The Director’s Cut - A DGA Podcast

Director Damien Chazelle discusses his film, First Man, with fellow director Darren Aronofsky. The film tells the riveting stories of NASA's mission to land the first human being on the moon, and of Neil Armstrong, the astronaut chosen to make the one small step for man and giant leap for mankind on July 20, 1969.

See photos and a summary of this event below:

https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Nov2018/FIRSTMAN_QnA_1018.aspx

Director Tamara Jenkins discusses her film, Private Life, with fellow director Mike White. The film stars Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti as a couple struggling to conceive who undergo multiple fertility therapies. But the process of trying to add to their family challenges their relationship with each other as they descend deeper and deeper into the world of assisted reproduction and domestic adoption.

See photos and a summary of this event below:

https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Nov2018/PrivateLife_QnA_0918.aspx

Director Dan Fogelman discusses his film, Life Itself, with fellow director Ron Howard. The film centers on the story of a young New York couple who experience unexpected twists in their journey from their college romance to marriage and the birth of their first child, creating reverberations that echo across continents and through lifetimes.

See photos and a summary of this event below:

https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Nov2018/LifeItself_QnA_0918.aspx

Director Yann Demange discusses his film, White Boy Rick, with fellow director John Singleton. Set during the height of the crack epidemic and the War on Drugs in 1980s Detroit, the film tells the true story of Rick Wershe, Jr., a teenager who was convinced by federal agents to become an undercover drug informant in exchange for keeping his gun dealing father out prison. Seduced by the lure of easy money, he gets in too deep and becomes a notorious drug dealer himself.

See photos and a summary of this event below:

https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Nov2018/WhiteBoyRick_QnA_0918.aspx

Director Nicole Holofcener discusses her film, The Land of Steady Habits, with fellow director Greg Mottola. The film tells the story of Anders Hill, a man who feels trapped in the wealthy enclave of Westport, Connecticut. Seeking to renew his lust for life, he quits his job in finance and leaves his wife and family, but is quickly confronted with the harsh reality of his choices.

See photos and a summary of this event below:

https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Nov2018/LandOHabits_QnA_0918.aspx

Director Wash Westmoreland discusses his film, Colette, with fellow director Scott McGehee. Set in the dawn of 20th century, the film tells the story of Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, a talented young writer who moves from her childhood home to Paris after she weds a writer known commonly as "Willy." Convinced by Willy to ghostwrite for him, Colette pens a bestselling semi-autobiographical novel that becomes a cultural sensation and spawns sequels. But her fight to regain creative ownership drives her to overcome societal constraints and challenge gender roles.

See photos and a summary of this event below:

https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Nov2018/Colette_QnA_0918.aspx

Director Ethan Hawke discusses his film, Blaze, with fellow director John Patrick Shanley. Adapted from Sybil Rosen's memoir, Living in the Woods in a Tree: Remembering Blaze, the film tells the story of Blaze Foley, a songwriting legend of the Texas outlaw music movement that spawned superstars like Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson.

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https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Oct2018/Blaze_QnA_0918.aspx

Directors Jonathan Baker and Josh Baker discusses their film, Kin, with fellow director James Ponsoldt. Based on the Baker brothers' 2014 short film Bag Man, the film tells the story of an ex-con named Jimmy and his adopted teenage brother Eli, who are forced to flee their home after Jimmy lands in trouble with a local crime boss.

See photos and a summary of this event below:

https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Oct2018/Kin_QnA_0918.aspx

Director Daniel Adams discusses his film, An LA Minute, with fellow director Bill Fishman. In a satirical look at fame, the film tells the story of Ted Gold, a former Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who gave up being a serious writer to cash in by penning trashy bestsellers, His world is shaken when he meets Velocity, a young beautiful and homeless performance artist, whose passion and integrity inspires him to follow her example.

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https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Oct2018/AnLAMinute_QnA_0818.aspx

Director Rob Reiner discusses his film, Shock and Awe, with fellow director Jeremy Kagan. Based on a true story, the film takes us back to the time after 9/11 when the Bush-Cheney administration claimed that then-President of Iraq Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, during their push to ramp up support for the invasion of Iraq. However, journalists at the Knight-Ridder news agency were skeptical of the evidence and stayed in pursuit of the real story while their colleagues mistakenly fed the American people news based on faulty and fabricated intelligence.

See photos and a summary of this event below:

https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Sept2018/ShocknAwe_QnA_0818.aspx