Come Together! Right Now!

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The current fight to protect employee jobs going on at TVNZ by union E tū highlights the importance of unions in the New Zealand screen industry, and the importance of the Screen Industry Workers Act (SIWA) for screen contractors, who until SIWA came along in December 2023 had essentially no protections.

TVNZ is one of the few screen businesses to have a significant number of employees. Those employees have the protections of the Employment Relations Act. Screen contractors now have the protections of SIWA.

The employees at TVNZ who are journalists and media workers and members of E tū have a collective agreement.

We at DEGANZ together with the Writers Guild of New Zealand, Equity New Zealand and some other guilds, are currently seeking to put a collective agreement in place with the Screen Production and Development Association (SPADA).

With collective agreements in place, we will have negotiated minimum pay rates and terms and conditions for screen contractors that will provide some certainty for us all.

And with collective agreements, we will be able to fight much more effectively for our members when those negotiated agreements aren’t adhered to.

If you have been following the developments at TVNZ you are most likely aware that E tū is going to file a claim with the Employment Relations Authority against TVNZ. It’s the union’s view that the company did not follow its consultation requirements, as guaranteed for workers in their collective agreement.

The Employment Relations Authority is a Tribunal established under the Employment Relations Act. Members of the Authority help to resolve employment relationship problems.

Under SIWA, the Employment Relations Authority will also help to resolve contractor relationship problems, should a screen guild seek to file a claim against a producer or production company on behalf of one or more contractors who are members.

The employees at TVNZ have for decades helped create the news, current affairs shows, and other programmes much loved by New Zealand audiences. Following the news of yesterday, Sunday, and the Midday and Tonight Bulletins are gone, and Fair Go significantly reduced, with about 70 job losses.  Over at Warner Bros. Discovery, Newshub staff found out that just under 300 jobs will go there.

We all know that it’s not just news and current affairs programmes that will be affected.

SPADA in a press release yesterday that you can read here, estimates that up to $50 million is coming out of our sector and that there is uncertainty around big popular shows like Shortland Street, Celebrity Treasure Island, The Traitors NZ, Married at First Sight NZ, food shows, home shows, and more.

If ever there was a time for every screen worker in New Zealand to come together as members of their guilds and for us to negotiate collective agreements, it’s right now.

 

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

 

Last updated on 11 April 2024

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Get a Load(ing Docs) of This

Loading Docs is back for its 10th season, with DEGANZ members at the helm of half of the selected documentaries.

Through the development initiative, participants receive extensive guidance and mentorship, helping them to produce short documentaries with international appeal. The programme helps participants enhance their skills in story development, fundraising, documentary production and editing, audience engagement, and marketing and distribution.

Loading Docs provides each project with $10,000 and a post-production package at the Department of Post. In addition to this support, each team must raise $5,000 on Boosted to unlock further funding and support from the initiative.

This year’s theme is Attention – Te Kimihanga, Te Hahaunga. Check out the DEGANZ member’s projects below or see the full list of films here.

Hope in the Stars

Zoologist-turned-filmmaker, Alexis Smith, is on a quest for extraterrestrial contact in Aotearoa. She seeks answers on her personal quest for existential truth and hope for a world teetering on the edge. But what shadows will she encounter to get there?

Director: Alexis Smith

Producer: Harry Wynn

Boosted

Hihi Ulu

Approaching his tenth birthday, Luka faces a Niuean rite of passage: his first haircut in a hifi ulu ceremony, marking a tender crossroad of culture and autonomy.

Director: Chantelle Burgoyne (Incubator 2018)

Boosted

The Man Outside

Abandoned by the law, a woman’s flatmates struggle to protect her from a relentless stalker, forcing them all to become the protagonists in a real-life thriller.

Director: Liv McClymont

Boosted

Last updated on 11 April 2024

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Whetu Jones’ New Dark Comedy Series ‘Spinal Destination’

DEGANZ member Paula Whetu Jones‘ series Spinal Destination is out now, with editing by fellow member Julian Currin.

The dark comedy centres on Tessa Rivers whose busy life is upended by a mysterious illness, leaving her paralysed from the waist down. While seeking treatment at a spinal rehabilitation unit, she meets the eccentric residents and becomes determined to walk again by any means necessary.

Written and directed by Paula, the show is heavily inspired by her own paralysis experience. In an article she wrote for The Spinoff, she shares how the show stemmed from a diary she kept in the early days of her paralysis.

She says,

Spinal Destination aims to humanise people in chairs. It’s not that we are not human – often we are just not anything, totally invisible. My aim is to be visible, both on screen and off.

You can find Spinal Destination on Sky Go and Neon now!

Last updated on 11 April 2024

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Bisley’s ‘Cetology’ Thrills in Brazil

DEGANZ member and 2017 Incubator alum, Catherine Bisley‘s short film Cetology is off to the Brazilian film festival Fantaspoa. The thriller will play in the Sessão de Curtas 07 (Short Session 07) program along with 13 other short films from across the globe.

The film takes its name from the study of whales, which recently discovered that orca pods work together to hunt blue whales. Cetology uses this hunt to explore contemporary human brutality at a corporate wellness retreat.

Fantaspoa is one of Latin America’s largest genre film festivals, featuring fantasy, science fiction, horror, and thriller. This year marks a record number of films, with 114 features and 123 shorts from 54 countries being shown. The festival hosts workshops, masterclasses, music sessions, and networking events and parties alongside the screenings.

Congratulations Catherine on the selection!

Last updated on 11 April 2024

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‘Mysterious Ways’ Available on TVNZ+

Mysterious Ways, edited by DEGANZ member Peter Roberts, is out now on TVNZ+!

The feature film centres on the relationship between a Vicar and his Samoan boyfriend. The lack of support from their religious and cultural communities is exasperated when a media storm kicks up around their engagement. The film unpacks taboos of queerness within the Anglican Church and Samoan culture, calling attention to the challenges that many members of the LGBTQIA+ community face when on their journeys of self-acceptance.

The film has been making the festival rounds over the past year and celebrated its Aotearoa premiere in August 2023. It has since collected several positive reviews and played in a prime-time TVNZ slot over the 2024 Easter holiday weekend.

If you missed it on TV, you can stream the film on TVNZ+.

Last updated on 11 April 2024

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