Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
Close up of woman in blue jumper holding a smart phone
Those who report sexual harassment via the app will be referred to the emergency services as well as Time’s Up UK, the anti-harassment organisation. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Those who report sexual harassment via the app will be referred to the emergency services as well as Time’s Up UK, the anti-harassment organisation. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

‘Call It’: app takes aim at sexual harassment in the film industry

This article is more than 2 years old

Exclusive: UK producer Kate Wilson hopes it will force film executives ‘to take their head out of the sand’

When she was 24, the film producer Kate Wilson was sexually harassed at work so badly, she left the United States and returned to the UK, at a considerable impact to her career. “That was 21 years ago,” she said, “and I’m only just comfortable referencing it now.”

The co-founder of a soon-to-be-launched app, Call It!, Wilson is determined to ensure that workplace bullying, discrimination and harassment have no place in the UK film and TV industry.

She was motivated to co-found the app, along with the Victoria director Delyth Thomas and the My Mad Fat Diary producer Jules Hussey, after the Guardian’s investigation into the actor and producer Noel Clarke earlier this year. “I was appalled,” she said, of the revelations. All three co-founders have first-hand experiences of bullying or misconduct, Wilson says.

Call It! enables film and TV industry workers to report incidents of harassment, bullying and abuse to executives or senior producers on their sets. Bosses will receive an anonymised, top-level overview of what happened.

“By alerting producers that this is happening,” sa Wilson, “it gives them the opportunity to go and talk to the cast and crew, and remind them that there is a zero-tolerance approach, and make sure that training is being provided, if reports keep coming through.”

The data will be stored in a dashboard, allowing executives to track the mood and wellbeing of their workers in real time. “This will force them to take their head out of the sand and empower them to take action where necessary,” Wilson said.

In addition, the app will signpost individuals to appropriate support. For instance, a woman reporting sexual harassment would be referred to the emergency services if a criminal incident took place, as well as Time’s Up UK, the anti-harassment organisation.

Users would also be directed to their employer’s specific workplace policies, and be given the contact details of an individual they could email, if they choose to waive their anonymity and make an official complaint.

“We cannot force individuals to make reports, but we can make sure that information is available should they need it, so that they know what their rights are. That’s part of the issue in our industry. People don’t know what their rights are,” Wilson said.

The app has been built by the Hull-based developers Sauce and funded by donations from the Film and TV Charity, Sara Putt Associates, and Directors UK, in addition to private donors. It is being piloted and tested by a range of UK-based production and post-production companies, TV productions and feature films, ahead of a UK-wide launch by the end of the year.

Data collected via the app will be aggregated and submitted to the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity at Birmingham City University, in anonymised form. Details of the productions involved will be stripped out. “That data will enable us to design targeted interventions to improve the conditions in the film and TV industry,” Wilson said.

Call It! will not fix the endemic rot within the UK film and TV industry, Wilson said. “The app is not a substitute for being a good producer or leader. It’s a facilitator. It signposts to resources. It doesn’t solve the problem. We need to have humans solving these problems, ultimately.”

Wilson has an additional incentive to improve conditions in the industry: her daughter is currently studying film. “I want her to go into a safe industry,” she added.

Most viewed

Most viewed