DGA Quarterly Spring 2008 Spike Lee

Doing the Right Thing

An interview with Spike Lee

Since breaking out with She's Gotta Have It in 1986, Spike Lee has tackled issues of race, class and sex in America perhaps more than any other director. But his films are not just challenging-they're also entertaining.

DGA Interviews

Prominent directors reflecting on their body of
work through an extended and in-depth Q&A.

DGA Quarterly Magazine Summer 2020 COVID Quarantine Not Lacking in Direction
Summer 2020

DGA members reflect on how they have stayed productive during the COVID-19 quarantine.

DGA Quarterly Magazine Spring 2020 DGA Interview Rob Marshall
Spring 2020
Rob Marshall

The director behind Chicago, Into the Woods and Mary Poppins Returns, knows a thing or two about musicals, thanks to his theatrical training and an ability to inspire by example.

Barbara Kopple
Winter 2020
Barbara Kopple

The pioneering documentarian, with an uncanny ability to gain her subjects’ trust, has repeatedly put herself at risk while leaving no stone unturned.

DGA Quarterly Summer 2019 DGA Interview Director Jean Marc Vallee
Summer 2019
Jean-Marc Vallée

Jean-Marc Vallée has mined raw, powerful performances and made the internal external as he's tracked the trials and tribulations of the lost and damaged.

DGA Quarterly Spring 2019 The Russo Brothers Director Anthony Russo Director Joe Russo
Spring 2019
Anthony and Joe Russo

Brothers Anthony and Joe Russo went from no-budget indie underdogs from Cleveland to Marvel tentpole overlords, without sacrificing their character-driven sensibility and storytelling vision.

Linklater
Winter 2019
Alejandro G. Iñárritu

The three-time DGA award winner discusses cosmic injustice, what drives him, the art of collaboration and what comes next.

Linklater
Fall 2018
Richard Linklater

Richard Linklater learned by doing, and over the course of his 30-year career, the Texas-based filmmaker has left his own unique stamp on the indie world and beyond.

DGA Quarterly Summer 2018 Dan Attias
Summer 2018
Dan Attias

Dan Attias, who has directed more than 80 series since he joined the Guild in 1980, brings arduous prep and probing insights to the table as a key contributor to Peak TV.

DGA Quarterly Magazine Spring 2018 Director Mimi Leder
Spring 2018
Mimi Leder

A trailblazer in movies and television, director Mimi Leder has learned that knowledge is power, and tenacity is the key to success.

DGA Quarterly Magazine Winter 2018 Michael Apted
Winter 2018
Michael Apted

Michael Apted's deep documentary experience informs his quest for authenticity, and as the issue of creative rights loomed after Thunderheart, that awareness sparked a decades-long involvement in DGA leadership.

DGA Quarterly Magazine Kathryn Bigelow
Fall 2017
Kathryn Bigelow

Kathryn Bigelow's socially relevant cinema invites a more active engagement with the viewer.

DGAQ Magazine Summer 2017 Michelle MacLaren
Summer 2017
Michelle MacLaren

Unwilling to back down from a challenge, Michelle MacLaren leaves no "rock left unturned" when it comes to achieving her vision on such shows as Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones.

DGA Quarterly Spring 2017 Director Sam Mendes
Spring 2017

A celebrated filmmaker right out of the gate, Sam Mendes juggles movies and theater with the virtuosity of a wunderkind, and the experience of a seasoned pro.

Alexander Payne
Fall/Winter 2016-17
Alexander Payne

For Alexander Payne, reality is the spice of life, with films populated with ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances, and a mordant humor that's grounded in the flaws and foibles of protagonists whose lives are spiraling out of control.

Jodie Foster
Spring 2016
Jodie Foster

In her 50-year career as an actor, Jodie Foster has learned a few things about leadership. As the director of three features, episodic TV, and the upcoming Money Monster, she doesn’t tell cast and crew what they want to hear—she tells them the truth.

DGA Quarterly Magazine
Winter 2016
A Look Back at the Guild's Accomplishments

For the anniversary of the DGA, we present a timeline covering many of the high points and accomplishments of 80 years of Guild history. It’s the events and people that make the Guild what it is today.

DGAQ Interview Director Taylor Hackford
Fall 2015

Taylor Hackford’s great enthusiasm for music, dance, and life comes through in such far-ranging films as An Officer and a Gentleman, Hail! Hail! Rock ’n’ Roll, and Ray. And while practicing his craft, he has energetically served the Guild for 30 years--including two terms as president.

