The Need for Safety Nets By Marc Smolowitz
This piece is one part loving obituary and one part urgent call-to-action around the undeniable need for our independent film industry to put some sort of safety nets in place for our beloved and aging indie film leadership. Ironically, when I wrote this piece just two months ago, who could have imagined that the topic of safety nets would become so important to ALL OF US given the ways in which our industry has been so dramatically halted and upended by the #Coronavirus public health pandemic?
By Marc Smolowitz
For context, I am currently developing a new film as a director on these topics, and I hope to gather steam among key indie film organizations in the coming months, so we can all come together (either online or in-person when safe to do so) to create new programs and initiatives that help build safety nets for the most vulnerable in our industry.
Dear Friends & Colleagues,
Many of you followed a post of mine from back in October about the tragic passing of my dear friend — Wanda Bershen — who had been a consistent and supportive presence in my life and work for over 25 years. Since then, I felt it was important that I write about her death and its larger context in an official film industry publication, and I have now done that in the Spring Issue of Filmmaker Magazine.
(Thank you to my dear colleague Scott Macaulay for the opportunity to honor Wanda and her unique contributions to the field.)
Now more than ever, this piece feels timely and resonant, so I invite you to read it and join this important discussion. Normally free to IFP members only, #FilmmakerMagazine has removed its usual paywall during the #Covid19 crisis, so you can find my article here:
https://filmmakermagazine.com/109354-team-building/
* Tagging some of Wanda’s shared friends and colleagues, so we can amplify and signal boost this issue.
*** A VERY SPECIAL and heartfelt shout out to the following special people who tried to help Wanda during the final very difficult weeks of her life: Lynda Hansen, Mark Nash, Isaac Julien, Claudia Landsberger, Lisa Lewenz, Nanette Funk, Mark Bradford, Carolyn Strachan, Barbara Mayfield, and most importantly, Hisami Kuroiwa, who was Wanda’s unmatched champion until the very end.
— — -
Andrew Ingall, Aviva Weintraub, Ted Berger, Caroline Libresco, Janis Plotkin, Catherine Gund, Claire Aguilar, David D’Arcy, Debra Zimmerman, Doug Block, Eugene Hernandez, Jack Lechner, Jan Rofekamp, Joan Braderman, Judith Helfand, Josh Siegel, Kathy Brew, Lucius Barre, Michel Reilhac, Marie-Pierre Macia, Mitchell Block, Nick Holdsworth, Ruby Lerner, Sandra Schulberg, Sandi DuBowski, Sasha Berman, Shelly Silver, Sydney J. Levine, Susan Korda, Thom Powers, Su Friedrich, Peter Stein, Richard Herskowitz, Sky Sitney.
PEACE.
XO
Team Building: On Wanda Bershen and Film Safety Nets | Filmmaker Magazine
- Su Friedrich Thank you for writing this, Marc Smolowitz, and I commend you and all the others who tried to help Wanda during those last cruel, grueling months. She was an important and generous figure in the film community and as you say, didn’t deserve such a terrible end. I only learned about it after her passing from the FB post; I wish I could have known before in order to visit her and help out in some way.
- Kathy Brew Hi Marc.. Yes, echoing Su’s thanks to you for writing this, and like her, I did not know about this at all until seeing it on FB. As you write, hopefully this will be a wake-up call for our community and the world at large to consider more of these safety nets that are so needed for the cultural communities! stay well and safe!
- Ric Lopez Thank you for sharing her story.
There are lives that are so integrated with our own, as hers with you and all others that she touched…and so she will continue as a part of your life.
May her passing remind us all to be grateful of such beautiful support, and show us to support others as well.
- Ines Sommer Powerful article, Marc! This sentence resonated with me strongly: “The industry to which she had given her life’s work did not have space for her anymore.”I didn’t know Wanda, but having worked in the non-profit media arts sector in the Midwest for a long time, I recognize how much underpaid labor has gone into supporting indep filmmaking through alternative venues, services, classes, etc… That history is not being written. And sadly indie filmmakers are just as ageist as the rest of this culture.
- Shelly Silver a very powerful article, showing the failure of our society but also of our community. how to be better? what playing pieces do we have?
