Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America (DGA) is the
labor union which represents the interests of
film and
television directors in the
United States motion picture industry. Founded as the "Screen Directors Guild" in 1936, the group became the DGA in 1960.
As a union that seeks to organize an individual profession, rather than multiple professions across an industry, the DGA is a
craft union. It represents directors, associate directors, unit production managers, stage managers, and production assistants in television, and directors, assistant directors, and stage managers in film.
The Guild has various training programs whereby successful applicants are placed in various productions and can gain experience working in the film or television industry.
As of 2003, the guild had about 12,700 members. The DGA headquarters are located on
Sunset Boulevard in
Hollywood.
Not all Hollywood directors are DGA members. Notable directors such as
George Lucas,
Quentin Tarantino, and
Robert Rodriguez have refused membership or resigned from the guild over creative differences. Those who aren't members of the guild are unable to direct for the larger movie studios, which are signatories to the guild's agreements that all directors must be guild members.
The agreements signed between the Guild and film production companies make various stipulatons covering pay and working conditions for Guild members, and require that all those employed in the relevant fields on a film made by that company are Guild members. Guild members are generally prevented from working for companies that have not signed an agreement with the DGA. This sometimes leads production companies which have no such agreement to form new companies, purely for the purpose of making a particular film, which do then sign an agreement with the DGA. The DGA will also sometimes waive its rules in particular situations: a rule that films can only have one director, adopted to avoid producers and actors lobbying for a director's credit, has been waived for recognised directorial teams like
Joel and Ethan Coen (the refusal to waive this rule over
Sin City and
The Empire Strikes Back lead to the resignations of Rodriguez and Lucas respectively).
Presidents of the Screen Directors Guild and the DGA
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King Vidor (1936-1938)
*
Frank Capra (1939-1941)
*
George Stevens (1941-1943)
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Mark Sandrich (1943-1944)
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John Cromwell (1944-1946)
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George Marshall (1948-1950)
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Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1950-1951)
*
George Sidney (1951-1959)
*
Frank Capra (1960-1961)
*
George Sidney (1961-1967)
*
Delbert Mann (1967-1971)
*
Robert Wise (1971-1975)
*
Robert Aldrich (1975-1979)
*
George Schaefer (1979-1981)
*
Jud Taylor (1981-1983)
*
Gilbert Cates (1983-1987)
*
Franklin J. Schaffner (1987-1989)
*
Gene Reynolds (1993-1997)
*
Jack Shea (1997-2002)
*
Martha Coolidge (2002-2003)
*
Michael Apted (2003-present)
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Directors Guild of America Awards*
Alan Smithee*
Official DGA website*
"Why Not Quit the Directors Guild? What Robert Rodriguez can and can't do" (Slate, April 8, 2005)
