Veteran unit production manager Ezra Swerdlow discusses his 30-plus-year career working with directors Woody Allen (Stardust Memories, Zelig, Hannah and Her Sisters), Frank Oz (The Muppets Take Manhattan), Mel Brooks (Spaceballs) and Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland).
Director William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist) discusses his iconic career; beginning in the mailroom of a television station to winning the DGA Feature Film Award and becoming a premier member of the “New Hollywood” wave of filmmaking that revolutionized the industry.
Melvin Van Peebles discusses his career with his son, director and actor Mario Van Peebles, including starting to direct in France, his award-winning film The Story of a Three Day Pass, and kicking off the blaxpoitation genre with his independently financed and produced Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song.
Penelope Spheeris discusses her career as a filmmaker, directing documentaries like The Decline of Western Civilization and studio films such as Wayne's World. Spheeris talks about growing up in her father’s traveling carnival, as well as major influences in her life, including Janis Joplin and punk rock music.
Garry Marshall discusses his career as a writer, producer and director on shows like Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley, and on feature films like Beaches (1988), Pretty Woman (1990), and The Princess Diaries (2001). Marshall also discusses his service with the DGA, working to protect the director’s creative vision.
Miloš Forman discusses his career from the difficulties making films like Loves of a Blonde and The Fireman's Ball under the Soviet
regime in his native Czechoslovakia, to directing award winning films like like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeaus with the creative freedom he found in the United States.
Director Steve James recounts career highlights including the groundbreaking documentary Hoop Dreams and the six-year-long process to make the film, which led to directing narrative films like Prefontaine and critically-acclaimed documentaries like The Interrupters and Life Itself.
Veteran feature and documentary film director and past-president of the DGA Michael Apted discusses his 45-plus year directorial career, highlighting his work on the Seven Up! documentary series, Coal Miner’s Daughter and Nell, among other notable projects. (Part 1 of 2)
Anita Cooper-Avrick discusses her 36-year career stage managing television programs ranging from and The People’s Court to Mr. Belvedere and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air; her AD/SM/PA Council West participation; and her extensive Guild involvement.
Director John Landis recounts his journey through the film business, starting as an 18-year-old mail boy at 20th Century Fox to directing blockbuster comedies like National Lampoon’s Animal House, The Blues Brothers, and Coming To America.
Norman Jewison shares stories from his more than forty-year career beginning as a live television director before transitioning to direct genre-bending feature films that entertained and challenged audiences, such as The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming, In the Heat of the Night, Fiddler on the Roof, and Moonstruck.
Victoria Hochberg discusses her career directing episodic television (Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Sex and the City), movies for television (Jacob Have I Loved, Sweet 15), and her involvement in the founding of the DGA’s Women’s Steering Committee.
Multihyphenate filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, Paper Moon) shares stories from his long career as a director, writer, producer and actor during the “New Hollywood” era.
Henry Chan (A Different World, Moesha, Fresh Off the Boat, 100 Days) discusses his 30-plus year career directing episodic television and feature films, his beginnings as an editor, and his involvement in the Asian American Committee.
Director Don Roy King discusses Saturday Night Live, starting out at local stations, and his diverse body of work directing news, variety, talk, reality and live theatrical Broadway performances.
Veteran television director Howard Storm (Mork & Mindy, Laverne & Shirley, Full House) discusses his long career directing episodic television and the actors who received their big breaks on his sets, namely Robin Williams and Jim Carrey.
Alan Myerson (Steelyard Blues, Police Academy 5: Assignment: Miami Beach, The Larry Sanders Show) recounts his 30-plus year career directing feature films and episodic television, his involvement with Second City, and the formation of the world-renowned improvisational troupe, The Committee.
Sidney Lumet discusses his directing style developed over 50 years of filmmaking including such noteworthy films as 12 Angry Men (1957), Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962), Dog Day Afternoon (1975) and Network (1976).
Feature film and television director Mike Newell discusses his 50-plus year directorial career, highlighting his work on Coronation Street, The Man in the Iron Mask, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Love in the Time of Cholera, among other notable projects.
Director and writer Joan Micklin Silver (Hester Street, Finnegan Begin Again, Crossing Delancey) shares insights and stories from her career directing independent features and movies for television.
Michael Schultz recalls his career through four decades of directing, beginning in the theater, successes with Cooley High and Car Wash, and his prolific work in episodic television.
Director Robert Altman describes his working philosophy, often comparing filmmaking to painting, and discusses the sources of his storytelling and directing techniques he used on films like M*A*S*H, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and The Player.