asio equity protest H.264 from Smart Street Films on Vimeo.
This footage of a 1956 Actors Equity protest about the lack of local content quotas and the dominance of foreign production on television is courtesy of director Haydn Keenan, who discovered it during research for the 2013 ASIO-focused documentary series Persons of Interest. Keenan said ASIO’s interest in these actors was based on the fact that the demand for local content and for TV to be predominantly Australian was the policy of the Communist Party of Australia.
“I think it’s important for younger members of the industry to understand that concessions we enjoy today were hard fought for and will have to be again,” said Keenan, who shared the footage in light of the Make It Australian campaign.