Cannes Film Festival

Later this week I’m heading to Cannes.  There’s a slim chance, I suppose, that I’ll find myself within eyeshot of rarefied accolade recipients Meryl Streep, Donna Langley or Andrea Arnold, or earshot of jury members Eva Green or Lily Gladstone or their esteemed president, cinema saviour Greta Gerwig.  Slim to none, if we’re being honest….  But there is a very good chance I’ll rub shoulders with lesser familiar, lesser newsworthy women who have experienced sexual harassment and sexual violence while working in the film industry.  Better than a very good chance…. It is inevitable.  100% guaranteed.

I think the poor treatment of women working in film has been ubiquitous, and I believe the independent film industry (in Hollywood and globally) is on its knees, creatively and financially, in large part due to the harassment, abuse, exploitation, commodification and exile of women (I’ve literally written a book about it….).  And so you might think I’d be cheering on the anticipated publication of a “Secret list of ten men in the industry, including leading actors and directors, who have been abusive to women” in Cannes on Wednesday.  But I’m not.

The publication of a list of men against whom anonymous allegations have been raised is a mistake, in my opinion.  It is reckless, contrary to the principle of fair hearing, and I think it undermines the important work that was (barely) begun by the failed #MeToo movement.

While I do not question the veracity of the allegations therein, the list reduces a systemic, industry-wide cultural problem that requires a comprehensive reckoning to… ten measly names.  Ten names?  What about the man who was eleventh on the list?  And what about the man who was the 11,000th?

The publication of the list as Cannes opens on Wednesday threatens to overshadow the achievements of Meryl and co (even if they do feel rather tokenistic, a point eloquently address my Kristen Stewart this week).  It makes disruptive entertainment and cheap newspaper headlines out of something much more complex and pernicious, something impossible to quantify, and something that needs to be addressed strategically and collectively.  The redress of women’s treatment in the film industry is culturally, economically and morally essential for our sector, and it will not be advanced by the publication of the list of ten men.

Rather than listing names of abusers (seriously… they’re ten a penny!  You can’t swing a cat in Cannes without hitting one…), we need to focus our efforts on developing a positive plan to address the systemic failures of the industry, investing in an infrastructure and improved culture that will afford opportunities to women working in film, and building an industry that is safe for women, for today and for our future.