There is a trend out there in every corner of any industry of any sector to help out friends and family. When this familiarity stretches to friends of friends and friends of those friends, our networks become bigger. But when someone who isn’t in our inner circles or knows someone in those inner circles approaches us, we immediately clam up and don’t want to network. The arts and media are well known for only hiring and working with people who they know and the creative industries function on ‘it’s who you know’. No matter how many schemes pop up in places to combat this insidious way of working, this is STILL the ‘way things work’. As many people know film is notorious for this trait. As much as it is said that the best person for the job gets the job, we all know that’s not true. This isn’t just the case for production. It is in every single corner of film. And I mean, every corner, including exhibition, distribution and criticism.
Opportunities outside of the inner circles are rare and the opportunities that are available are picked out for the lucky few that make it through the doors. Circles in every corner of the film industry pop up or you can see these cliques forming right before your eyes. This happens with criticism and programming. The same things are said; we need to be more diverse; we need to include new people; we need to talk about varied films etc. But nothing really changes. With PR companies gate keeping opportunities from those would-be critics, you end up with the same voices. Its all too often that I see writers scrounging for contacts to get screeners so they can write about films. If they’re lucky, they’ll know someone who knows someone, but that’s where the sharing ends. Websites, publications, festivals will only accept you if you have X many readers, X many followers and so on. It turns into a loop like the job search. You need experience to get a job but if no one will give you a job how will you get experience. It’s not enough to say, that’s how it is, unfair. Anyone in a position to help others should try and change this poisonous circle. It happens in exhibition as well.
I took part in a workshop last year with two friends during lockdown. We had met on a course a few years before and had wanted to start our own film collective. But, due to the very closed off nature of film, we couldn’t break through the wall, despite our hard work and effort. This workshop which we applied to was hopefully going to be our stepping stone. But once again, we were outsiders. While others were congratulated for their ideas, even though some weren’t strong, we were supportive. But our idea, was picked apart, stamped on, no kind words of encouragement. Fair enough we thought, we can work on this to improve it. But the plain fact was that we weren’t ever going to be selected for the final round. The gate keepers, the organisers, were looking for something very particular and our idea wasn’t it. We basically didn’t tick enough boxes for them. I know this because I’ve also worked in a place where they did the same thing. I called them out on it at the time but to no vail. At first when we weren’t selected at the workshop, I thought, that was just our luck but when the people who were picked were revealed, it made more sense. It’s difficult to convey exactly what happened and how the organisers behaved through this post. You might just think this sounds bitter but having seen this behaviour so many times at different jobs, course, events, you can see what’s really happening.
We are told that we shouldn’t be bitter towards those who have succeeded where we have not. We are told that our own time will come. We are told that we should celebrate those who are succeeding and cheer them on. But those are succeeding are never asked to uplift someone else. Perhaps someone who has been struggling for a long while. No, we are told we mustn’t bother them just congratulate them. If you feel angry, you can be angry. These condescending comments filtered through social platforms and random articles across the internet are the real problem not you feeling angry that you haven’t excelled the way you wanted to and for worked for. There is no need to be jealous of others but you have every right to be fed up.