Operation Homecoming: Writing the War Time Experience

I went to see this Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary Feature because it was a documentary of firsthand accounts of our American troops through their own words. A friend of mine had done an independent short allowing four returning soldiers to tell their stories a few years ago, and interestingly enough, it was screened in the same Fine Arts Theater.

This is a magnificent and touching project that shows what you can do when you have money and support behind it. The National Endowment for the Arts created workshops where soldiers and their families participating in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could write their experiences under writing craft guidance and thus come to terms with their feelings. Apparently more than sixteen hundred people responded and those writings - poetry, fiction, memoirs, letters, journals, and essays have been published in an anthology by Random House.

Sixteen hundred pieces from Iraq and Afghanistan by soldiers and their families is far too much to put in one film, so the film takes selections only from soldiers in Iraq. These are read by professional actors and the readings are introduced by the actual authors. Selected blind, there was only one serving woman among all the pieces selected, but the director, Richard E. Robbins, insisted in the subsequent Q&A that that was purely by accident.

They were powerful pieces and quite moving. I was glad I went to it and hope it wins the Oscar. It deserves all the recognition it can get.

The Q&A was attended by some of the narrative reading actors, namely Beau Bridges, Justin Kirk, Josh Lucas, and Christopher Gorham. Now that Beau Bridges is no longer playing General Hank Landry on Stargate: Atlantis, he was sporting a beard, which I have to say made him quite good-looking and distinguished. Of course the three younger actors were very good-looking. From what I could tell, the audience consisted of people who either wanted to learn more about the subject matter like me, or had a vested interest in the subject matter, i.e., relatives and friends of servicemen or people who work with veterans. There didn't seem to be fans there just to see the actors, which was good.

Apparently NEA plans to do another project of workshops, this time they want to offer the writing workshops to soldiers in veterans hospitals. I think that's an excellent idea.

Strike Ends

The strike is over by a 92.5 % vote. Showrunners were allowed to return to work yesterday, pending a positive outcome of the vote which happened today; the rest of the WGA writers will return to work on Wednesday.

I was pleased that Patric Verrone and the negotiating team allowed the membership to vote to lift the restraining order which sent the membership out on strike, even though their guild rules say the negotiating team can do so without a vote from the membership.

From what I heard of the deal presented to the membership Saturday night, it wasn't a great deal... I'm not even sure it was a good deal. It didn't seem like much better than the DGA deal, except for some window-dressing, and it seemed to lose sight in some areas that I don't think the DGA deal did.

However, it does come down to something Patric said when the strike started... when he took the DVD issue off the table to accommodate the AMPTP and they still walked: that it would come down to how much the membership was willing to fight for.

In an earlier post here, I talked about how much I admired Russell Means for standing up against bullets and possible death for his beliefs concerning his Native American people. I'm not sure I could suffer the pain of injury he went through nor the fright of possibly dying for a cause. So he looms large for me.

Here, writers were not facing bullets, but they were facing financial hardship and even ruin for themselves and many other people in the industry. So they have to decide how much they are willing to risk to keep fighting, will continuing the fight gain them more, and if the deal they got is good enough.

I don't think anyone likes the 17/24 free window in which the studios can run content, with paying adverts, without paying residuals, and I was surprised that the writers caved on this when Patric and others insisted that this was so bad in the DGA deal. I thought a much fairer window would be 7 days... like to the next episode of a series. Or to the next weekend premiere of a movie. That to me seems like real advertising. I'm surprised that the majority of writers figured in the end that three-four weeks was okay. Perhaps it was something that the studios wouldn't budge on, but I don't see that there was anything that they gave the writers in exchange.

But worse than that, in my opinion is the lack of a sympathy strike provision and the changing of the expiration date to May 1st which essentially takes away all future leverage of holding the Awards season and TV season hostage. If people thought that the studios and conglom owners could starve out the strikers now, then they have just given them the tools to starve workers out even better in the future. Strikes only work when THE SIDE BEING STRUCK HAS SOMETHING TO LOSE BY THE STRIKE and the change of expiration date takes away all the leverage the writers had. In three years, the writers and rest of the industry will be starved out long before the studios feel even the pinch that they felt today. But I know it's hard to suffer hardship now for a future day which may not come to pass. It requires fortitude and courage of the kind that people who shed their blood in the Revolutionary War and Civil War had, that all freedom fighters have.

