20/08/2007

For the first time, the leading Nordic directors guilds have teamed up and signed the Haugesund Declaration reinstating filmmakers’ fundamental rights and needs to be protected.

The Haugesund Declaration was handed out yesterday by filmmaker Petter Næss to the Norwegian Cultural Minister Trond Giske at the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund. The main Nordic directors guilds have identified five fundamental rights that need to be protected: their creative, moral, contractual, economic and social rights.

Lars Berg, Norwegian filmmaker and board member of the Norwegian filmmakers’ association NFR, explained that the Norwegians have undertaken the initiative to write a common declaration as a tool to obtain better contracts with producers.

The Nordic directors guilds have also called upon all directors guilds around the world to endorse their August 19 Haugesund Declaration.