DGA President Michael Apted welcomed Senator Lautenberg for his first visit to the DGA. Apted noted that as a member of the Commerce Committee, the Senator has often been asked to weigh in on issues like media violence, media consolidation, Internet protections and FCC oversight, all of which are important to the DGA. Apted added that because we have a number of DGA members in New Jersey, it was important that the Leadership Council meet with Senator Lautenberg.

Lautenberg, the senior senator from New Jersey, is currently running for his fifth term in office. During his remarks, the Senator spoke to the group about his decision to return to the Senate after his “retirement” and the changes he has seen. The Senator said that one of the issues that concerns him today is media consolidation, and he expressed dismay over the decline in the number of independent producers since 1992, noting “Supposedly in this country of ours, we respect chance-takers, independence of thought.”

DGA First Vice President/Co-chair of the Leadership Council Paris Barclay welcomed Senator Klobuchar to the DGA during her trip to Los Angeles a few days later. Klobuchar, a first-term Senator, is also a member of the Commerce Committee. In her remarks, Klobuchar described her journey to the Senate after her years as a lawyer and public advocate in Minnesota and emphasized that her upbringing as the daughter of a journalist instilled in her the importance of intellectual property and copyright protection. “Growing up in a journalism family, copyright protection is very important to me. People’s work must get protected.”

Klobuchar shared her experience visiting the set of a movie for the first time years ago when Untamed Heart filmed in Minnesota. The group discussed the importance of filming movies set in American towns actually in the United States rather than abroad, and various attendees then shared their own perspectives on the impact of productions leaving the US. Some spoke about the same experience as Klobuchar—the excitement of seeing a film being shot in their hometown. Some said it was that experience that led them to becoming filmmakers as adults.

The discussion with the Senator was a lively one , as she shared the experience of her first year in the Senate and her thoughts on the key issues Congress faces this election year, along with her positions on what she called the DGA’s “4 C’s” – Copyright, Content, Consolidation and Canada.