DGA Monthly

4 I D G A M O N T H L Y DGA Members Share Insights During the Second Discussion on The Art of Directing at the Toronto Film Festival At the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), DGA Director-members Curry Barker, Alex Gibney, Siân Heder, Rachel Morrison and Bassam Tariq gave festival goers an inside look at how Directors approach their craft during our second ever The Art of Directing panel at the Bisha Hotel on September 12. During a conversation moderated by Deadline's Box Office Editor and industry insider Anthony D'Alessandro, Barker, Gibney, Heder, Morrison and Tariq shared some of their secrets to success, inspirations, and more. "My cinematographer and I did something that probably nobody would dare and probably should not dare do, which is shoot a very important, very emotional dramatic scene during a sunset," said Morrison, who returned to the Festival for the World Premiere of her highly anticipated sophomore feature, the romantic drama, Love of Your Life. "I said to my actors like, 'We kind of want to go for this. How do you feel?' And they were excited about it. It was the right location and the right vibe for this scene. And this scene happened to be heavy lifting for both sides of the performance. But because of, my background as a cinematographer, I also knew how to get it fast. And then, because we have to be greedy as Directors, even when we all thought it was perfect I grabbed the camera went back for an extreme wide shot. We basically in probably 28 minutes shot like five shots and three and a half pages." On the making of his latest feature, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, Tariq shared one of the most importance pieces of advice he'd ever received on the editing process. "What I found really challenging in post was getting the right tone across. There was this incredible editor named Jonathan Oppenheim. What he shared with me that changed my life was the first five minutes of the film, you tell the audience how to watch the movie. So you set the rules of the film." Barker spoke about one of the boldest decisions he made while on the of indie horror, Obsession. "We only had one take for the window breaking [scene] because the other window, the art department was carrying the glass to the car and it shattered in their hands because it was made of candy. So, we literally just had one piece of glass. I was like, 'All right, Andy, you've got to ram your head into this window.' That was crazy. If that didn't work out, we would have been screwed for the day and we didn't have the budget to come back the next day." Gibney, shared insights into his exploration of the world's richest man via his new documentary, Musk. "The biggest problem I faced was that nobody wanted to talk to me, either because they were terrified and the central subject didn't want to talk to me. In fact, as I asked him for an interview, he responded with a tweet, 'Gibney is a douche.' To which I responded, 'dou-che. But then I had to figure out what to do. So what we did was we collected everything that he had ever said, either on audio or in video." Heder's new film, Being Heumann, is about 100 disabled people storming a federal building in 1977. "I worked with an entirely disabled cast, every kind of disability, blind people, deaf people, wheelchair users... Trying to create an accessible set was like a crazy journey because it had never been done before. There was no map for how to build an accessibility team and take care of people's bodies while you're making a movie. There was one accessible trailer in all of North America, because they never expect more than one wheelchair user to ever be working at the same time. So just to kind of bust open like how we make movies was a really wild process. And to do it while making a movie was kind of shocking. But I'm really proud of the way we did it." The panel was followed by a reception for attendees, with an opportunity for members to network with DGA Special Assignments Executive Jennifer Peat, who was on hand to answer questions about the Guild. The DGA is working to engage members and the industry through film festivals to make sure that our craft is front and center at these important industry events. Look for more exciting moments to come. Photo: (L-R): Deadline Editorial Director/Box Office Editor Anthony D'Alessandro (moderator) and Directors Rachel Morrison, Bassam Tariq, Curry Barker, Siân Heder and Alex Gibney were the panelists for The Art of Directing panel presented by the DGA and Deadline at the Toronto Film Festival on September 12. photo by: Lauren Asensio

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