DGA Monthly

M A Y 2 0 2 5 I 2 3 See more detailed descriptions, additional photos and video, where available, online at www.dga.org. DGA Events Roundup The Women's Steering Committee (WSC) hosted their fifth annual celebration of talented women members of the Guild on March 29 in the DGA's Los Angeles theater complex. Under the title, The Role of Storytelling in Challenging Times, the event featured Directors Meera Menon (For All Mankind), Frankie Shaw (SMILF), Nzingha Stewart (Daisy Jones & The Six) and Ry Russo-Young (Shrinking) in a peer-to-peer round table panel discussion moderated by WSC Co-Chair Shaz Bennett (Alaska Is a Drag). Following a welcome from DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter and introductions by WSC Co-Chairs Bennett, Valerie Weiss and Shawn Pipkin-West and alternate Co-Chair Rachel Raimist, the panelists engaged in a lively and informative conversation about the importance of storytelling in challenging times and how they have used film to resist, rebuild and restart. Bennett kicked things off by framing the conversation around the current times and said, "I think we all just want to acknowledge that these are not normal times. So, I would love to just hear each of you say how you think about making art in really challenging times." Stewart shared how her idea of the job of storytelling shifted during the Pandemic. "When Pandemic came and everybody in the whole world was in the house, I felt like what we do is important. Entertainment does need to be a part of our life and sometimes, just to even have the will to get up, you have to have laughed earlier that day and that is something that we provide to the world." "I feel like us existing as like an act of resistance," said Shaw. "When I was in college, I didn't know I could be a Director so it's why I started as an Actor. I thought that's what I had to do to be in this world. And now there are so many of us and that also, I think, translates into what we make. The movie I just made is a heist movie which is so classically male, and it centers a female protagonist. Maybe that'll challenge this belief that all these heist movies are male." Menon revealed how her viewing habits were altered by her recent experience with the LA wildfires. "I went to Sundance and I couldn't sit through really anything except one documentary about Khartoum and Sudanese refugees. Since then, I've been finding a lot of solace in documentary work about people surviving disasters and the resilience of the human spirit through the unthinkable. It has made me realize how much we need these things to stay outside of our own heads when the unthinkable does happen. So, I think stories are kind of what we do to heal." For Russo-Young, finding the moments of human connection in the eclectic nature of filmmaking is what makes it possible to have fun. "That's also about enjoying the process. I think we've all been sort of taught to be so goal-oriented, 'I gotta finish it. I gotta' get the movie out there,' to really stop and say the work itself, the little problems, the big problems, the people that you're working with, that's the fun part and the good stuff. Really try to appreciate those moments when you're doing the work whether they're with other people or they're by yourself." Prior to the panel discussion, Women's Day at the DGA began with a networking mixer hosted by the Committee where DGA members could engage in roundtable discussions with entertainment professionals with hiring authority. (See the list of networking mixer VIPs on www.dga.org.) Women's Day at the DGA: The Role of Storytelling in Challenging Times A Women's Steering Committee Event Photos: 1. (L-R) WSC Co-Chair Valerie Weiss, Directors Nzingha Stewart, Meera Menon and Ry Russo-Young, DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter, Director Frankie Shaw and Co-Chairs Shaz Bennett (moderator) and Shawn Pipkin-West. 2. Bennett (moderator), Russo- Young, Menon, Shaw and Stewart discuss how they have used film to resist, rebuild, restart and more. 3. Prior to the panel discussion, DGA members participate in a networking mixer where they could meet directly with entertainment professionals with hiring authority. 4. The networking mixer VIPs and attendees pose for a group photo. 2 1 photos by Elisa Haber 3 4

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