- Debra Zimmerman Thank you so much Marc for an incredibly important and timely article. Wanda was one of the stalwarts of our indie community and you honor her memory by calling attention to this issue. Each year — and as I also get older — I see women who like Wanda have spent their lives devoted to a community that somehow reveres old men with grey hair and completely ignores or dismisses women of the same age. Even those who didn’t work freelance but worked at non profit organizations. I am lucky that I have an extraordinary Board of Directors at Women Make Movies who put an extremely generous retirement plan into place and I have encouraged every film organiZation I know to do the same, mostly in vain. We must figure out how to support our own — and acknowledge that this is yet another issue of gender. Thanks again.
- Lynda Hansen Marc, Thank you for your loving and heartbreaking tribute to Wanda. I want to add a few words: Friends, who were by nature humanitarians, worked their damnedest behind the scenes to save her life. They grabbed on to the story and became a part of it by burrowing inside a long thread of emails and taking action during Wanda’s last months. No one was invited. No one who came walked away. Hisami Kuroiwa was a heroine. She devoted herself unconditionally to Wanda’s well-being. She cared for Wanda and spoke up to institutional heads who carried their weight by saying “Yes” when they meant “No.”
- Claudia Landsberger came a close second manning almost daily from abroad what eventually became TEAM Wanda. (I later learned Claudia had been on the jury at the Venice Film Festival as we were heading into the darkest days, and still, she picked up the phone and responded to emails as though her time was limitless.) Mark Nash and Isaac Julien stepped up in an extraordinary manner that transcended anyone’s dream. And Mark Bradford began to draw up legal papers for Wanda, a woman he never met — because he had to. All had one cause: saving Wanda. But we lost her. Had there been a safety net, Wanda’s life would not have ended then, nor would it have ended tragically. We had hope.
- Marc Smolowitz, Thank you for your deep caring and your prescience. #SafetyNet #SaveLives #Media #Wanda’sNet. Let’s make it happen!
- Mary Davies Thanks to everyone who helped Wanda. I knew her for many years before I became her neighbour in New York. I heard from Hisami Kuroiwa that she was looking after Wanda and I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to help from here in the UK.
- Lisa Lewenz Tears. So heroic: Hisami. Marc. Lynda. Isaac, and all others-proof that we all need one another.
- One thing that is with mention is that EACH of us needs to plan for the worst by drawing up advanced healthcare directives, a power of attorney to let beloved act on our behalf should we be temporarily or permanently disabled (including a list of online passwords and directives of what you want to happen with your webpage, social media, etc.) and a will so that when each of us reaches our final breath, our choices will be known and — hopefully — honored.
- Each state has different requirements and templates/forms are easily found on every state’s website.
- Claudia Landsberger Thanks again so much for everything you did Marc and for this wonderful piece about our Wanda.
- Jan Rofekamp Gee…had no idea…thanks Marc for a loving text…and at the same time a warning to us all…stick with your friends and they will stick with you….
- Caroline Libresco Thanks Marc Smolowitz. May her memory be for a blessing. Sending love to you and all beloved colleagues. Also, apropos of your beautiful piece, I have been thinking that there needs to be a guild across all art forms to protect “culture workers,” those non profit workers who support artists: curators, executive directors, program directors, artistic directors. Even those working in institutions need leverage. ❤️
- Peter Stein replied Hear hear, Caroline. I have hopes that this moment — which is proving that our community of cultural workers is both vital and extremely vulnerable — shines a light on a sector that deserves a safety net. Here I especially am thinking of film festival and performing arts workers (like Wanda) who have traditionally been journeymen/women, (“gypsies” — so-called in an era when the term was not inappropriate), and what is now loosely referred to as “gig workers.” Whole swaths of the arts economy are made possible by seasonal contractors who have no access to unemployment or renewable contracts, let alone retirement plans. It’s time to address that, hopefully not only in a one-time stimulus bill prompted by the virus.
- Christiane Haase I was just thinking of Wanda yesterday, wondering how she was doing… since I had not heard from her for so long, just hoping she was okay, only to find your message and read your text. So heartbreaking!!! Thanks for posting. I wish I had known earlier to help….Thanks to everyone who was there for her! She will be in our hearts forever! Btw — in Germany there is a social security and health insurance for artists of any kind called “Künstlersozialkasse” that does offer support — would be great to have something like this here in the US, but I have to admit I doubt this will ever happen, sadly…
- Andre Khrenov Marc, I am so grateful for this article! She was a dear friend of mine for many, many years and an indie film pro to learn from in our permanently impermanent profession — we co-curated two film retrospectives in NYC and Moscow together… Rest in peace, Wanda
