DGA Creates New Provisional Disability Committee

Disability Committee

May 3, 2023

DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter recently announced the creation of a new provisional committee to address the concerns of Members with Disabilities. She has appointed Directors David Nutter and Rachel Raimist to serve as co-chairs.

The Committee will be focused on examining a broad range of issues DGA members with disabilities face on sets, with the goal of developing recommendations for the National Board to address these matters. While the committee operates in the provisional phase, they will be tasked with developing a structure for the work of this new committee and developing bylaws to codify it. Members of the body will lead work to destigmatize disability as a way to empower members to feel comfortable with disclosing their disability identity and push the industry towards greater acceptance of Directors and Directorial Team members with disabilities.

Members who self-identify as a person with a disability with the Guild will receive information about the new provisional Disability Committee. To publicly or privately self-identify, please log in to the DGA website and navigate to the Account Settings page, then click “Edit” under Personal Attributes.


David NutterDirector David Nutter
Nutter has more than 50 directing credits including the feature films Disturbing Behavior and Cease Fire; the movies for television The Advocates and The Doctor; the pilots for numerous series including The Time Traveler's Wife, Containment, The Flash, Arrow, The Mentalist, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Supernatural, Without a Trace, Smallville, Roswell, Millennium and Space: Above and Beyond; and episodes of Lost in Space, Shameless, Nip/Tuck, ER, The West Wing, Band of Brothers and The X-Files. He was nominated for DGA Awards for his “Join the Club” episode of The Sopranos; his "The Resurrection" and "Lose Yourself" episodes of Entourage; his "Basilone" segment of the mini-series The Pacific; and his “The Last of the Starks” and “The Rains of Castamere” episodes of Game of Thrones. He won the 2015 DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series for his “Mother's Mercy” episode of Game of Thrones. Nutter has been a DGA member since 1987.
 
Rachel RaimistDirector Rachel Raimist
Dr. Raimist is a formerly tenured college professor whose directorial credits include episodes of The Spiderwick Chronicles, Up Here, Sex/Life, The Sex Lives of College Girls, Wu-Tang: An American Saga, Fantasy Island, Diary of A Future President, and others. She holds a B.A. and a M.F.A. in Directing from the UCLA School of Film and Television and a M.A. in Women’s Studies and a Ph.D. in Feminist Studies from the University of Minnesota. A DGA member since 2018, Raimist currently serves as the Alternate Co-Chair of the Latino Committee, on the leadership team of the Women's Steering Committee Squad and on the Special Projects Committee. .

About the Committee:

For more information about new provisional Disability Committee, please contact DGA Diversity & Inclusion Program Executive, Breannah Oppenhuizen at (310) 289-5377 or email baoppenhuizen@dga.org.