A Timely Reminder About SIWA

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We had our first Check-In Tuesdays this past Tuesday and a number of editors were in the Zoom room.

One of the topics that came up was the mandatory clauses in the Screen Industry Workers Act. It seems that many producers are still in breach of the Act, which requires a written contract to be presented to a worker BEFORE they start their contract, with sufficient time for them to consider the terms being discussed, and to negotiate if the worker wishes to do so.

DEGANZ considers one week to be an absolute minimum for a worker to be presented with a contract for consideration. Two weeks should be the standard.

The Screen Industry Workers Act has been in place since the end of December 2022. That’s more than a year and a half ago. For producers to be continuing to break the law by not abiding by the requirements of the Act is no longer acceptable.

Here is what is required under the Act in regard to your individual contract:

Good Faith
All parties negotiating an individual contract, or undergoing collective bargaining, or who are in a work relationship, must act in good faith. This means not misleading or deceiving one another, or doing anything that could mislead or deceive one another.

Contracts In Writing
Engagers (producers/production companies) must ensure your individual contract is in writing.

Before entering a new individual contract, engagers must:

  • give you a copy;
  • give you reasonable time to seek independent advice and tell you that you can seek this advice; and consider any issues you raise in good faith.
  • Once your contract is agreed, engagers must provide you a written copy “as soon as practicable”.

(these same rules apply if they wish to “vary” your contract)

Bullying, Discrimination, or Harassment
Your contract, agreement, or other arrangement, must not prohibit you (or any person acting on your behalf) from raising complaints.

Dispute Resolution
Plus, your contract must contain a clear process for raising and resolving complaints about bullying, discrimination, or harassment.

Health and Safety and Anti-Discrimination
All individual contracts must contain a term saying that both parties will comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act and the Human Rights Act.

Dispute Resolution
Your individual contract must include a clear process for raising and resolving disputes about your contract or workplace relationship. SIWA introduces a default dispute resolution system for resolving such disputes. Your contract must either use this default system, or another system agreed in your contract. If you can’t agree, the default system applies.

Termination Notice Periods and Compensation
Your individual contract must state what these are (if any).

Retaliatory Termination Prohibited
Retaliatory contract termination is prohibited. This means you cannot be terminated for exercising any right or power in your contract, SIWA, or any other Act, and engagers face penalties if they do so.

That includes but is not limited to your rights to:

  • negotiate your contract in good faith; or
  • raise a dispute about your contract or your workplace relationship; or
  • raise a complaint about bullying (or instruct someone to do this on your behalf); or
  • give information or evidence in relation to a complaint made by someone else (We hope this will help to eliminate ‘bystander culture’, improve support for complainants, and encourage everyone to regard harmful behaviours seriously) ; or
  • insist that any other of your rights or powers (conferred by your contract, or any other Act) be adhered to.

For your added support, SIWA gives you the right to ask your worker organisation to act on your behalf for the purposes of resolving a dispute about your individual contract. If you are a DEGANZ member, you can call on us for this support.

If your rights are being breached under the Screen Industry Workers Act, we want to know about it. So please reach out and tell us.

 

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

Last updated on 29 August 2024

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NZIFF’s Best of the Best

Congratulations to DEGANZ member and 2024 MIFF Accelerator Lab participant Vea Mafile’o for winning this year’s NZIFF Patron Award for Best Film with Lea Tupu’anga/Mother Tongue! Alongside the prestigious award, Vea received a $7,500 cash prize.

The film was part of Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival’s (NZIFF) NZ’s Best short film programme, which premiered in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington on 6 August. The festival presented the awards in Tāmaki Makarau Auckland on 18 August as part of the Aotearoa Film Focus weekend. Producer Phillipa Campbell, filmmaker Judah Finnigan, and film critic Liam Maguren made up this year’s jury.

Other films in the programme included I See You, directed by Briar March (DEGANZ), and First Horse, directed by 2024 MIFF Accelerator Lab participant Awanui Simich-Pene and edited by Cushla Dillon (DEGANZ). Awanui took home the Auckland Live Spirit of The Civic Award for First Horse.

Lea Tupu’anga/Mother Tongue follows a young speech therapist who has lied about her language skills for a job. She must find a new way to communicate when she is assigned to an elderly Tongan patient with aphasia who can no longer speak English.

