FREELANCERS UNION BLOG

  • Advocacy, Lifestyle

Work-life balance and advocacy in the film industry

When we learned that famed cinematographer Haskell Wexler had directed a documentary about labor practices in the film industry, we were intrigued. The people who work on movies are usually a mixture of unionized workers, employees, and freelancers. In Who Needs Sleep?, Wexler explores their not-so-glamorous world of dangerously long workdays. Through a collaboration with the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, Wexler and his film are bringing attention to a problem we hadn't thought much about. Apparently, Wexler was moved to create the documentary after a cameraman died when he fell asleep at the wheel on the way home from an extended workday. Do you work in the film or TV industry? Do you see the hours as an issue for action, or as an immutable fact? Share your experiences in the comments.

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