DGA Monthly

J U N E 2 0 2 5 I 4 1 Membership Screenings Q&As listed in alphabetical order by Director. See more detailed descriptions, additional photos & podcasts online at www.dga.org. DGA Screenings Q&As Director Daniel Minahan's drama, On Swift Horses, tells the story of Korean War-era newlyweds Muriel and Lee, who leave their Kansas home to start a family and a new life in San Diego. Their plans are upended by the arrival of Lee's charismatic brother Julius, a wayward gambler with a secret past who draws Muriel down a new and dangerous path. Minahan discussed the making of the film with Director Mary Harron and spoke about how he used music to help set the stage for the film. "I knew that the over arching idea for the approach to this was to not make it feel like it was a film made in the '50s. I wanted to try to do something that was different, it just happened to be set in the '50s. The music, for example, I didn't want anything to feel nostalgic. Or if we chose a location, I didn't want anything to feel like an archetypal location. But for the music if we were really going to play the music that was popular in 1956 it would have been Elvis. He was number one. But I didn't want Elvis because then it becomes something else. Then it becomes American Graffiti with a jukebox. So, I tried to choose things that were B sides, or things that I hadn't even heard of before." Daniel Minahan discusses On Swift Horses photo by Ryan Jensen Photo: Directors Daniel Minahan and Mary Harron (moderator) discuss the making of On Swift Horses following the New York DGA screening on May 11. In the follow-up to his 2016 feature, The Accountant, Director Gavin O'Connor's action thriller, The Accountant 2, finds autistic forensic accountant Christian Wolff teaming up with his estranged but highly lethal brother Braxton to track down mysterious assassins and piece together an unsolved puzzle. But as they get closer to the truth, some of the most ruthless killers alive are intent on putting a stop to their search. During a conversation moderated by Director Dan Gilroy, O'Connor spoke about his editing process. "What was difficult was walking the tightrope of tone. With The Way Back, I had such a hard time cutting that film because it's not plotless, but it was a very simple plot. I was always veering off the plot and just pushing character and doing things, so it was a little trickier. With this film, you're just following the plot so that's easy editorially. But it's all the interstitial stuff, the character moments... What I always do is I just create bins. I look at every frame of everything I shot and then I create bins of moments and moments and moments and moments. And I'm always looking for the magic. So, while Rick [Pearson] is cutting on this film, I'm in another room with my bins." Gavin O'Connor discusses The Accountant 2 photo by Quintin Lundy Photo: Directors Gavin O'Connor (right) and Dan Gilroy (moderator) discuss the making of The Accountant 2 following the Los Angeles DGA screening on April 19. Directors Nyle DiMarco & Davis Guggenheim's new documentary, Deaf President Now!, recounts the eight tumultuous days in 1988 where four students from Gallaudet University — the world's only four-year liberal arts school serving deaf and hard-of-hearing students — must find a way to lead an angry mob to change the course of history after the board of trustees announced their decision to appoint a hearing president over several very qualified Deaf candidates. During the Q&A moderated by Special Projects Documentary Series Subcommittee Chair Ondi Timoner with the assistance of ASC interpreters Gregorio Nieto, Gabriel Gomez, Justin Maurer and Grey Van Pelt, DiMarco and Guggenheim explained the thought process that went into telling the story in a way that would alter the experience for "hearing" audiences. Revealing how they played with the concept of "visual noise" to force hearing audiences into a Deaf perspective, DiMarco said, "We wanted to see exactly how far we could push those techniques and once we got to shooting, we started having more ideas in the edit of how to capture a specific moment." "When I direct something, I'm always imagining an audience and where they are in each moment," added Guggenheim. "That's sort of my true north. And for this we had to imagine two audiences — a hearing audience and where they are in the moment, and a deaf audience and where they are in the moment." Special Projects Documentary Series Screens Nyle DiMarco & Davis Guggenheim's Deaf President Now! Photo L-R: Directors Nyle DiMarco & Davis Guggenheim and Ondi Timoner (moderator) discuss Deaf President Now! following the Los Angeles screening on May 8. photo by Quintin Lundy

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