By Gabriel Princewill-
The UK film sector has failed to achieve any tangible change, and has continued to enable deep-seated inequalities and structural barriers to increasing the representation of BAME individuals both on and off-screen, according to a London School Economics Sociology lecturer has said.
In the first holistic analysis of the BMI diversity standards data, it explores the myriad factors that determines how racial diversity is pursued across Uk films and measures it against diversity standards.
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The BFI Diversity Standards are a framework designed to address under-representation in the screen sectors. The comprehensive report, brought to the attention of The Eye Of Media.Com, details initial findings on how film productions in the UK have used the Standards since their launch in June 2016 until end of March 2019.
The LSE’s sociology department’s research appraises 235 films that completed an application in that period, identifying trends in applications and outlining recommendations to improve wide shortcomings in the current standards.
It conclusion is that decades of policy intervention to improve diversity across the sector have produced minimal results.Dr Clive Nwonka from the Department of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) presided over the extensive research between September 2019 and May 2020.
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Secondary Roles
BAME representation are still located in secondary roles rather than as lead characters or in key production roles, a state of affairs that warrants urgent review, in the assessment of Dr Nwonka.
Dr Nwonka examined data from 235 film productions which entered principle photography between June 2016 and March 2019 against British Film Industry (BFI) Diversity Standards. The research looks at how racial inclusion and exclusion has been produced across
The BFI launched its Diversity Standards in 2016 to address the continuing issue of under representation. Productions seeking funding through the BFI Film Fund must meet: three of six criteria listed for Standard A, which relates to on-screen representation.
An initial report in January 2020, noted positive impacts on representation, but noted that change was too slow, and mre needed to be done .
Ben Roberts, BFI Deputy Chief Executive, said at the time: “From this report, and what we hear from industry, we can see the Standards are having a positive impact on representation both on
screen and behind the camera, particularly when they are used early in pre-production. However, it also shows us where change is too slow and that there is more work to be done.
As well as identifying some key immediate next steps, these findings form the basis of our review in 2020 to see what targeted action we can take to see broader adoption of the Standards across the full breadth of the industry”.
Creative Leadership
The BFI Diversity Standards is also required to meet two of four criteria for Standard B which focuses on creative leadership and project team behind the camera; two of four criteria for Standard C, which focuses on new entrants and development opportunities; and two of five criteria of Standard D, which looks at audience development practices in exhibition.
The Diversity Standards cover a range of Under Represented Groups (URGs) as defined in the UK Equality Act 2010 including but not limited to gender, race/ethnicity and sex orientation . The researchers looked at the proportion of film productions that met at least one criterion for Standard A and B.
While race/ethnicity was the second most represented group of the list after gender. Only 50 per cent of all productions met the criteria for on-screen representation of BAME individuals, (compared to 63 per cent for gender), with only 40 per cent meeting the standard for workforce diversity (compared to 71 per cent for gender).
Key Off Screen Roles
The study also found that BAME individuals were twice less likely to get department head and key off-screen roles. They were also over three times less likely to gain crucial first job, early career and career progression roles that BAME individuals. BAME individuals were nearly twice less likely to receive crucial mentoring roles in the industry.
The researchers also examined the frequency that URGs were cited as evidence to meet the Standards. Out of 1,151 references to URGs on-screen, just 259 related to race/ethnicity (23 %). This is close to the number of on-screen gender references (25 %).
Dr Nwonka says the picture citations for off-screen URGs is markedly different, with 24 per cent of films referencing race/ethnicity as evidence of meeting Standard B, compared to 49 per cent for gender.
Dr Clive Nwonka of the Department of Sociology at LSE, said: “The BFI Diversity Standards has performed a crucial role in focusing attention on the issue, but our analysis shows that racial under representation remains a structural condition within the sector, both on and off-screen.
BAME individuals still face significant inequalities and our analysis suggests that the Diversity Standards is not yet robust enough to respond to the intersectional and multi-dimensional nature of racial inequality in the industry.
“While there is a relationship between region, production setting, location, genre and the representation of race/ethnicity in the UK film industry, the available data is not detailed enough to give a clear picture to what degree these variables inform decisions.
Furthermore, while qualitative data does provide insights, the film industry has yet to recognise the full scale of structural racism experienced by BAME individuals, he added. As a result, more sophisticated forms of racial inequality remain unchallenged.”
Breakdown
The report provides a breakdown of representation of URGs across regions, settings and locations, genres and budget. Among its findings are the that representation of BAME individual outside of London remains extremely poor, with some UK regions such as the East and West Midlands registering no representation of race and ethnic difference in their workforce.
Dr Nwonka makes a number of recommendations to improve the BFI Diversity Standards, including making race/ethnicity citations in Standard B compulsory for film productions, stricter criteria around race for films with higher production budgets and that that the BFI explore the viability of ‘proportional diversity’, where all films shot in London should have a 30 per cent Race/Ethnicity target on and off screen and specific Diversity Standard criteria to be met for film productions outside of London.
More transparency and justification from production companies in relation to their casting and hiring decisions should also be required, particularly relating to clear roles and positions where there is a clear lack of racial and ethnic diversity.
The sociology lecturer also recommends that BFI should also ensure that data-capture methods continue to be developed to provide insights into the inter-sectional dynamics of underrepresented groups, and seek to broaden the impact of its diversity drive by developing stronger alliances with other funders, such as BBC Films and Film4 around how race/ethnicity is represented across the UK film sector.
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