DGA National Board Member Alan Kim Kurumada passed away on November 19, 2009. Upon receiving the news DGA President Taylor Hackford said, “We mourn the passing of Kim Kurumada – a remarkable person, an extraordinary AD and UPM, and a vital member of this Guild. Our thoughts are with Kim’s family, friends and colleagues. We shall miss him greatly.”
After NYU Film School, Kurumada worked initially as a sound mixer and assistant cameraman on documentaries before being accepted into the Assistant Director Training Program. He joined the Guild in 1974 and went on to work with some of the best directors in the industry including Mel Brooks on Life Stinks, James Bridges on Urban Cowboy and The China Syndrome, John Carpenter on John Carpenter’s Vampires and Ghosts of Mars, John Herzfeld on 15 Minutes, Ted Kotcheff on Winter People, Barry Levinson on Tin Men, Herbert Ross on Undercover Blues, Alan Pakula on All the President’s Men and Michael Apted on Continental Divide and Class Action.
First elected to the DGA National Board in 2003, Kurumada was a longtime member of the Western AD/UPM Council, where he was first elected as an alternate member in 1999 and eventually served four terms as Council Chair. Kurumada’s Guild service also includes eight years on the AD/UPM Residency Committee, a full decade on both the AD/UPM New Technology Committee and the AD/UPM Mentor Committee, eleven years on the AD/UPM Administrative Committee, fourteen years with the Council’s UPM Committee, and ten years on the DGA’s Asian American Committee. He has also served on the Guild’s Negotiations Committee. In 2009, he was presented with the DGA’s Frank Capra Achievement Award, which is the highest honor the Guild bestows on member of the Assistant Director/Unit Production Manager category.
A memorial service for Kurumada was held on Sunday, December 13, 2009, at the DGA Theatre Complex in Los Angeles.
