On September 13, the Eastern Region Special Projects Committee debuted their new film series, The Founders Series with a screening of Director Rouben Mamoulian’s 1935 feature, Becky Sharp, in the Guild’s New York Theater. The new series will screen films made by the organizers of our Guild and joins the Committee’s existing series: The Documentary Series, Global Cinema Series and Anniversary Series.
The screening was preceded by an introduction by Eastern Region Special Projects Committee Chair Raymond De Felitta, who discussed the goals for the new film series, gave the audience an introduction to Mamoulian, the early days of the DGA and the iconic Director’s part in that movement.
De Felitta was then joined onstage by DGA Eastern Independent Directors Committee Chair (IDC) Mary Harron and The Film Foundation’s Executive Director Margaret Bodde for a discussion of both the importance of the film and the lasting legacy of the DGA founders.
During the conversation, Bodde spoke about the importance of film preservation and the work of the Foundation to assist that goal. Harron discussed Mamoulian’s fight for creative rights and how that aligns with the modern mission of the Guild and the IDC.
See video from this event in the gallery below.
About Rouben Mamoulian
Considered one of the great filmmakers of his generation, Rouben Zachary Mamoulian was born October 8, 1897 in Tiflis in the Russian Empire. He began directing plays in London in 1922 and after moving to the United States in 1923, co-produced a short, two-color film titled The Flute of Krishna. His first feature film, Applause (1929), was one of the early sound films and considered a landmark owing to Mamoulian's innovative use of camera movement and sound. His other feature film credits include Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) Queen Christina (1933), The Mark of Zorro (1940), Blood and Sand (1941), Rings on Her Fingers (1942) and Silk Stockings (1957).
In 1936, Mamoulian was personally recruited by DGA co-founder King Vidor to help unionize his fellow Directors. In 1982, Mamoulian became the recipient of the DGA’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Feature Film Direction.
About the film
Becky Sharp — in the years following Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, an ambitious woman from a family of entertainers begins a destructive climb up the social ladder.
Starring Miriam Hopkins, who received a “Best Actress” Oscar nomination for her performance and based on William Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair, Mamoulian's 1935 production is considered a landmark in cinema as the first feature film to use the newly developed three-strip Technicolor production throughout, opening the way for a growing number of color films in the years leading up to World War II. In 2019, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
