Directors Digest — 15 June

This week, Channel 4’s Chief Content Officer Ian Katz addresses the current slowdown and its impact on freelancers, and Jack Thorne hails the industry’s improvements in accessibility over the past two years.

In an open letter, Ian Katz writes that ‘[Channel 4] remain confident that advertising spend will pick up later in the year’. Read the letter in full via Broadcast, and see our response below.

Our members working in TV are facing a sustained lack of work. Ian Katz says C4 "is mindful of the impact its slowdown has had on the freelance community" and suggests measures to help during this period. But more needs to be done to support — and ensure we don't lose — talent. https://t.co/GbsJdG8UTA

— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 14, 2023

In related news, Viki Carter and James Taylor, co-chairs of BECTU’s Unscripted TV Union and part of Bectu, to discuss the issues facing unscripted freelancers on the TellyCast podcast.

Meanwhile, Jack Thorne has declared the TV industry to be a “markedly different landscape” for disabled talent since he delivered his MacTaggart lecture two years ago. Watch his original lecture from Edinburgh TV Festival below.

In other news... 

·       Netflix is reportedly getting ready to stream its first-ever sporting event, The Wall Street Journal reports. 

·       Film London launches pilot for first green energy supplier for local productions, ScreenDaily reports.

·       Raul Niño Zambrano is appointed Sheffield DocFest’s Creative Director after a year in interim role, Deadline reports.

^{Image via Little White Lies}

BIFA and Little White Lies launched a new podcast this week. Listen to the first episode, which features Samantha Morton discussing her difficulties acquiring an agent as a woman director. (Image via Little White Lies)

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Over on Variety, director Steven Soderbergh chats about his new miniseries, the rise of AI, and more. 

And finally, this week’s features include a deep dive into the unspoken traumas of documentary filmmaking, and the toll it can take on directors’ mental health — by Tom Roston for IndieWire.

Plus, for Vulture, Josef Adalian and Lane Brown argue that TV’s streaming model is broken.

Catch up with the latest headlines from the film and TV industry with Directors Digest, published on our website every Thursday.