The national board of the Directors Guild of America announced Saturday that it had filed disciplinary charges against disgraced indie mogul and DGA member Harvey Weinstein, issuing a statement condemning “the scourge of sexual harassment on our industry.”
“The DGA has a long-standing practice of not commenting on internal union matters, but has decided to make an exception in this case to acknowledge the filing of charges,” DGA President Thomas Schlamme said, noting that the charges had been filed on Oct. 13.
The guild declined to comment further on the disciplinary measures, citing “due process concerns that are a part of federal requirements for labor unions.”
“This isn’t about one person,” the DGA board said in a separate statement released Saturday following the ouster this month of both The Weinstein Company co-founder Harvey Weinstein and Amazon Studios head Roy Price. “This shameful code of complicity must be broken.”
DGA President Thomas Schlamme, who sent the statement to the guild membership, added a personal note as well.
“As a man in this industry, I have a responsibility to not just condemn the actions of others, but to look inside myself,” he wrote.
“Unless we recognize what has become so acceptable in our culture and how we possibly, even unconsciously, are participants, everything else will be meaningless,” he added. “Changing culture is a long and difficult journey, but the first step towards that is acknowledgment.”
Weinstein is best known as a producer and studio executive, but he did direct the 1986 indie comedy “Playing for Keeps.”
The DGA is the latest Hollywood organization to seek to strip Weinstein of his membership in the wake of multiple allegations of sexual misconduct that resulted in his firing by the board of The Weinstein Company. BAFTA, the Television Academy and AMPAS have all made similar moves this month.
Read the DGA’s complete statement here:
“The DGA condemns sexual harassment. There must be no tolerance for such deplorable abuses of power. This isn’t about one person. We must recognize sexual harassment is endemic in our society, and painfully, in our industry.
We believe that every individual has the right to a safe workplace. The unfortunate truth is that there are those who abuse the power that they hold.
For far too long, many have not spoken out – directors, agents, crew, executives, performers, producers, writers. This shameful code of complicity must be broken.
As directors and team members who solve problems for a living, we are committed to eradicating the scourge of sexual harassment on our industry.”