The Film and TV Charity has launched a £1m programme to tackle industry racism and discrimination and has pledged to ringfence 30% of its future grants to BAME individuals.
The initiatives are the centre-piece of the charity’s Anti-Racism Statement, which commits the charity to long-term investment in making “permanent, structural changes” to give support to BAME people in the screen sector.
The plans build on the charity’s BAME Community Grants Scheme, which it launched in September to fund anti-racism groups already active in their community networks.
The new £1m scheme will support these under-fundewd community leaders and groups, while the ringfencing of almost a third of future grants budgets to BAME people will, it said, ensure fair access to its funding.
Following conversations with the individuals and organisations working in this area, the charity said in its statement: “We understand that for our actions to be meaningful they must be properly funded over the long term,and that we must collaborate with those who are leading change.”
The plans chime with efforts undertaken in recent years by Marcus Ryder and Lenny Henry, who have advocated ring-fencing funds to improve the diversity in TV. Ryder today greeted the scheme as “potentially game-changing”.
Disney launches diverse label
The announcement comes as Disney launches its first production label devoted to the work of ‘creators of colour and other under-represented creators’.
Onyx Collective content will mainly be released domestically on the media giant’s primarily adult-oriented streaming platform Hulu and internationally on Star, the older-skewing section of the Disney+ service.
Summer of Love (…Or When The Revoltion Could Not Be Televised), musician Questlove’s documentary about the 1960s festival known as ‘Black Woodstock’, is the first Onyx project.
Others in the pipeline include Oprah Winfrey series The 1619 Project and shows from Insecure writer Natasha Rothwell and Black Panther director Ryan Coogler’s company Proximity.
