January 10, 2015
DGA President Paris Barclay has appointed Director Matt Penn to join Director Michael Zinberg as Co-Chair of the Television Creative Rights Committee, which is part of the DGA Creative Rights Committee. Director Rod Holcomb is stepping down from his co-chair post after more than 20 years of service on the Creative Rights Committee.
“For the last several years I have been fortunate enough to be Rod Holcomb’s Co-Chair of this committee,” said Zinberg. “I have always been impressed by his leadership and glad to call him my dear friend. Few have his talent, his ability to communicate, his understanding of the art and craft of directing… and his love for our Guild. Even fewer can conceptualize and clearly explain the difficulties and joys of being a Director in today’s world. He gets it, understands it and helps us all through it. We will miss him as a leader, but have him still as a member of the Committee.”
“We are fortunate that Matt Penn agreed to step in as Co-Chair,” Zinberg continued. “Not only is he a high quality person and a good guy, and a hell of a director, he has a love for the DGA. I think it says a lot about how important New York is to the Guild.”
“It’s a daunting task to follow Rod Holcomb in any circumstance because he is such an estimable and wonderful force,” said Penn. “It’s especially an honor to follow Rod as a co-chair given all that he has accomplished both on behalf of the committee and on behalf of the Guild.
“I think of this committee as a particularly important one within the Guild because ‘creative rights’ are not measurable in a literal sense. What makes us not just technicians is that we are asked to bring our hearts to work each day. To bring our insight and our intuition and these are all very difficult things to measure.
“So I want to thank Rod for all that he has done to be sure that our creative rights remain ‘creative’… and I also want to thank Paris Barclay and Michael Zinberg for inviting me to step forward in this way.”
On January 10, Holcomb’s service was honored by the Committee in a brief ceremony at DGA Headquarters where he was presented with a plaque commemorating his contributions.
About the Committee
The Television Subcommittee of the DGA Creative Rights Committee seeks to raise member awareness of rights that have already been established and address various challenges that still remain.