Homeland's Michael Cuesta

With handheld cameras and a subjective style that gets under your skin, Michael Cuesta has turned Homeland’s cat and mouse game into a suspense-filled ride. Voyeurism never looked so good.

The Colbert Report's
Jim Hoskinson

Even in an election year, with more details, graphics and odd characters to worry about, The Colbert Report's director Jim Hoskinson never misses a beat.

Politics in Film and Television

Directors have long been fascinated by the workings of Washington. Here are some of them telling America's story in a collection of behind the scenes shots.

Directing Political Conventions

CBS News director Eric Shapiro has been covering big political events for 40 years, none bigger than this years national conventions.

All The President's Men

Alan J. Pakula talks about directing All the Presidents Men, adapted from a 1976 story in the DGA's Action magazine.
The director of The Contender and Commander in Chief has directed six presidents in all. Here’s what he’s learned on the campaign trail.

Jay Roach

Jay Roach looks at how Elia Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd foreshadowed today’s political culture—and influenced his own films.

Armando Iannucci

With the satirical feature In the Loop and HBO series Veep, British director Armando Iannucci proves you don’t have to be American to understand inept politicians and unctuous underlings.

Political Films

American movies have been portraying politicians on screen since the populist heroes of John Ford and Frank Capra. But it wasn’t until the advent of TV that filmmakers learned to capture the drama of the game.

Born on the Fourth of July

Oliver Stone explains how he staged a demonstration at the 1972 Republican National Convention in Born on the Fourth of July.

Jorn Winther

Jorn Winther directed the original Frost/Nixon interviews and captured the fallen president’s confession for the record. Even he was surprised by what happened.

Jessica Yu

Jessica Yu didn’t go to film school and started out making eclectic documentaries. Though she has moved into TV and features, she still tries to keep it personal.

John Frankenheimer

In his six decade career, John Frankenheimer was fascinated with the machinations of politics and approached it from all angles—and it never looked the same.

Thomas Schlamme

Not only did director-producer Thomas Schlamme create the signature "walk and talk" style on The West Wing, he has also been a powerful advocate for the rights of episodic directors.

48 Frames Per Second

With The Hobbit trilogy Peter Jackson will introduce audiences to a 3-D film shot at 48 FPS. Depending on the response, it could open a whole new dimension for directors.

More

Michele Mayer

Election Coverage

Mayer’s devil in the details approach is never more tested than during a presidential election year, when the “circus” that is a nightly newscast hits the road for debates and conventions.

Richard Coad

Set Diplomat

On the set of the recent USA Network miniseries, Political Animals, 1st AD Richard Coad's biggest challenge was uniting crews from a trio of production centers in the most diplomatic way.

Josh King

Politically Correct

1st AD Josh King, whose partial resume includes movies starring Mike Myers, Jim Carrey and Eddie Murphy, says running comedy sets is rarely all fun and games.

At the Polls

State of the Union

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

An intimate appraisal of the films that made Steven Spielberg an icon.

A history of the motion picture industry—from its inception to Inception—an inspired study of its place in 21st century culture.

An account of the genre's history as context for the current state of documentary films, while considering the future of non-fiction films.

A straightforward, no-nonsense, hands-on television directors textbook which applies as much in the U.S. as the U.K.

California Congressman Howard Berman talks about issues facing the entertainment industry.

Virginia Congressman Bob Goodlatte talks about issues facing the entertainment industry.

Chris Bonura's storyboards helped director Robert Zemeckis meld archival and new footage in Forrest Gump.

Political Players

Caleb Madison

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