Pioneering gender equality in cinema.
Vision & Mission
Equal spaces and equal opportunities for women in cinema.
WCC works towards building a safe, non-discriminatory and professional workspace for women in cinema through advocacy and policy change.
WCC encourages more women to be a part of the industry through outreach initiatives for craft enrichment opportunities, industry support, and mentorship opportunities for its members.
WCC showcases the creative acumen of women by curating films and bodies of work by women.
WCC seeks to create awareness about gender bias and exploitation faced by women in film industry, both onscreen and off-screen.
WCC promotes responsible filmmaking practices accelerating the work culture transformations required for a gender-just film industry and cinema.
History
In 2017, an established actress was subjected to a heinous incident of sexual assault in Kochi and she courageously spoke up for justice. A collective of eighteen women from the Malayalam film industry started to come together to stand by this Survivor.
The entire episode and ensuing reactions reaffirmed the stronghold of patriarchal beliefs in the film industry highlighting the challenges faced by survivors in their course of pursuing justice. Spanning multiple generations and film disciplines, this group met up with the Chief Minister of Kerala to draw government attention on the gender-discriminatory values and unsafe practices that are rife in the film industry. Thus the Women in Cinema Collective, the first of its kind, came into existence.
On November 1st 2017 Women in Cinema Collective Foundation was registered as a Society. In the first two years, Women in Cinema Collective has maintained a special focus on dealing with sexual harassment within the industry.
To serve the same WCC followed a four pronged approach by:
- 1
Drawing the attention of Government to endemic issues faced by women in this industry.
- 2
Conducting Research & Study of the legal provisions that protect gender equality and the rights of women.
- 3
Vigorously championing the same with industry bodies.
- 4
Keeping the cause of the Survivor alive in media.
Now WCC has grown from being a support group to a strong platform where untold experiences of women in cinema have found voice, and are being heard.
Team
True to the collective spirit, WCC as an organisation works primarily in a lateral structure. Every member contributes their time and talent to the organisation with a volunteer spirit.
As a governance body, all founders form a managing committee that commits to the long term vision and mission of WCC.
From among them volunteers have come together to form teams that handle overall day-to-day management, policy generation, consultation and creation of organisational systems. In an evolving system, these volunteer teams commit to work for a minimum term of 6 months each. Values of transparency and democracy and given priority and healthy discussions and debates are encouraged. Larger impact decisions are put to open vote among all members and majority opinion is sought for implementation.
Members who are unable to volunteer due to their deep involvement in work projects, step back for the term allowing others to step into active roles. New members are encouraged to work alongside existing teams as an orientation process into the working of the organisation.
The Lateral Structure
A daily work team handles the responsibilities of the general management & systems & outreach.
A communications team monitors all communications from the organisation.
A legal research team engages with experts and conducts study of legal perspectives on the workplace rights for women.
Independent project teams run specific projects like the Best Practices Manual Project, The Counselling Network Project, The Industry Database project, The Industry Compliance Project etc.