‘It’s a gut punch’: how the California wildfires affected film and TV workers Nearly 8,000 below-the-line Hollywood workers were in evacuation areas with over 300 losing their homes, a further blow to an industry already struggling.
French, whose possessions were not insured, expresses gratitude to the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (Iatse), the union for below-the-line workers, and the Motion Picture Editors Guild for being supportive and generous to members who lost everything.
When Sandra French returned to her beloved 1930s apartment, she found the building reduced to rubble and ash.
She reflects: “It’s quite an experience, waking up and one day you have everything, your home and all your possessions, and the next day you wake up and everything is gone.
For people in the film industry that have suffered this tremendous loss of their their home and possessions it’s a gut punch because we’ve already lost our livelihoods.
