If there is one topic people have talked about with hushed tones, it is sexual harassment in the art industry.
Over years, couch casting has been spoken about in hushed tones in Hollywood and African industries, in fact the need to openly speak about harassment led to the downfall of one of Hollywood’s biggest producers Harvey Wienstein and the birth of Me Too.
Last month, when Jesca Ahimbisibwe the Ceo of Cinema Ug launched the Women in Film, she set the ball rolling with a talk back where experienced industry voices such as Mariam Ndagire, and Nana Kagga addressed harassment among other things.
The ongoing Kampala International Festival has been strong with addressing issues surrounding sexual harassment, in fact about four workshops were held to address this.
For many of the things that were handled, there were topics of how harassment could happen and especially in acting where some scenes are physical, the emphasis was that there must be conversation between actors on what they deem appropriate and inappropriate.
Many actors and actresses have actually been victims of harassment especially when they find themselves in roles that compromise them.
During an acting workshop at the National Theatre, Pamela Keryeko, a theatre and film director noted that most people get roles and rarely take time to understand what will be demanded of their characters. She says that as an actor, there are vices that could be arrested on time when you communicate with the director about things you may find intrusive and can be revised.
“There is always another way of doing something,”she said.
In one of the many posts on X, talent manager and scout Benda Douglas noted that sex is a part human being and it’s an activity that happens among people of same or different circles.
“The creative arts and artists, just like any workspace (corporate offices, market spaces, factories etc), experience sexual harassment especially by the respectable people who hold authority and power. Many boys and girls have been victims of this vice.
Male producers, cameramen, actors, directors etc sleep with females on sets with promises of opportunities. Also, female producers, directors, executives use males by touching them inappropriately, using inappropriate language,” he said in a post.
Very many people have tried to talk about harassment in the arts but one thing that keeps coming up is a fact that most of the perpetual offenders are probably too big to be named or some have a lot of influence.
However, like Nana Kagga put it, people need to know what they want in art, she says it is easy for people to abuse those that don’t really know what they want. She also cautions artists to carry themselves in a respectable manner.
