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President's Report
A few days before the horrific events of September 11, the AMPTP sent a letter to DGA National Executive Director Jay D. Roth and me indicating a desire to quickly initiate and conclude negotiations for new DGA agreements. At its meeting on September 29, your National Board voted to authorize the DGA leadership to hold exploratory meetings with the AMPTP to determine whether early contract negotiations are desirable.
In fact, throughout the summer, our councils and staff have been actively preparing for the negotiations. Gil Cates, our Secretary-Treasurer and former Guild President, has been selected to chair the Negotiating Committee, which met on November 3 to review the various proposals. Gil and Jay will be meeting with the studio representatives in the upcoming days.
All of us would like to avoid the inevitable production slowdowns and economic uncertainty that come with final-hour negotiations. And at this very difficult time for our country and its citizens, it is incumbent upon us to take whatever measures we can to avoid adding to personal and economic stresses. We are committed to doing that and will appeal to the AMPTP to share that commitment with us.
The Creative Rights Committee is again being co-chaired by Guild Vice Presidents Martha Coolidge and John Frankenheimer.
The Senate legislation to curb runaway film production that was introduced by Senator Blanche Lincoln in July, now has a companion piece in the House of Representatives. Congressmen David Dreier (R-Calif.), Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Howard Berman (D-Calif.) introduced House Bill 3131, with 11 other congressmen signing on as co-sponsors.
For more than two years and through a number of avenues, we at the Guild have been meeting with lobbyists, legislators, film commissioners and other guilds and unions to come up with viable solutions to help stem the tide of productions with American-based story lines from shooting in other countries.
Other countries have long recognized the significant benefit of film production to their local economies. They’ve set their traps with subsidies and tax incentives and what they’ve captured are jobs and dollars that ought to remain at home in the United States. Thanks to the efforts of our alliance partners, our friends in the House and Senate, and the DGA PAC, we have been taking steps to restore to our own communities the economic benefits of America’s leading art form.
As we enter negotiations, and deal with a variety of economic issues, it is important to remember that directors have always been active in working to find solutions.
I’d like to draw your attention to a story about an organization of which you may not have heard: the Motion Picture Directors Association. It was begun by some of the giants of the silent film industry in 1916. While it was not a direct forerunner of the DGA, upon reading this story I think you’ll find, as I have, that directors have always been champions of better working conditions, leading the way for filmmakers to perform at their peak.
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