The Directors Guild of America is a community of men and women who are members of the directorial staff. Like any community, we benefit from unity and an awareness of common as well as individual goals. We will continue to be successful as long as we hang together and the organization is responsive to its members' needs. This past negotiation was successful because we were united, our goals were clear, we were well-organized, possessed of excellent negotiating talent and understanding of the problems of the industry.
We are strong but we are at risk. Too many of us take our health and pension plans, our creative rights and residuals for granted. Many of us seem to be indifferent to the fact that our DGA pension is setting aside serious dollars for a time when we may be less busy. Many of us are oblivious to what could confront us without the security of our exceptional health plan.
If companies who work outside the Guild have their way, our members will eventually be without health and pension plans. These corporate figures see the wisdom of a health plan for their own families. They see the necessity of saving money for their children's education and for their own retirement. But they don't respect the same need for their employees.
Some cable companies are making non-Guild movies: below-scale salaries, no residuals, no health plan, no pension, abbreviated creative rights, no protection from aggressive producers in prep, production or post, no recourse to arbitration, no Guild lawyers. They say this is the future. In reality, it's the past. That's what we had before there was a Directors Guild, when we were solo and vulnerable, long before they went to business school.
Some of our director members are producing non-Guild movies and do not consider the damage they are doing to their colleagues and to themselves. They take for granted the salaries and residuals they have enjoyed. They are collecting residuals and running up big figures in their own DGA pension plans, yet they deny this security to fellow members.
The names King Vidor, John Ford, Frank Capra, Bill Wellman and George Stevens are associated with outstanding directorial invention and creativity. They are also men to whom we are indebted for their courage and integrity in founding this Guild, bringing their assistants into the club, and in hanging together during tough times. We can be proud of our history and we must gently remind some of our brothers and sisters that we are family and must act like one.
We are not rolling over in the face of non-Guild companies. We will continue to confront anyone trying to work without us. We will shine a light on their actions. We will be flexible but persistent in our efforts to gain signatories and assert the jurisdiction of our Guild.
The policy of pursuing independent producers with our low-budget agreement has been successful. Last year, more than 40 films were made under this contract. That is 40 films which, absent of our efforts, would have been made without our people. And we have 40 companies who, when they hire, will be hiring our men and women.
We have continued to pursue independent producers and directors at film festivals. The DGA had a presence at Sundance, the Hamptons, New York City Film Festival, the Independent Feature Project East and West, the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival and the Denver Festival.
Warren Adler, Bryan Unger, Terry Casaletta and other members of our executive staff are constantly negotiating with independent producers and recruiting independent directors. Recent new members are Allison Anders, Wayne Wang, Ang Lee and Bryan Singer, to mention a few.
With the ratification by the membership of the new contract, we are assured of three years of uninterrupted activity. We cannot say we are assured of three years of peace since there are so many areas that demand our attention. We must continue to work to protect what we have, to adapt to changing conditions and to fight for a more secure future for our hard working and deserving members.