The Lab Workshops

The Lab organizes 6 workshops a year.

3 taking place in Paris

3 during Les Arcs Film Festival in December

Who participates?

Each workshop gathers between 10 and 30 participants. Since we believe that diversity creates richness, the casting for the workshops is always diverse.

Our intention is to create discussions on the matter of gender equality in cinema, always with a particular approach towards female directors (which concerns everyone):

• Directors (both male and female)
• Actors
• Producers
• Distributors
• Screenwriters
• Technical engineers

Public service representatives in cinema

And representatives for professional organizations and unions

There are always women and men.

A lot of French people, but also participants from different countries in and out of Europe

There are prominent personalities and emerging talent.

How does a workshop work?

One or two coaches, in charge of the process, host each workshop.

The coach creates the conditions and the framework in order for each workshop to be oriented towards the search for ideas and actions.

It might seem a little scary to think about a workshop with a coach. Nevertheless, the opinions of those who have already participated are unanimous, agreeing that it was fun and comfortable, you just need to let yourself be guided and you will soon surprised by the outcome.

In the case of a workshop with a limited number of participants, we start with a moment where everyone expresses what she or he feels on the subject. Some share their opinions, others their emotions and some describe their own experiences. Everyone gets the same amount of time to speak. Then, the idea box is stirred. Participants work by themselves or in groups, in order to stay creative and constructive.

During a workshop with a numerous group, creative processes are presented to encourage constructive dialogue.

The participants select the subjects that are discussed; the idea is to encourage new ones. Several tables are installed, each one in charge of a subject. The participants can circulate freely between tables.

Each participant will follow his or her interest and they contribute as they please in one or several workshops. It’s fun and very efficient to make ideas emerge.

How does a workshop end?

Each workshop, whether it’s a large or a small group, ends with a convivial moment, usually a lunch. It is important to take the time to debrief, to get to know each other, which is also one of the purposes of the Lab: to create an informal network and to link people interested in gender equality in cinema.

A full report of the workshop is made each time and distributed to all participants. The ideas that came up during the workshop become proposals that can result in concrete actions that will be implemented. They appear on the Lab website.

Is there a confidentiality rule on the proposals made during the Lab?

Of course there is! We use the Chatham House rule, from the famous British think tank.

This rule is used in order to regulate the confidentiality of the information exchanged during a reunion. The principle is the following: when there is a meeting under the Chatham House rule, the participants are free to use information they collected on this occasion, but they’re not allowed to reveal identities or affiliation to the source of that information. This allows a greater freedom of speech and stronger positions.

Nevertheless, the list of the participants of a workshop is public, as the diversity and the quality of the participants give value to the emerging ideas.

How does the Lab communicate?

The Lab communicates mostly through its website and the links towards social networks.

The Lab communicates the ideas that emerge from each workshop. These ideas are free to be shared on social media, in the press, for studies, as a base for actions…

The Lab offers some participants the opportunity to be interviewed after the workshops. Videos will be edited and shared, mostly to the website of our partner ELLE, since the Lab is also a tool for communication and education on gender equality.

One of the particularities of the Lab communication is the famous “question from the hat”. We put short and simple questions in a hat, about women in general and especially about the position of women in cinema. The participants are asked to answer a question in front of a camera. It’s quite fun and it often says a lot about one’s personality in relation to our matter.

The Lab aims at shifting the lines, the outcome ideas will be experimented and communicated to government institutions and other institutions dedicated to cinema. The Lab also has a role of lobbying, so that the ideas born today will become the actions of tomorrow.

A follow-up on these actions will be done in the Observatory and we invite each person or organizations concerned by the matter to share their experiences and observations with us.