BBC, Channel 4 Commit to 50% Women Directors for Documentaries – Global Bulletin

variety.com:

Naman Ramachandran BBC Documentaries, Channel 4 Documentaries, Specialist Factual and Current Affairs and independent production companies, Gold Star Productions, ie ie Productions, Lambent Productions, Middlechild, Mindhouse and Yeti Media are among the first to commit to 50% women directors across their output, thanks to a groundbreaking campaign by We Are Doc Women.

WADW’s 2021 factual TV survey, showed that men are three times more likely than women to direct documentaries and the organization has launched a campaign for change and is contacting indies, broadcasters and SVODs demanding a fairer playing field for women directors and asking them directly to commit to employing 50% of women directors on all factual and current affairs output. “WADW’s survey findings exposed the barriers facing women directors.

Our response was a call for industry-wide change, from the broadcasters, SVODs, commissioners, the production community and award organizations,” WADW said in a statement.

The organization pointed out that two women — Tanya Stephan for best specialist factual for “The Missing Children” and Sarah Collinson for best current affairs for “Fearless: The Women Fighting Putin” won director awards at Sunday’s BAFTA TV awards, in striking contrast to last month’s BAFTA Craft Awards where no woman was nominated for best factual director.***Warner Bros.