On October 7, 2010, the DGA Eastern Region Coast Special Projects Committee hosted a special evening with Director Paul Schrader in the Guild’s offices in New York.
In an evening moderated by Director Sam Weisman (Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star), Schrader discussed his more than four decades in the film industry utilizing clips from his directorial work to illustrate a career that began as a film critic and protégé of Pauline Kael. He next found success as a screenwriter, working with such notable directors as Sydney Pollack on The Yakuza, Brian De Palma on Obsession and Martin Scorsese on the DGA and Academy Award-nominated classic Taxi Driver. The success of Taxi Driver allowed him to begin directing his own films, which includes Blue Collar (1978), Hardcore (1979), American Gigolo (1980), Cat People (1982), Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), Patty Hearst (1988), The Comfort of Strangers (1990), Affliction (1997), Forever Mine (1999), and Auto Focus (2002).
Schrader joined the DGA in 1977.