WATCH: New sex and nudity film protocols laid bare
A new set of protocols to coordinate intimate scenes on film and television sets was recently launched in South Africa to protect casts and crews in nudity and sex scenes. Izak du Plessis asked intimacy coordinator Kate Lush to shed more light on the development.
The South African film industry has accepted globally recognised protocols to protect casts and crews shooting nudity and sex scenes.
Kate Lush, an intimacy coordinator with Intimacy Practitioners South Africa (IPSA), says that globally, there’s been an acknowledgement that the impact of filming intimate content has largely been overlooked, and few guidelines existed to make the experience more comfortable for those involved.
She says that directors and actors would muddle their way through scenes that had the potential to cause embarrassment and feelings of violation.
The South African film industry has been meeting with IPSA since the beginning of 2020 to create acceptable protocols to guide the filming of nudity and sex scenes in a more controlled environment.
According to Lush, it has been proven that globally, sexual harassment and assault incidents have been all too common in the film industry.
The organisation Sisters Working in Film and Television (Swift) conducted a survey in 2017 on sexual discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual assault and violence in the South African film and TV industry.
“Swift found that in South Africa, sexual harassment and sexual assault were key contributors to women leaving the industry,” says Lush.
This finding resulted in Swift creating a code of conduct which incorporated sexual harassment policies, and led to the acceptance of the need for intimacy coordination in the industry.
“Swift initially invited me over [from the UK] in 2019, to talk about intimacy coordination at the Durban International Film Festival,” she says, explaining that Swift had heard about intimacy coordination in Europe and wanted to introduce it to South Africa.
“It’s a difficult environment. You often work with young people coming into the industry and trying to get work from people who are much more powerful than them. And it is an industry where you have to sell yourself as a product. That narrative has to change,” Lush adds.
Watch: Izak du Plessis chats to Kate Lush:
