From Turkeys to Trailers: The Women Cutting Film Industry Waste

Two days before Thanksgiving, Hillary Cohen and Samantha Luu faced a problem: cooking 120 turkeys in a Los Angeles food warehouse. Their task was not for a film set, but because of one. Cohen and Luu are film assistant directors. During the Covid pandemic, they founded the non-profit Every Day Action. They noticed huge amounts of food were wasted on film and TV productions. They wanted to donate it to unhoused and hungry people in LA. “I kept being told it was illegal and that people could sue us if they got sick,” Cohen says. But Luu, who grew up working in a soup kitchen, knew the law. She found the 1996 Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act. This US law protects food donors from liability. Their organization now redirects surplus food from sets to those in need. This is part of a larger movement. Women in the UK and US are leading efforts to make film and TV production sustainable. Their work includes donating catering, rehoming props, and cutting emissions.