Hollywood strikes an opening chord for unity

Writers and studios are starting to talk again. They may script new bonds of honesty in business and appreciation for the unlimited range of human creativity.

The Monitor's View

The union representing screenwriters, and the studios that turn their words into films and television shows, have agreed to restart formal negotiations to end a strike that has stalled the entertainment industry all summer. Those talks were set to begin today.

The dispute has already cost California’s economy $3 billion, according to one estimate. But it has also surfaced qualities of thought that may guide Hollywood through a transition that is about profoundly more than labor contracts.

The strikes are “not merely about better pay, improved working conditions, and regulations on AI use, but rather, a potent call for the recognition of human dignity and artistic integrity,” wrote Wilbur Greene, an Australian editor and literary agent. They are “a mirror reflecting the broader struggles across creative industries, where financial gains often overshadow the importance of creative integrity and human values.”

Throughout the industry’s history, evolutions in technology have brought periodic upheaval. This is one of those moments. Streaming platforms and production studios owned by high-tech companies have disrupted how Hollywood once nurtured writers. Their stable career paths have become uncertain gig work. Artificial intelligence now poses additional challenges.

One consequence is a loss of diverse voices at the very moment society is demanding an ever-widening range of storytelling. Screenwriting is no longer “a job that is accessible for low-income workers, non-white workers, nor workers who grew up far outside metropolitan cities,” noted Ruth Fowler, a seasoned writer and filmmaker, in a recent chronicle of her own struggle to make ends meet. “And yet, these are the voices we so desperately need.”

Labor disputes yield to easy demonization. The pioneer of shorter series and streaming, Netflix, is a ready villain. But a recent conversation among actors, writers, and producers at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University went deeper. The strikes, they agreed, are compelling Hollywood toward unity on two critical and neglected issues: transparency in a swiftly changing business environment and a defense of human creativity as inimitable and inestimable.

“We’re not just charged with educating our students on how to make art, we are charged with educating them on how to make a life in art,” Brandon J. Dirden, a professional actor and associate arts professor of graduate acting, told the Tisch forum. “This conversation, this moment in time, is essential to how they are going to make their lives in art.”

Peter Newman, a producer and head of the MBA/MFA dual degree program in graduate film, agreed. “Students should understand the entire picture, understand what every side is saying, not just one individual point of view,” he said. “This industry is cyclical and resilient. Real talent will always eventually prevail. ... There will be a solution.”

It may perhaps be found in a renewal of the Bible’s insight that every laborer – whether writer, actor, or producer – is worthy of his or her hire.