DGA Quarterly Danny Boyle
Summer 2015

From the drug hallucinations of Trainspotting to the teeming streets of Mumbai in Slumdog Millionaire and the solitary mountain ordeal of 127 Hours, Danny Boyle has brought humanity and a unique visual flair to unexpected places. Who knows what he’ll find inside the head of Steve Jobs in his upcoming bio of the Apple co-founder?

DGA Quarterly Interview Director Lesli Linka Glatter
Spring 2015
Lesli Linka Glatter

Lesli Linka Glatter has brought a sense of urgency and psychological depth to such series as The West Wing, ER, Mad Men, and Homeland—and won two DGA Awards along the way. Yet she still finds time to serve the Guild and be an advocate for diversity.

DGA Quarterly Jonathan Demme
Winter 2015
Jonathan Demme

Always a bit ahead of the curve in his 40-year career, Jonathan Demme pioneered the psychological thriller in The Silence of the Lambs, caught a band at its peak in Stop Making Sense, and tackled social issues in Philadelphia. For his next act? Meryl Streep as a rock star.

DGA Quarterly Interview Steven Soderbergh
Fall 2014
Steven Soderbergh

In a prolific career that has taken him from the indie landmark sex, lies, and videotape to mainstream hits like Erin Brockovich, the HBO movie Behind the Candelabra, and now the cable series The Knick, Steven Soderbergh has continually reinvented himself—all the while admirably serving the Guild.

DGA Quarterly Holofcener
Summer 2014
Nicole Holofcener

In films like Enough Said, Friends With Money and Lovely & Amazing, Nicole Holofcener has demonstrated a fearless talent for creating stories so achingly personal they have universal resonance. The joke’s on everyone.

Spring 2014
David O. Russell

David O. Russell loves observing the quirky, unpredictable rhythms of human behavior. It's no wonder that in films like American Hustle, Silver Linings Playbook and The Fighter he captures the teeming intensity of real life.

Guillermo del Toro DGAQ Interview
Winter 2014
Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo del Toro has combined his love of strange creatures, ghosts and Gothic horror stories with a deep literary sensibility to create genre films uniquely his own.

Fall 2013
David Nutter

David Nutter has directed 19 pilots and an unprecedented 17 have been picked up for series. How does he do it? By following his instincts, respecting his collaborators, and sticking to stories that move him.

Summer 2013
Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson started out making low-budget splatter movies in his native New Zealand and moved on to explore new cinematic worlds in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. But no matter how far he’s gone, he’s always made it seem real.

Zemeckis
Spring 2013
Robert Zemeckis

With films like Back to the Future, Forrest Gump and three performance-capture features, Robert Zemeckis has earned a reputation as a technology pioneer. But more than anything, he's just a director looking for new means to tell good stories.

DGA Quarterly Interview Mischer
Winter 2013
Don Mischer

Don Mischer has been capturing great moments in popular culture—the Oscars, Olympic opening ceremonies, Super Bowl halftime shows—on live TV for more than 35 years. For his pitch perfect work he has won more DGA Awards than any other director

DGAQ Interview Thomas Schlamme
Fall 2012
Thomas Schlamme

Not only did director-producer Thomas Schlamme create the signature "walk and talk" style on The West Wing, he has also been a powerful advocate for the rights of episodic directors.

mel brooks
Summer 2012
Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks spills the beans about directing some of the most outrageous and hilarious comedies ever made. He's not joking (well, just a little).

DGAQ Winter 2012 Michael Mann
Winter 2012
Michael Mann

Thieves, assassins, mad men, whistle-blowers, and gamblers have all populated the extreme adventures of Michael Mann's films. For more than 30 years, with style and precision, he has examined the richness of human experience.

DGA Quarterly Interview Director Christopher Nolan
Spring 2012
Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan prefers film to digital, shoots with one camera, and doesn’t believe in 3-D. The director who resurrected Batman, made time go backward in Memento, and deconstructed dreams in Inception speaks his mind.

DGA Quarterly Fall 2011 Interviews
Fall 2011
Excerpts from DGA Interviews

For the last six years, the Quarterly has interviewed some of the most prominent directors in the business. Here are excerpts from each of them.

Gil Cates Gallery
Summer 2011
Gil Cates

Through changing times, for more than 50 years Gil Cates has been a steadying force and voice of reason in the Directors Guild.

DGA Quarterly Spring 2011 John Rich
Spring 2011
John Rich

John Rich is a legendary figure in TV comedy, but equally important are his contributions to the Guild in 50 years of tireless service.

DGA Quarterly Magazine Winter 2010-11 King Vidor
Winter 2011
King Vidor

King Vidor helped bring directors together to form the Guild and became its first president during the early, perilous years. His legacy as a great filmmaker and fighter for directors' rights continues today.

