DGA Participates in IAESDO Events in Dublin

September 07, 2008

The International Association of English Speaking Directors Organisations (IAESDO) held its seventh annual meeting on September 4-5, 2008. Representing the DGA, President Michael Apted, National Executive Director Jay Roth and Assistant Executive Director for Government & International Affairs Kathy Garmezy attended the annual two-day session, which took place this year in Dublin, Ireland.

IAESDO is an international affiliation of English speaking directors organizations established to promote the global economic and creative rights of directors across all audiovisual media. Members include Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom as well as the United States. Michael Apted opened the two-day meeting with remarks reflecting on the history and accomplishments of IAESDO over the past six years including the support IAESDO gave to the efforts of colleagues in the UK to strengthen the protections given to directors, leading to the creation of a new organization called Directors UK. The members of IAESDO voted to rotate the Secretariat to the UK in 2009, to be housed at Directors UK offices in London.

While in Dublin, the DGA contingent also attended the IAESDO Directors Finders Series screening of The Secret of Kells by director Tomm Moore. The series began in 2004, at the second annual meeting of IAESDO, when the DGA offered our partners the opportunity to participate in an international version of the Directors Finders Series, a successful program to spotlight promising independent feature films and screen them at DGA theaters before an audience that includes agents, distributors and DGA members, to help the filmmakers secure U.S. distribution. The IAESDO Directors Finders Series has, like the US counterpart, proven both successful and popular.

This year marks the fourth film that the Screen Directors Guild of Ireland has selected to be screened at the DGA Theater in Los Angeles, and The Secret of Kells is the first animated film chosen for this honor. The film was screened in Los Angeles on September 19 before an audience of industry professionals and notable Irish representatives living in the U.S., followed by a reception and a Q&A session with director Tomm Moore and DGA director-member Paul Quinn (Never Get Outta the Boat).

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