Directors in Latin America join European Filmmaker’s Call for Action on Creators’ Rights

During a meeting of dramatic and audiovisual rights societies organised by Alianza de Directores Audiovisuales Latinoamericanos (ADAL) and Writers & Directors Worldwide in Buenos Aires this week, Latin American directors have added their support for the recent call from Europe’s filmmakers to protect the rights of audiovisual creators.

Audiovisual creators in Latin America are facing a very similar set of challenges to their livelihoods as European creators. The cultural contribution they make is continually threatened by attempts to reduce the levels of copyright protection for the originator of creative works. Negotiating against these entrenched positions is especially difficult for independent filmmakers who lack the huge financial and legal resources of the national and global distribution companies.

Screenwriter and Chair of Writers & Directors Worldwide Chair Yves Nilly said,

While our members in Europe are already directly engaged in this cause, directors in Latin America are fighting a parallel battle for law enforcement, regulation and fair remuneration that demonstrates how vital these basic rights are to creators on every continent.”

A great deal of progress has however been made in the region. We have seen new organisations established such as ADAL, an alliance of Argentinian, Mexican, Chilean and Colombian filmmakers, and DASC in Colombia. In Brazil, directors and screenwriters have joined forces with societies in neighbouring countries. Earlier this year, the “Day of ¡ACCIÓN! On copyright” in Chile resulted in the signing of a new bill by President Michelle Bachelet to give directors and screenwriters inalienable rights to remuneration.

CISAC’s Director General welcomed these calls of solidarity and stressed how important it is for authors all across the globe to work together towards the common aim of fair remuneration.

We need to concentrate our efforts to ensure that creators obtain their fair share ... without audiovisual creators, there is no audiovisual content,” he said.