Tools for the Revolution - Part 1 - Who You Wanna Be in Media, Film & TV Defining your values
Sedina Fiati
I came to Firecracker Department through my friend and colleague, Farah Merani (current head of the Firecracker Script Department). Seeing a need for social justice/anti oppression/anti racism education, I was invited to do a workshop for the core membership who are all leaders of the various and very active departments at Firecracker. Then, like a welcomed houseguest, I just stuck around. I do dishes, help clean up, I even bake, who wouldn’t want me around?
I am now proudly a part of our new Social Justice Department. I aim to create an incubation space for ideas for how to transform the film/tv industry. Where to start? We start with ourselves. We take personal responsibility over our spheres of influence, recognize the injustices and areas of challenge and move to action. This is social justice. You are a revolutionary now.
I am writing this article assuming that you have done some work. You, dear reader, have read some books, a ton of articles and reports. You’ve done the journaling, the reflecting, deeply asking yourself the question, how do I make a better world? You are aware that there is major injustice in the world and in North America, you know that those from equity seeking groups (Indigenous and racialized people, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, 2 Spirit people, disabled people, D/deaf people) suffer more in our society. Good job. You’ve completed social justice 101 and 201 even.
There are aspects of social justice work that are simply about knowledge - statistics, theories, frameworks. In a Western European framework, the pursuit of knowledge and knowledge itself is a currency. We respect people who are experts on various topics. While this is useful, this kind of knowledge sharing has the potential to distance us from taking action. So we know the world is fucked up and we kinda, mostly, know how and maybe even why. What now? A big part of our dominant ideology values knowledge and a disconnect between mind, body and spirit. We can learn all of the theory and yet not incorporate it into the way we actually live.
There are countless books, articles, instagram accounts, tik toks, workshops that talk about how to take action in very general sense, while very useful, let’s get specific and zero in on the transformation of the film/tv/media/screen based industries, whatever the kids are calling it these days.
I find that in the film/tv industry, change is slow. The way we produce and create work has largely stayed the same, while the technology has shifted, our methods remain stagnant. I still see sets with mostly white men behind the scenes, sexism, racism, ableism is still happening. Until the pandemic hit, we relied heavily on paper when digital technologies have been available to us for at least a decade. Innovation is not the name of the game and this same fixed mindset is at play when we are thinking about social justice in our industry.
I begin many workshops and mentor conversations with the values question. The countless self help books I’ve read and my own admittedly witchy-woo spirituality continually asks me to manifest what I want and to question my intentions. So I ask these series of questions to ground your social justice practise. Get out your journal, lovely people and answer these questions.
Values
Remind yourself, why are you doing what you are doing again? If you’ve achieved some level of success, now what? If you haven’t achieved the success you want yet, have you thought about what will happen when you get there? How can your success lift others?
2. What are some key words to describe your practise as an artist?
3. When you think of your legacy as a person and artist, how do you want people to describe you? Are you living up to that?
4. Who is missing from the spaces you are a part of - in terms of race, age, class, ability, gender, sexuality? What can you do to change things so that the missing groups feel welcome? If they are people present from Equity Seeking Groups
In moments when we are tested, when we have to stand up for ourselves or others, when we are challenged because we harmed others, remember these words. I know you want to be someone with integrity, on the progressive side of history, someone who looks back on their career with pride, knowing that they did what they could to make our industry better. It starts with your values. In my next blog post, I will share strategies for being ready for success, conflict transformation and bystander intervention. I am glad you have joined the revolution. It’s fun over at Firecracker Department; there are tasty snacks.
Keep in touch for the upcoming Firecracker Department COMMUNITY Social Justice Power Hour in July!