Although I'm glad that they tried to get the sympathy strike clause, I never thought there was a snowball's chance in hell of them actually getting it. Just think, if all unions could have walked out at the same time, all the screens would go blank across this country. The moguls wouldn't know how to put a TV show physically on the air or have the time to drive each can of film to the theaters, let alone know how to thread it into the machines. How long would the strike have lasted then? That kind of solidarity between unions is something management will never allow again.

That has been the real tragedy of unions in this country and how their effectiveness has been blunted. I can't imagine why they allowed their effectiveness to be eroded thus but I also can't judge why it was given away by so many unions, because I suspect that was the only way they could get decent contracts in the past, and they had to make the same decisions that the writers have to make today: is it worth more suffering to keep fighting for what you believe in or is the offer good enough to live with? While one can understand that it might have been an impossible fight, for management might let the strike continue to doomsday rather than allow that right, it certainly makes it harder for working men and women to stand up against management today.

The other thing that bothers me about this deal is the neglect to get the favored nations clause written into it. Much has been touted that the DGA couldn't have made their deal even as good as it is without the WGA striking and that the WGA did better, however slim that was. And now the way I understand it, the DGA will get the better deal through favored nations. For those who have the hopes that SAG can build on what the WGA got and make a better deal, and hence it will trickle down... they are in for a surprise... there is only a handshake deal on new media favored nations and on no other area -- and we know how good handshake deals made in secret rooms with no paper trail or public/press attendance are. I suspect that if SAG makes a better deal on DVDs or even new media or whatever, the DGA will get that deal through favored nations and the WGA will be left out in the cold, wondering what happened. And that 7.5% of the membership who voted no will tell them -- you caved too quickly.

So, because this is a contract where writers have to decide if the deal is "GOOD ENOUGH" for them to end the strike, I'm glad they were given the opportunity to vote on it, so that the results become really the will of the membership. Apparently, it was good enough -- the vote was overwhelming. Now the writers have ten days to ratify the deal. Obviously, it will be -- how could it not? They gave away the last of their leverage... the Oscars are going ahead as planned, episodes to finish out the season are starting up... and there is no way they can jump-start another walkout if somehow enough decided the deal wasn't good enough and voted no. So it's pretty safe to say that it seems a done deal.

The above photos of Patric Verrone walking and the still united crowd show how elated people were on this last day of picketing at NBC Burbank Studios. Through cold and rain, they had kept the faith and now this would be the last time they had to do it. Spirits were definitely up.

I loved Patric's sign, which said, "I'm not talking." That's because he was walking the line on Friday and the big meeting was on Saturday night, where everything would be explained. He looked exhausted and I don't think he wanted to face bombardment. And he shouldn't because goodness knows, he put up a helluva fight for the writers.

Interestingly, this is the first time that I'm actually happy with the way I look in a photo from this windblown, sunbaked, exhausting three months. I even think I look cute, although my friend, Joe Reinkemeyer is much cuter. We've run into each other on several of the pickets, but this is the first time I've taken a photo of him or with him. Now that it's over, I wish I had done more photo-taking as a remembrance of those I stood shoulder to shoulder with.

Now the days I hate are back, that is the days of looking for work again. This is the one industry where outsiders don't understand how difficult it is to keep working... or should I say, to keep working for pay, because I don't think we ever stop working.

On Thursday we had our last big rally day, this time at Disney. The great thing about the rallies are that you not only get to meet new people, but you get to see familiar faces who may have been picketing at other studios and at other times. Part of me had hoped that I would run into Carl Binder, whom I met back at a story meeting on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and who is now on Stargate: Atlantis, which I enjoy watching. I had heard he was picketing at Disney, but I also heard he was doing the 6 am shift and no way was I coming for that. So consequently our paths never crossed, not even at the same picket line.

My friend, Pam, came out again to picket with me. And it was a delight to meet David Clennon who is most well-known for his role on Thirtysomething, although he has a ton of credits to his name. He saw my little WGA Strike sign sticking out of my hat and stopped to ask where he could get one. That led to a delightful long conversation.

I saw David also on the picket line at NBC Burbank on Friday and since we now were 'acquainted' with each other, meaning he knew my name as well as me knowing his, I was able to introduce him to a writer/reporter for Starlog Magazine who was interested in interviewing David about some of his prior Sci Fi work at a later date. I hope it works out for them.