Saturday, June 30, 2018
A glamorous funeral death of sexism at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards 2018
A glamorous funeral death of sexism at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards 2018
I attended the Bafta awards at the weekend in London so here are some of my thoughts on the experience. I have filmed protests for 25 years but the BAFTAS 2018 was easily the most stylish protest I have ever been too.
 |
| Red carpet treatment at BAFTA awards 2018 |
The Royal Albert is a stunning venue and having a massive red carpet up its huge number of steps really improves upon the experience. I got the pleasure of strutting my stuff on the red carpet which was fun.
 |
| Royal Albert Hall |
 |
| A Glamourous Funeral |
Apart from celebrating the movie industry, the night was also a vital platform for women to show solidarity in the face of years of sexual discrimination. The plan was hatched for women to wear black and this was the majority for the A-Lister actresses.
 |
| Willem DaFoe |
Most women I spoke too knew that women were wearing black to push for greater respect and equality since the Hollywood sexual harassment scandal. However some had little idea and one woman told me that she only wore black because she googled what the dress code was for the BAFTAs and thanked the stars that she did.
However amongst the black were some very bright red and blue dresses- so I did wonder why they didnt get the message? Looking around the packed bar, one woman from a marketing company described the event as a glamorous funeral.
Others said they got the message to wear black from Vogue magazine and the sexism issue was a background decision. While they supported the issue they said but it wasnt the over riding decision about why they chose to wear black. Meanwhile everyone was anticipating what the royal visitor would wear. When she arrived Kate Middleton had let the side down by wearing a green dress.
 |
| Angelina wore black |
 |
| Kristin Scott Thomas in Black |
 |
| Saoirse Una Ronan in Black |
 |
| Karen Gillan- Limo fun |
 |
| Margot Robbie zooms by |
 |
| How are we gonna carry it home? |
They said;
Instead of refinancing women refuges, reinstating legal aid and providing desperately needed housing for domestic violence survivors, Theresa May continues to turn her back on both survivors and the solutions they needBack inside I thought it would be useful to see the men give a show of solidarity with the women, perhaps by wearing bright colours instead of the usual black jackets?
I hung out and observed the melee as I stood beside Gary Oldman (Churchill) and Toby Jones from the Detectorists. Then Angelina Jolie popped up in front of me followed by the entorage of Margot Robbie (I Tonya- brilliant movie btw) and Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird)
What struck me is something of a cliche i know but most of the A listed actors are really small. I know the movie makers create stars so we all get the image of these tall majestic creatures, but it is quiet something to be surrounded by Hollywoods top stars and be looking down at them.
Anyhow the night was good fun and I then ended up in a limo with Doctor Who and Jumanji star Karen Gillan which was a laugh. She had presented an award for best visual effects to Blade Runner. In introduced her to our mobile solar powered cinema which she got excited about for a party. We then chatted about the after parties and she mentioned that it was usually the Weinstein parties that people went to...but not this year.
Paul OConnor is a film maker with Undercurrents and projectionist of The Sol Cinema
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
