Photos by Ryan Jensen
On December 6, DGA members and guests gathered in the Guild’s New York Boardroom for the Focus on Women Committee’s (FOWC) event, She Persisted 2025. The celebration of the strength and determination of Women in the Guild honored their career achievements — despite obstacles and opposition — via a roundtable discussion with DGA Past President Lesli Linka Glatter (Zero Day), Directors Kelly Casse (CBS Mornings) and Lisa Cortés (Little Richard: I Am Everything), Producer/UPMs Celia Costas (The Instigators) and Ellen Schwartz (The Family McMullen) and Associate Director Glenna Meeks (CBS Network Broadcast Operations).
Following a welcome from FOWC Co-Chairs Joan Bostwick and Ellen Athena Catsikeas who also served as moderators, the panelists shared their stories of working in various areas of media and entertainment — fighting the odds to follow their dreams.
After being introduced by Director/DGA Board member Nicole Kassell, Glatter, who appeared via video, recounted how her background in dance led to her to directing explaining that she had received a grant to teach, choreograph, and perform throughout the Far East and was based in Tokyo, and one day, she met an older Japanese man in a chance encounter in a coffee shop whose stories inspired her to tell stories beyond the medium of dance.
Director/DGA 6th Vice President Lily Olszewski introduced Casse, who recalled that she was in the right place at the right time, and that her high school had a really robust TV program that included a visit to CBS where she sat in and watched a taping of what was then The Early Show. She stared at the Director and said, “I’m gonna do that one day. I’m gonna have that job,” and knew that was the only option. The joke was, she was born at CBS and never left. Casse worked her way up from PA, to AD, to the Director’s chair and sat in every single seat on The Early Show, that later became CBS This Morning and is now CBS Mornings.
1st AD Amy Lynn introduced Schwartz, who shared how answering a job listing in The Village Voice led her to working on her first film set where she was a Production Assistant who went from washing dishes and picking up laundry to being a stand in and eventually helping the Director. At the end of the shoot, one of the actors who was also a grip told her to apply for the DGA Trainee Program. She did and was accepted and called the experience an amazing opportunity.
After her introduction by fellow Producer/UPM Patty Doherty-Hess, Costas spoke about her background in Location Managing before she transitioned to Production Manager. Delving into the process, she explained that finding the right location for a scene should entail thinking about the compatibility of the location to the tone of a scene — what would help a dramatic situation, in terms of architecture, logistics and where the entrance was and the exit. Costas recalled that they built very little in New York back then and mostly shot on location.
Director Annetta Marion, a former FOWC co-chair who helped create the first She Persisted panel in 2023, introduced Cortés, who hearkened back to a trip to India where she went to a movie theater and realized that even though she didn’t understand the language in the film, she knew what was happening, and that a picture is worth a thousand words. So, when she came back, she decided to go to film school.
Meeks, who also serves as an Associate member of the DGA National Board, was introduced by fellow Associate Director and DGA Assistant Secretary-Treasurer Joyce Thomas, before she revealed that she started at CBS as a secretary with just the name of someone who used to work at CBS in New York. The name got her in the door where she was sent to two departments. One was the production supervisor’s department. The other one was the network operations department. Network Operations hired her and the woman in HR said to her, “it’s really good that you didn’t go to production supervisor, because you would have never gotten out of that position as a secretary.” In the Network Operations department, she saw that there was a career path, and that was exactly what she was looking for.
Following the discussion, each of the panelists were presented with the FOWC’s first She Persisted awards to honor their careers. Then all engaged in a brief Q&A where attending members had the opportunity to learn more about how to possibly follow in their footsteps.
About the Committee:
Originally a sub-committee of the Eastern Directors Council, in 2020 the Focus on Women Committee (FOWC) was designated an official and permanent committee of the DGA National Board for women members residing in the Eastern Region. The Committee would like to remind members that while their events are designed with a special focus on women directors, all DGA members are welcome to attend.
