Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1474192
1 6 I D G A M O N T H L Y See more detailed descriptions, additional photos and video, where available, online at www.dga.org. DGA Events Roundup Director Kivu Ruhorahoza's drama, Father's Day, presents a trio of interwoven stories set in and around the city of Kigali, Rwanda. In the fi lm a mother tries to cope with the accidental death of her teenage son; an impressionable young boy roams the city with his angry small-time crook father who drags his son into increasingly violent schemes; and a young woman fi nds herself confl icted over whether to donate an organ to save the life of the ailing father she never truly loved. Shot on a micro-budget of roughly $50K, Father's Day premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival where it was nominated for the Encounters Award. On June 23, following the Region Special Projects Committee's Global Cinema Series screening in Los Angeles, Ruhorahoza discussed the fi lm in a conversation moderated by Global Cinema Series Co-Chair Alex Stapleton via a video hookup from Rwanda. During the conversation, Ruhorahoza spoke about how the concept of fatherhood is being reinvented in his country. "Celebrating Father's Day is new to us. There have been many debates about men in Rwanda on social media and in general, and I decided to do this fi lm." Elaborating the point, he added, " I wanted to show a type of masculinity that is dying out." Photo: Via video from Rwanda, Director Kivu Ruhorahoza discusses the making of Father's Day. Inset: Global Cinema Series Co-Chair Alex Stapleton serves as moderator. Special Projects Global Cinema Series Screens Director Kivu Ruhorahoza's Father's Day photo by Elisa Haber Director Theodore Braun's documentary, ¡Viva Maestro!, is a behind-the-scenes portrait of conductor/Los Angeles Philharmonic music and artistic director Gustavo Dudamel as his international tours are disrupted by deadly protests across his native Venezuela and reveals how he responds to unexpected and imposing obstacles with stirring music-making that celebrates the power of art to renew and unite. Following the DGA Special Projects Documentary Series screening in Los Angeles on July 6, Braun sat down with Special Projects Documentary Series Subcommittee Chair Ondi Timoner to discuss the making of the fi lm. "The challenge fi lming rehearsals was to put the audience in the middle of this musical conversation between Dudamel and the orchestra. After experimenting we ended up using four cameras to capture the creative dynamic and varied the tools– dolly, steadycam, crane – depending upon the style of the piece. Recording, editing, and mixing were all focused on getting the audience to hear subjectively – with Dudamel's ears. We're the fi rst feature doc to use ATMOS to do that with an orchestra. Ron Bartlett wove it all together brilliantly." (Bartlett recently won an Oscar as the re- recording mixer for Denis Villeneuve's Dune). Photo: Director Theodore Braun discusses the making of ¡Viva Maestro! with Special Projects Documentary Series Subcommittee Chair Ondi Timoner (moderator). Special Projects Documentary Series Screens Theodore Braun's ¡Viva Maestro! photo by Shane Karns DGA members seeking ways to better prepare for their next episodic directing assignment received valuable information on June 30 when the DGA Director Development Initiative (DDI) hosted the presentation, Your Creative Rights: Remembering the Basics. The online event covered the codifi ed rights as a Director in prep, shoot or post. In a session introduced by DGA Diversity Task Force Co-Chair Michael Goi, DGA Assistant Executive Director Daniel Tenkman went over protections afforded by the DGA's contract, scenarios in which these rights are challenged, resources available on and off the set, and answered questions about these topics. During the presentation, Tenkman covered Directors' creative and economic rights including: the basic tenet of one Director to a fi lm or television episode; the rights in the prep period such as script delivery and table reads; participation during the casting process; prep period minimums; rights during principal photography and post production, including the "Director's Cut" and the "Directed By" credit; economic rights including start days, guaranteed periods and "intervening days" and more. He also discussed the Director's rights as augmented by the COVID pandemic, and gave information on the DGA Creative Rights Committees and resources available to DGA Members. Image: DGA Assistant Executive Director Daniel Tenkman. Inset: DGA Diversity Task Force Co-Chair Michael Goi. Director Development Initiative Hosts Your Creative Rights: Remembering the Basics