Back-Seat Driver

Fifty years ago, Melvin Van Peebles shook up the establishment with his subversive comedy Watermelon Man, turning the tables on a racist society with an ingenious scenario of role reversal.

Gene Reynolds, who passed away Feb. 3, served as DGA president from 1993 to 1997 and was instrumental in bringing more youthful, diverse members into the Guild’s ranks.

A live-event maestro bar none, Don Mischer was equally adept at directing fine arts.

We pay homage to the director of Seven Beauties, which earned her the first nomination by a woman for the DGA’s Feature Film award.

The impact of John Singleton, who passed April 28, continues to reverberate throughout the industry.

In the spring of 1969, John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy was released to widespread acclaim, becoming the first and only X-rated film to win the Academy's best picture award, and earning the British filmmaker a DGA Award and an Oscar for directing.

Bernardo Bertolucci, who passed away in November, came to prominence in the '70s with such films as The Conformist and Last Tango in Paris, and won the DGA Award for his towering 1987 epic The Last Emperor.

Ida Lupino directs Robert Clarke on the set of Hard, Fast and Beautiful (1951).

The recently departed Miloš Forman, who won a clutch of DGA and Academy Awards, might be the poster child for overcoming adversity.

Fifty years ago, Mel Brooks’ directorial debut, The Producers, opened in New York and launched the career of one of cinema’s most outrageously funny auteurs.

A peek behind the scenes of Frank Capra's timeless holiday classic, It's a Wonderful Life.

John Avildsen, who passed away June 16th, won the DGA Award for directing Rocky.

Remembering Ed Sherin, DGA National Vice President and Honorary Life Member

On the occasion of Sidney Poitier's 90th birthday, his directorial achievements take center stage.

In Memoriam: Arthur Hiller, DGA past president seen here on the set of The Hospital with George C. Scott

Tim Burton offers a sly performance tip to Helena Bonham Carter on Planet of the Apes (2001).

Director Richard Thorpe discusses the subtleties of a scene with Asta on the set of The Thin Man Goes Home (1945).

Wes Craven, with Amanda Wyss, upended the room for a scene from A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).

Robert Wise confers with Bil Baird’s marionettes on the set of The Sound of Music (1965).

Blake Edwards shows a stuntman how to take a fall in Peter Gunn (1958-1961).

David Lean (center) shot exteriors in the French Alps for The Passionate Friends (1949), his first film set outside of England.

Spike Jonze offers some acting tips to one of the beasts in Where the Wild Things Are (2009), an adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book.

Director George Roy Hill kicks up his heels while making The World of Henry Orient (1964) in New York.

Wes Anderson gets around in style in The Royal Tenenbaums.

Vincente Minnelli directs Margaret O’Brien and Joan Carroll in the Halloween scene from Meet Me in St. Louis (1944).

Alfred Hitchcock directs some of his fine feathered friends on the Bodega Bay set of The Birds (1963).

Paul Mazursky shows Robin Williams how to blow in Moscow on the Hudson (1984).

Robert Aldrich shows Bette Davis how to step into a scene on the set of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962).

Akira Kurosawa directing Yojimbo (1961), about a town divided by two warring gangs in 19th century Japan.

Frank Capra goes over the ballot with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in State of the Union (1948).

Director Gene Kelly gives Barbra Streisand a few pointers on the set of Hello, Dolly! (1969)

Woody Allen plans his strategy with Napoleon (James Tolkan) in Love and Death, the director’s 1975 spoof of Russian novels.

Director Jason Winer gives up a few inches to Kobe Bryant on the set of Modern Family.

John Huston runs lines with a feathered friend during the filming of The Night of the Iguana (1964) in Mexico.

Steven Spielberg looks over the script for Jaws (1975) while shooting on the beach in Martha’s Vineyard.

Doug Hayes finds the actors on The Twilight Zone a tad stiff.

Josef von Sternberg delivers an important message on the set of Exquisite Summer.

Billy Wilder directs Marilyn Monroe in the famed street scene from The Seven Year Itch (1955).

Geena Davis battles Alec Baldwin in Tim Burton's Beetle Juice.

Blake Edwards makes himself at home with his stars Capucine and Peter Sellers on The Pink Panther (1963.).

Spanish director Luis Buñuel's inadvertent comment on the trials of being a film director.

Don Siegel puts his cast in a most unusual position in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

John Landis works with a unique creature on one of the most successful comedies ever made.

Carol Reed Conducts a performance from young Mark Lester in Oliver!

Former DGA President George Stevens looks over some unusual head shots for The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).

James Whale runs some lines with a very unusual star in The Bride of Frankenstein.

Richard Lester dresses for the occasion on Help! as he directs the Beatles in the Bahamas.

Director Alan Pakula watches Robert Redford as Bob Woodward filing a Watergate story in All the President's Men.

Fred Zinnemann puts Paul Scofield in a precarious position in the DGA Award winner A Man For All Seasons.

Hal Ashby serves up Bud Cort on a silver platter in Harold and Maude - literally.

Roman Polanski scares the dickens out of Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby.

De Niro and Scorsese rehearse one of the great lines in movies.

Frank Capra flips for John Ford.

Mel Brooks instructs Bloom and Bialystock in The Producers.

Preston Sturges takes a dip.

Francis Ford Coppola makes Woltz an offer he can't refuse on the set of The Godfather.

John Huston shows Eli Wallach how to roundup horses-modern style-on the set of The Misfits.

Marlon Brando lining up a shot on the set of the 1961 Western One-Eyed Jacks.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf was the beginning of a long and successful collaboration between Mike Nichols and editor Sam O'Steen. They would team up on 11 other pictures.

Lamont Johnson talking with the stars of That Certain Summer; Martin Sheen and Hal Holbrook.

Tobe Hooper's 1974 horror film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, was made on a shoestring budget and cast with University of Texas students, but eventually grossed more than $26.5 million.

This scene from Willis Goldbeck's 1951 film Ten Tall Men, though set in the Sahara, was shot at Bronson Canyon and Caves in Los Angeles.

With the cast and crew on the set of the Hal Ashby's 1975 hit Shampoo.

On the set of Make Room for Daddy in 1959.

On the set of The Air Circus in 1928, filmed at Clover Field in Santa Monica.

On the set of the classic Ocean's Eleven directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Frank Sinatra.

Director W.S. "Woody" Van Dyke, II utilizes some trees as a make-shift camera crane while shooting on location in Africa.