During the final months of 2008, DGA members in New York and Los Angeles have had the opportunity to attend member screenings followed by Q&A sessions with the films' directors.
Clint Eastwood: Grand Torino
DGA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and two-time DGA Award-winning director Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby; Unforgiven) spoke about the challenges of both directing and starring in his new film Gran Torino after the screening at the Los Angeles DGA Theatre on November 23. In the film Eastwood plays a disgruntled Korean War vet Walt Kowalski who attempts to reform his Hmong teenager neighbor, after the kid tries to steal his prized 1972 Gran Torino. DGA Board Member/Special Projects Committee Chair Jeremy Kagan (Crown Heights) served as moderator. Previously the two discussed Eastwood's other film this season, Changeling, following its Los Angeles screening on October 25.
photos by Byron Gamarro print courtesy of Warner Bros.
Sam Mendes: Revolutionary Road
DGA and Academy Award-winning director Sam Mendes (American Beauty) discussed making his latest feature Revolutionary Road with Director Kimberly Peirce (Stop-Loss) and the DGA Los Angeles audience on November 15; and Producer/Director Stanley Jaffe (Without a Trace) and the DGA New York audience on November 22. Adapted from the novel by Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road explores the subject of marriage through the eyes of Frank and April Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet), a young couple living in a Connecticut suburb during the mid-1950s and struggling to come to terms with their personal problems while trying to raise their two children.
photos by Hilary Steffens (New York) and Howard Wise (Los Angeles)/print courtesy of Paramount Vantage
John Patrick Shanley: Doubt
John Patrick Shanley (Joe Versus the Volcano) discussed how he adapted his Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning play Doubt into a feature film with Director Nancy Meyers (The Holiday) and the Los Angeles audience on November 17. Doubt explores themes of religion, morality and authority that come into play when an iron-gloved nun (Meryl Streep) confronts a charismatic priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) she suspects of abusing a young black student and their subsequent clashes threaten to tear the community apart. Shanley had previously spoken about the film with Director Mike Nichols (Angels in America) following a New York screening on November 8.
photos by Trixie Textor/print courtesy of Miramax Films
Edward Zwick: Defiance
DGA Award-winning director Edward Zwick (Special Bulletin) discussed his new WWII action/drama Defiance, the true story of the Bielskis (Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell), three Jewish brothers who hid from the Nazis in the Belorussian forests, built a community of partisan fighters and saved over 1,200 Jews by war’s end. Director Jason Reitman (Juno) moderated the Los Angeles conversation on November 14; and Director Griffin Dunne (The Accidental Husband) moderated the New York conversation on November 21.
photos by Marcie Revens (New York) and Byron Gamarro (Los Angeles).