DGA Quarterly Interview with Ridley Scott
Fall 2010
Ridley Scott

In over 20 films, including Blade Runner, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, Ridley Scott has seen things you wouldn’t believe—and made them real.

Summer 2010
Peter Weir

Starting out in an Aussie industry that barely existed, Peter Weir has traveled the world looking for the revelatory moment and deeper truth. In films like Master and Commander and Dead Poets Society, he found people who—like himself—never play it safe.

Spring 2010
Ang Lee

Born in Taiwan, schooled at NYU, and trained in the trenches, Ang Lee broke new cultural ground with universal stories like Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. But the one thing he won’t do is repeat himself.

Winter 2010
Werner Herzog

For 40 years, Werner Herzog has been what he calls "a good soldier of cinema," traveling the globe in search of "ecstatic truth." The wandering director talk about the journey.

Fall 2009
Ron Howard

Ron Howard grew up working in the business but he may be the least jaded man in Hollywood. After directing 20 movies in almost every genre and winning two DGA Awards, he still hasn’t lost his youthful enthusiasm for telling stories.

Summer 2009
Jay Roach

After directing three Austin Powers films and two Meet the Parents pictures, Jay Roach still doesn’t think of himself as a funny guy. But he sure knows how to make people laugh.

Spring 2009
Nancy Meyers

Nancy Meyers has captured the rhythms of modern relationships in films like Something's Gotta Give and What Women Want. In her latest picture, she again finds food for thought.

Winter 2009
Roman Polanski

Roman Polanski's life has had more drama than a Shakespearean tragedy. But in his nearly 50-year career as a director, he has created some of the most unsettling images and haunting films ever made.

DGA Quarterly Fall 2008 DGA Interview Forman
Fall 2008
Milos Forman

Since coming to America after the Czech Spring in 1968, Milos Forman has been committed to making movies about individuals fighting for their rights in films like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus and The People vs. Larry Flynt.

DGA Quarterly Magazine Summer 2008 Books
Summer 2008
James Cameron

Although he continues to be a master of special effects and new technology, James Cameron's focus is on storytelling, not flash. In the midst of shooting Avatar, his eagerly anticipated epic, he is exploring the potential of a digital 3-D feature.

DGA Quarterly Spring 2008 Spike Lee
Spring 2008
An interview with Spike Lee

Since breaking out with She's Gotta Have It in 1986, Spike Lee has tackled issues of race, class and sex in America perhaps more than any other director. But his films are not just challenging-they're also entertaining.

DGA Quarterly Winter 2007-08 DGA Interview Scorsese
Winter 2007/2008
Martin Scorsese

Nobody can talk about films like Martin Scorsese. From the movies of his youth and his mentors to his own films, he brings a lifetime of experience to the conversation.

DGA Quarterly Fall 2007 DGA Interview Lumet
Fall 2007
Sidney Lumet

Sidney Lumet has been exploring the moral contradictions of life, mostly in New York, for more than 50 years. At 83, he adds to his astonishing body of work with Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.

DGA Quarterly Summer 2007
Summer 2007
James Burrows

With series like Taxi, Cheers, Will & Grace and Frasier, James Burrows raised the sitcom to high art. His secret? Respecting the craft.

DGA Quarterly Spring 2007 Francis Ford Coppola
Spring 2007
Francis Ford Coppola

After a 10-year absence from directing, Francis Ford Coppola is back with Youth Without Youth, a return to the personal filmmaking of his younger days.

DGA Quarterly Steven Spielberg
Winter 2006
Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg just seems to get better with age, yet he never loses the boyish enthusiasm that makes his films so special.

DGA Quarterly Magazine Fall 2006 Mike Nichols
Fall 2006
Mike Nichols

Hard to believe it's been almost 40 years since Mike Nichols' groundbreaking The Graduate. Since then, few directors have created a more literate and varied body of work.

DGA Quarterly Magazine Summer 2006 Interview Pollack
Summer 2006
Sydney Pollack

From his early days in live TV, Sydney Pollack has been giving mainstream movies a good name. Now, after a low budget documentary about his friend Frank Gehry, he's thinking more indie.

DGA Quarterly Spring 2006 Clint Eastwood
Spring 2006
Clint Eastwood

At an age when most people are thinking about retirement, Clint Eastwood just keeps getting better. In his usual no-nonsense style, he talks about what he's accomplished-and what keeps him going.

DGA Quarterly Magazine Fall 2005 Interview Robert Altman
Fall 2005
Robert Altman

At age 80, Robert Altman remains the iconoclast of American film. After directing more than 40 movies, he’s still worried about the next one.