The Viennese director Katharina Mückstein made attacks and humiliations during her training public on Instagram at the weekend. She reports about her first film job at the age of 19: “Light technician makes me (secretly) cry every day by insulting my body and at the end tells me that he wants to fuck me.”
Many reported on Mückstein’s Instagram story and described their own experiences – and not only there. Also at #we_do!, the Viennese contact and advice center for cases of abuse in the film industry, founded in mid-2019, several reports are currently being received every day. The conversations can be conducted completely anonymously – even if the perpetrators are often known.
Assaults in the film and theater industry
A debate about sexual harassment, humiliation and injustice in the film industry is currently being conducted intensively again in the Viennese acting scene – triggered by the Viennese director Katharina Mückstein. She made public harassment during her apprenticeship over the weekend.
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#we_do! wants to achieve culture change
“Many already have a total reputation – and then, absurdly, it’s like that, for example, if another attack happens, you’re told: Yes, what are you doing, what are you going to do, you know that,” says Daniel Sanin, health psychologist at #we_do!, opposite “Vienna Today”. That is a reversal, where the responsibility lies – and something structural, emphasizes Sanin.
#we_do wants to change these structures, with help for those affected, but also with training on the set, as Meike Lauggas explains. She is a coach and organizational consultant at #we_do!. “The systems we’re talking about now, which have existed for decades, have also created a climate in which it’s just not possible to name it, call it up and comment on it,” says Lauggas. “So we said from the start that we would advise, but we also go into the industry, with workshops, with education, with information.” In the long term, it’s about a cultural change.
Rector: “Don’t look away”
Many of those affected, who now made attacks public, reported on their experiences, especially from their training. The Vienna Film Academy in particular is repeatedly mentioned. “I don’t look the other way,” says Ulrike Sych to FM4. She is rector of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, to which the Vienna Film Academy belongs as a separate institute.
According to Sych, the known cases of sexual harassment and abuse of power are in the past. Current ones are not known internally. In order to be able to act, she would have to be informed: “If I find out, I will suspend the person today, but I don’t know who it is.” Such a suspension or dismissal usually ends up in court and has to be there The witnesses must also be willing to testify.For many, however, this step in public is unthinkable, they fear negative consequences for their careers – more on this in fm4.ORF.at.
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