Just a week ago, an investigation by El País collected testimonies from a large group of women, professionals from the world of cinema and television, about the film director Eduard Cortes, author of the Netflix series Not one more and of Merli on TV3, but also of cinematographic works such as Nobody’s life (2002), The Pelayos (2011) or Ingrid (2009), a film that narrates the relationship of a self-destructive artist with various artistic environments that use social networks as a creative platform.
It is precisely the casting for this latest film that some of the testimonies of alleged abuses of power by Cortés collected in the press allude to. Photographers such as Silvia Grav, artists such as Eva Fàbregas or the actresses Sofía Barco, Norah Alexandra Vega and Nicole León, among others, assure that Cortés once benefited from his position in the industry by offering them work, especially in this production in the course of conversations with intimate content and far from professional.
Now, after the reactions of the sector to the dust raised by their public complaint against the creator, the 27 – who claim to be a total of 52 – have issued a statement and a video in which they say they want to show that society is not prepared “to face certain debates at many levels.”
The “cracks” in the legal system
The complainants who, as reported in the aforementioned El País investigation, suffered from the lack of support and financial means from the film institutions to take their complaints to the criminal field, want to express in the statement their “gratitude for the support received.” . However, they then emphasize the intention to “point out the cracks” that they have seen “in society, in the industry, and in the legal system.”
“To begin with, protocols within industries and academies must go beyond the creation of commissions, white papers, special days, awards, and round tables,” they say. On the other hand, they point out that “investigations must be carried out regardless of affiliation status” in reference to the fact that the Catalan Film Academy is forced to close the investigation when he leaves as an academic. They emphasize that “abuse should not depend on the rank of the aggressor.”
The statement continues by assessing that “society also has to understand why many complaints are not made through the police.” And then he explains the reasons: “Crimes prescribe [antes de que la víctima esté preparada para denunciar]they occur in privacy, or they do not always leave physical evidence.”
Reporting is expensive
“In addition,” he adds, “abuse of power is hardly punishable if there is no signed contract.” In this case, as reported, Cortés would have disguised his abuse of casting tests. “These legal limitations leave victims in a helpless position that should not be tolerated,” the statement said.
As reported in the aforementioned investigation, it was impossible for many of the victims to resort to criminal proceedings due to the costs involved in starting a process and for which they did not have any type of financial aid. “Reporting is expensive,” the statement from the 27 adds. “Victims face high emotional, legal, re-victimization, and economic costs when trying to defend themselves,” it continues.
“Free justice and public defenders require parameters that are very difficult to meet, or that simply do not fit our case,” he explains. He then concludes: “The Penal Code is obsolete and needs to be updated so that abuses of power in work environments are punished effectively, just as in the past the laws were reformed to adapt them to reality and the knowledge we have today about the family, work and human rights.”
Free justice
The 27 also propose measures to prevent, as has happened to them, academies and other institutions from becoming totally inoperative in a case of this type: “In order to help all the victims, it is urgent to resume initiatives that were paralyzed, such as the reform of the Free Legal Assistance Law (Law 1/1996), whose term expired in October 2023 and which the Government has not yet completed.”
They assure that “this reform is key to guaranteeing that victims can access adequate legal resources and are not left unprotected in the face of economic barriers.” And despite demanding the aforementioned reforms, they claim that “public complaints are also complaints” and “in many cases, they are the only way to break the silence, reveal a pattern, and generate the necessary catharsis to question and change what does not work.” ”. “It has been shown that our abuse is not an isolated event, but a consequence of a system that allows it,” the letter emphasizes.
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