European Screenwriters Manifesto Unveiled
Posted on February 21, 2007
European screenwriters are mad as hell and they're not taking it anymore. They've now issued a bold manifesto aimed squarely at filmmakers. The European Screenwriters Manifesto was released at the Berlin Film Festival and addresses the burning issue of who should be called the "auteur" of a film: the director or the screenwriter.
Christina Kallas, president of the federation, tells the L.A. Times, "What we tried to do by naming it the 'manifesto' is to challenge the international film community and to start a discussion about what has gone wrong and how we could set it right. It is a step in our campaign to give the screenwriter her rightful place, as in the theater and, indeed, in any other form of writing. We hope that it will be an important tool in our efforts to develop and enhance the status of screenwriters."The screenwriter is an author of the film, a primary creator of the audiovisual work. The indiscriminate use of the possessory credit is unacceptable. The moral rights of the screenwriter, especially the right to maintain the integrity of a work and to protect it from any distortion or misuse, should be inalienable and should be fully honored in practice.
This is all part of the ongoing war between writers, directors and movie studios about who is the author or auteur of a film and how they should be compensated. Directors think that they are the auteur of a film, that's why they put "A Film By Joe Director." But the screenwriter can also claim that he is the auteur of a film. It's not an issue that's going to be resolved anytime soon.
So far the Manifesto has over 1,000 signatories, including writers, directors, producers, actors and others. You can read the entire Manifesto -- and sign it if you like -- at www.scenaristes.org. The Writer's Guild wants all of the same things, but it's unclear whether the American screenwriters will launch a Manifesto of their own or if they'll join with their European brothers and back the cause.