DGA Monthly

D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 5 I 7 9 Indie Directors Outreach Event 2025 Urbanworld Film Festival Brunch photos by Galina Vyrva From October 29 - November 2, the Urbanworld Film Festival returned to New York City for their 29th year. The festival was a hybrid of both live and virtual screenings showcasing narrative and documentary features, short fi lms, music videos, and web originals. The DGA has been a sponsor of Urbanworld since 2000. As part of the Guild's outreach efforts aimed at independent fi lmmakers, the DGA hosted a luncheon on October 31 for Directors with entries in this year's festival. Filmmakers were welcomed by DGA Assistant Executive Director Mary Hatch, who gave a brief overview of the Guild's mission to protect the creative and economic rights of Directors and members of the directorial team before introducing DGA Director-member Mark E. Swinton, whose fi lm Route 187 had its world premiere at the festival. Swinton spoke to the attendees about what it means to be a part of the DGA fi lmmaking community and the advantages of having the Guild behind you when fi lming. Urbanworld Festival Filmmaker Liaison Louisa Brown and Festival Producer Jessica Chong also gave tips about how to make the most of the opportunities provided by the festival Photos: Urbanworld fi lmmakers pose for a group photo following the luncheon. Inset: DGA Director-member Mark E. Swinton speaks about the advantages of DGA membership. See additional photos online at www.dga.org. On November 11, the Asian American Committee (AAC) meeting featured the panel discussion, Wrangling the Forces of Nature: The Role of the UPM, a conversation with UPM Thomas Hayslip. During a conversation moderated by Director Wenda Fong, Hayslip — whose UPM credits include features such as Lee Isaac Chung's Twisters, Michael Mann's Ferrari, James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Christopher Nolan's Tenet and his DGA Award-winning feature, Oppenheimer — shared insights from his career, discussed the challenges of managing large-scale productions and offered a behind-the-scenes look at the art of keeping a fi lm set running smoothly. Recalling his entry into the industry as a Production Assistant on Oliver Stone's feature The Doors, Hayslip followed Stone and Producer A. Kitman Ho onto their next project JFK as a Research Assistant, sifting through archival footage, microfi che and redacted documents for the fi lm's research needs. Regularly tasked with the elusive job of "fi guring it out," he learned early on to steer his work towards his interests and expand his skillset whenever possible. "A. Kitman Ho said, 'I really need help in the offi ce, can you just do this stuff?' And I said, 'No problem, I'll do it.' I started and then I looked around and I saw agents calling, actor's deals coming across, crew deals happening, studio conversations, marketing for the last movie and all these things that were far more interesting than what he wanted me to do. So, I thought maybe if I had some help, maybe that would help me. So, I hired a couple interns from UCLA who wanted to get into the industry. They started doing some of that work, and then I was able to refocus my attention on what I was really interested in. Talking to agents about actor's deals, talking to crew members, learning more about equipment. I didn't know a lot, and I only knew as much as I did until I made the effort to learn more." Photo: Director Wenda Fong (moderator) and UPM Thomas Hayslip. Wrangling the Forces of Nature: The Role of the UPM An Asian American Committee Meeting Discussion See more detailed descriptions and additional photos, where available, online at www.dga.org. DGA Committee Meeting Events

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