Equity member and 2012 Toi Whakaari graduate Deborah Eve Rea is putting on her one-woman show "Take Back the Hood" from March 6-9 at 10pm at the Fringe Bar in Cuba St, Wellington.

Red (yes the REAL Little Red Riding Hood) explores, takes back and liberates her “story”. In a world of victim blaming, ACC’s mental injury proving, slutwalks and Twilight, how has Red been able to cope? Well, she’s made a show, that’s how.
BUY TICKETS HERE

NZCTU president Helen Kelly this morning decided to release previously confidential emails between Equity, the Screen Actors Guild and Warner Brothers. These emails show that everyone involved knew the Hobbit dispute was over and the ban lifted on 18 October 2010 but that on the 20th of October 2010, Sir Peter Jackson went public with claims the Hobbit was endangered by a union do-not-work notice he described as “blacklisting”. Read the emails here.

Read Helen Kelly's article here and listen to Radio New Zealand's story, "Emails confirm Warner Brothers trickery over Hobbit" here.

There is also an updated Radio NZ story here.

Government also still needs to release the Crown Law opinion it sought on whether actors had the right to bargain collectively.  As senior law associate Dani Gardiner implies in this article, it will be difficult for government to continue to withhold that document.

NZ Actors Equity Press Statement    
27 February 2013   3:30pm

NZ Actors Equity has rejected claims by the producers of The Hobbit that Equity and its sister union Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance were financially motivated in their attempts to gain fair wages and conditions for NZ actors working on the film. The claim was contained in statements by Peter Jackson this week and also included in the OIA documents released yesterday.

NZ Actors Equity and its members have only ever been motivated by a desire to improve the working lives of New Zealand performers who have for years struggled on non-union contracts. NZ is one of the few countries in the English-speaking world where actors have no right to share in the financial success of their work or the right to a standard contract that protects their basic entitlements such as sick leave.

Click here to listen to Phil explaining how actors in New Zealand deserve a better deal.

Click here to watch Helen Kelly of the NZCTU's interview with TVNZ.

Click here to listen to Equity organiser Phil Darkins giving Radio New Zealand the Equity view on the latest Hobbit documents released today under the Official Information Act.

26/02/2013

NZ Actors Equity welcomes latest Official Information Act document release

NZ Actors Equity welcomes the release of further Hobbit related documents, which cast significant light on the government’s drastic changes to NZ employment law.

The documents confirmed that NZ Actors Equity’s attempt to secure fair wages and conditions for Hobbit employees did not jeopardise the film’s production in New Zealand. In an email to the government on October 18, 2010 Peter Jackson wrote, "There is no connection between the blacklist (and its eventual retraction), and the choice of production base for the Hobbit."

It is clear from the documents that the producers and the government chose not to disclose this information to the public, despite NZ Equity agreeing with Warner Bros request to stay silent and allow WB the right to make the public announcement. Instead the producers arranged protests against Equity, which resulted in the government offering large financial concessions to Warner Bros. and introducing new legislation that undermines workers’ rights in New Zealand.