Saturday, November 07, 2009

World Screenwriters Declaration

The World Conference of Screenwriters has released a Declaration and a Joint Activity Programme. The Conference, the first of its kind, concluded in Athens today.
World Screenwriters Declaration

In the new digitised and globalised world, we screenwriters have today come together, in Athens Greece, to discuss our central role in the creation of the stories that are carried with such impact to the world’s myriad screens and to people’s minds and hearts.

Stories influence our behaviour and shape our culture. They help us understand. Stories can conquer fear. Stories have power. As screenwriters, the storytellers of our time, we are conscious of our role and our responsibility and we have met to make sure that we can continue our work in the new environment.

The creative and financial challenges which we face, can only be met if we join forces and work together. We insist on the individual capacity of every one of the twenty five thousand screenwriters, whose representatives are gathered here, to see and understand the world in their own way and to reflect that unique perspective in their stories. We exult in the knowledge that individual creativity is what brings us together to defend and assert our common rights and goals.

We endorse the ambitions and intentions of the Charter of the FSE, the Charter of the IAWG and the Manifesto of the European Screenwriters.

We demand the right of screenwriters everywhere to be acknowledged as an author of the audiovisual work which they have written and to be fairly compensated for each and every use made of their work.

In pursuit of these objectives we will engage in active collaboration on campaigns that seek to achieve our common goals.

We pledge to work together to defend and extend the rights of writers for the screen.

Agreed and Signed on Saturday 7th November 2009 in Athens at the conclusion of the first World Conference of Screenwriters :

Christina Kallas
President
Federation des Scenaristes en Europe/Federation of Screenwriters in Europe

Michael Winship
Chair
International Affiliation of Writers’ Guilds

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:03 am

    Whew. What a relief.

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  2. gerry stevens2:29 pm

    about time.

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  3. A good first step would be to petition to get the moral rights of authorial integrity and paternity recognized in US law.

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  4. I was privileged to be a WGGB delegate in Athens at both the World Conference of Screenwriters and the meetings of the International Affiliation of Writers' Guilds. I'll be writing an article on both as soon as I catch my breath.

    But as a taster let me say how inspiring it was to be with great screenwriters from all around the world, and to work together in total agreement, harmony and good fellowship. The concerns of writers in the digital age are global, as our solutions must be. We learned during the WGA strike how powerful writers are when we all stand together. This is only the beginning.

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  5. It was a very inspirering meeting in Athens. Glad to be there and meet my collegaes. We all face the same problems but also the same hapiness 'caus we live by writing!

    Lars Boom
    The Netherlands Board member of Netwerk voor Scenarioschrijvers

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  6. I agree, Lars, both with you and the late comedian, George Burns, who liked being in show biz because it was great and there was no heavy lifting.

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