Safe Sets South Africa -Review of 2021

2021 has been quite a year for the Safe Sets Intimacy Coordination Team in South Africa!  Kate Lush, Èmil Haarhoff and Sara Blecher with the assistance of Natalie Fisher and Jacki Job, have Intimacy Coordinated on TV and Film Sets in the Western Cape, Gauteng and the Eastern Cape, helping to create safer, more collaborative, sets, with actor wellbeing and intimate story telling at the heart.   

After the industry launch of the Protocols for Working with Intimate Content in TV and Film in April 2021, intimacy coordination is now very much part of the landscape in South Africa as it is in the US, Europe and the rest of the World.  

The Safe Sets team are being invited on to set, not just for new productions, but on request of the actors and producers for longer running shows who haven't had intimacy coordinators in the past.  Actors are becoming empowered globally, understanding their rights to be able to work while respecting their personal boundaries.  Actors are enjoying the fact that intimacy coordinators can work creatively with a production to allow the stories to be told that the writers, producers and broadcasters want to be told, while also allowing their voices to be heard.

2022 is also shaping up to be a busy year, and we hope to expand our pool of intimacy coordinators during the year, so that we can more effectively serve the productions we're working on.  We can then more accurately represent the characters we're supporting and contribute to the authentic storytelling, while respecting the lived experiences of the people who make up the very diverse society that is South Africa.

Please do reach out if you have any questions regarding intimacy coordination and the process of hiring an intimacy coordinator for your projects, we're always more than happy to have a chat.