the event of VHSS on a shoot, the contradictory legal injunctions, and the difficulties and consequences that ensue. This is how they came up with the idea of setting up a group bringing together professionals occupying different positions throughout the film production and distribution chain, to take the necessary time to work on and reflect on these issues across the board.
At the outset, it was simply a group of people who had been confronted with violence in their profession and who felt very alone, exchanging and sharing experiences. It quickly became apparent that there was a great deal of work to be done on this subject, which cuts across the entire film industry, sometimes causing irreparable damage to its victims.
The diversity of the group's members also quickly revealed its richness. These two factors combined led the collective to see itself as an innovative forum for cross-disciplinary reflection, for exchanges with professionals already working on these issues, from which could emerge proposals for ideas and concrete measures to bring about lasting change in the sector's practices.