Our Work
Women continue to struggle for representation across the film industry globally. One social barrier particularly affects women, although it applies to everyone: Family vs. Film.
At Raising Films we believe conversations make change happen, and we want things to change. We are losing too much talent to the choice many filmmakers are forced to make, between being a parent and making films. We don’t believe this choice is necessary, but rather a product of social and economic conditions, and we want to start a conversation about how change can be made for filmmakers who want to have a family and continue their careers.
This is about development, sustainability and diversity. Raising Films aims to address one of the issues that prevents many female filmmakers from pursuing their careers, to enable filmmakers with families to keep working and feel supported during demanding times in their personal lives, and to challenge at a structural level the demands the film industry makes of all of us.
Raising Films aims to provide information, education and solutions and our work focuses on:
- Enabling financial assistance for child and elder care.
- Encouraging industry-wide adoption of flexible working and access to child and/or elder care.
- Formalising a way to combat discrimination.
- Normalising conversations around caring commitments with employers.
We put these ambitions into action by working with industry partners and the film and television community and lobby to to ensure these and other solutions are enacted.
Mini Productions – making shorts and supporting parents
Producer April Kelley is the founder of Mini Productions, the latest recipient of our Raising Films Ribbon. Ahead of going into production on two short films - DO THIS FOR ME and JUST IN [...]
MIP 2020, that’s a wrap!
The latest iteration of our ScreenSkills supported Making It Possible personal and career development programme has now reached an end for our three groups of participants. This programme is supported by ScreenSkills using National [...]
The Raising Films Creating Inclusive Productions Resource
We're delighted to share our latest piece of work with you... Our Creating Inclusive Productions Resource covers the full life-span of a production - from Development & Financing through to Festivals & Distribution, it also [...]
Samar Ziadat on the need for safe community spaces
In this final provocation of the series Samar Ziadat explores the vital need for safe community spaces within the context of the current political climate. Samar is a co-founder of Dardishi, and the project’s [...]
Visual response to Raising Our Futures
Raising Films commissioned Alex J Gardner, an artist and designer, to illustrate the responses to our Raising Our Futures initiative. Alex's gorgeous, powerful and we hope inspiring, linocut response is [...]
Robert Softley Gale on adaptability
For our fourth provocation Robert Softley Gale, Artistic Director, Birds of Paradise Theatre Company shares his thoughts on adaptability across working life and parenting life. Over to Robert... A few weeks ago my twin boys [...]
Research, Reports, Recommendations
We Need To Talk About Caring
This piece of industry research from Raising Films (supported by Carers UK) surveyed people who are working, or who have worked, in the screen industries and who currently have caring responsibilities or have had caring responsibilities in the past.
Raising Our Game
Raising Our Game is our most wide-reaching piece of research – a report that examines and underlines the effects that the casualisation of labour combined with a lack of knowledge around rights and best practice, and often underlined by the assumption that working in the sector is a ‘privilege’, have had on our workforce.
Making It Possible survey
In 2015 Raising Films started a conversation about the challenges faced by parents and carers working in film and television. Now, we’re proud to present what we’ve learned with the results of our survey — the first nationwide look into the impact of caring on career development across the industry.
MAKING IT POSSIBLE survey – research & findings
Respondents were 78% female and 21% male, and the survey observed that women tended to carry more of the burden as carers.
79% of parents and carers told us that their caring labour had a negative impact on their work in the UK film and television industries.
63% of respondents work freelance or are self-employed, and financial uncertainty is a major concern.