Skip to main content
News

NABET 700-M UNIFOR – Terminology Reform Initiative for Film & TV

By March 26, 2021No Comments

CMU is proud to be one of the many organizations supporting NABET 700-M UNIFOR’s Terminology Reform Initiative. The Terminology Reform Initiative is a joint initiative to unite industry partners in enacting change on certain key issues that affect us all.

NABET 700-M UNIFOR’s statment:

The entertainment sector, like many others, is grappling with questions of how to build a diverse and inclusive workplace. We have a unique dual responsibility to do so, as an industry both highly visible to the public, and bearing the power to shape the public’s perceptions.

The attached Terminology Reform bulletin was created by a NABET 700-M UNIFOR Permittee who saw an opportunity for change from within their own ranks. This bulletin highlights terminology used regularly on set primarily in the Grip and Lighting Departments, terms that should be immediately removed from set vocabulary due to their discriminatory origins and/or implications.

We hope that by identifying terms that are currently being used without awareness of their impact and message they send, and by sharing the origins of these terms, crews can move onto language that promotes open and inclusive workplaces.

The issues of our society at large will not be resolved by any one grand action but rather they will be gradually improved by a series of many small steps; the language that we choose to use on set is something that every one of us has direct control over and can be our contribution to progress. We would like to ask that you please help support this initiative of raising awareness and igniting change through discussion and action.

Learn more about the Terminology Reform Initiative, by reading NABET 700-M UNIFOR’s bulletin.