It took guts for a female director to take on entrenched industry behaviour and make it change. And Alma Har’el’s Free The Bid is working:
Free the Bid: 1 year, 400% more women directors in bids, 50% more women directors hired
Free The Bid has arrived now in Australia, where another female director with guts, Jasmin Tarasin, has taken the helm and the Australian website has launched.
All the organisation is asking is that women directors are given equal opportunities to bid on jobs in film and TV. It’s calling on ad agencies, brands, production companies and broadcasters to take a pledge to include at least one female director’s bid on every job.
Free the Bid US ambassador, Gillian Armstrong, explained, “Free the Bid is a simple, direct, real action to break the appalling cycle that has been keeping women directors out of the film and TV industry. One female bid for every job will certainly help make that unconscious gender bias more visible.”
Support for Free The Bid has already begun here. Top Australian production companies, Photoplay, The Sweet Shop, Eight, Curious, Jungle, Taxi, Otto, In The Thicket, Airbag, Tazer, Guilty, The Producers, Fiction and Truce have pledged their commitments.
In stage two, a searchable database will be created to show the work of 100+ female directors, signed to a production company or working independently, to give producers easy access to female directors. This stage is being crowd funded by Tarasin, who aims to launch it by the end of the year.
Tarasin commented, “I feel that people are unconscious when it comes to gender inequality in the industry so Free the Bid is a ray of light for any female director working in the film and television industry.
“Free the Bid works well to wake up the industry and to make an effort to end gender inequality. I think as women we tend to take inequality personally, which is why it’s important to group together and present a wall of talent and creativity that cannot be ignored. It’s exciting!”
To take the pledge or for more information, contact Jasmin Tarasin on 0411 159 177 or by email.