Vea was attending the MIFF Accelerator Lab at the time of the awards, but shared with NZIFF,

I feel incredibly honored and proud to receive such a prestigious award, especially on the eve of Uike Kātoanga’i ‘o e lea faka-Tonga – Tonga Language Week. This film represents the different cultural journeys we are all on. There are many paths and different experiences. Everyone’s cultural identity and sense of belonging looks different. But it’s what you feel in your heart that counts the most. This is loto-māfana.

Well done to all the filmmakers who’s films screened during this year’s festival. That’s a wrap on NZIFF 2024!

 

Last updated on 29 August 2024

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‘Grafted’ Trailer Cuts Deep

This news piece contains gory imagery. Please proceed with care.

The trailer for DEGANZ member Sasha Rainbow‘s horror film Grafted is out now in the lead-up to its local theatrical release in September. In addition to directing, Sasha co-wrote the feature with fellow member Hweiling Ow (Incubator 2021), Incubator alum Mia Maramara (2022), and Lee Murray.

When Wei, a brilliant but disfigured Chinese scholarship student, is shunned by her fellow classmates at a prestigious New Zealand university, she decides to achieve the popularity she so desperately craves by putting her science studies to a new and terrifying use.

The film premiered earlier this year at Whānau Mārama: NZIFF, which described the gory and uniquely Kiwi black comedy as a mix of Mean Girls and Face/Off. Sasha commented on the story’s subject matter saying,

The obsession with beauty and changing our bodies has a certain Frankenstein nature to it which has been so fun to explore.

Grafted hits in cinemas across Aotearoa from 12 September!

 

Last updated on 28 August 2024

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Dig Into ‘Takeout Kids’ Season Two

The Spinoff’s successful series Takeout Kids, directed by DEGANZ member Julie Zhu and edited by fellow member Isaiah Tour, is back for season two.

The docu-series offers a glimpse into five young people’s lives while growing up between the classroom, home, and their family-owned business. From a Thai restaurant in the Banks Peninsula to a nail salon in Whakatāne, they juggle the complexities of identity, relationships, and responsibility.

The first episode follows Priyan during his first week of school. He opts to play pretend in a toy shop resembling his family’s dairy in Sandringham, Tāmaki Makaurau.

The beloved observational docu-series premiered in 2022 with its first season, focusing on kids growing up in their family’s restaurants and takeaway shops. It quickly became a favourite amongst audiences for how it celebrated the connection between food and family.

So far, the first two episodes of the new season are out on The Spinoff, with the remaining three episodes dropping each Tuesday.

Congratulations to Julie, Isaiah, and the Takeout Kids team on the return!

 

Last updated on 28 August 2024

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Day One Premieres ‘Behind the White Wall’ and ‘Wilbert Wire’

Day One (formerly Someday Stories) is gearing up to premiere this year’s round of short films, including projects from DEGANZ members Seunghoon Sung, Joshua Siu, and Ricky Townsend.

Each year, Day One hosts a short film grant and mentorship programme for new and emerging filmmakers in Aotearoa. The shorts selected explore cultural, social, and political issues by taking story risks, pushing the envelope, and looking to the future.

Check out DEGANZ members’ projects Behind the White Wall and Wilbert Wire below.

Behind the White Wall

Writer/Director: Seunghoon Sung

Producer: Joshua Nicholas Siu

A Korean immigrant dad, working as a construction painter, mentors a new young worker while simultaneously battling melancholia and guilt as he awaits the arrival of his family.

Wilbert Wire

Writer/Director and Editor: Ricky Townsend

Wilbert, an autistic-coded robot and art student, is tasked to make a painting about love. Wilbert’s mission to create this magnum opus takes him on a quest of slapstick miming, invisible trains, and a very special Mother’s Day gift.

 

With a few DEGANZ members in the mix, it’s also great to see Incubator alum Michelle Ang (2020) and Jaimee Poipoi (2023) as mentors on two of the other projects this year.

Tickets are available for the premiere screening at the Hollywood Avondale on 3 September. All films will be available online via RNZ, Whakaata Māori, YouTube and the Day On website from 4 September.

 

Last updated on 28 August 2024

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