December 3, 1998
Brooks, Cameron, Hanson, Spielberg, and Van Sant Featured in First Installment To Air On Sundance Channel December 23
NEW YORK, NY, December 1, 1998 - Sundance Channel and the Directors Guild of America (DGA) announced today they are collaborating on a four-part series of television specials, produced by the DGA, which will present an informed, enlightened and personal point-of-view of the filmmaking process. All shows will air on Sundance Channel within the next year. The first installment of the series, titled The Director’s Vision: Hollywood’s Best Discuss Their Craft, will bow on December 23, at 8 p.m. It will repeat on December 26 at 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., January 3 at 1:30 p.m. and January 15 at 12:00 p.m.
Director Jeremy Kagan, whose credits include The Chosen, Sting II and The Big Fix, will moderate a panel discussion with filmmakers James L. Brooks, James Cameron, Curtis Hanson, Steven Spielberg and Gus Van Sant during the sixty-minute special. The conversation will shed light on the creative process and the steps these filmmakers have taken to see their initial vision become a reality with the completion of their successful feature films. Each of the directors received a DGA nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film last year.
"The DGA is an important champion of the filmmaking community, and supporting directors is also the core mission of Sundance Channel," said Tom Harbeck, Executive Vice President, Programming and Creative Director, Sundance Channel. "The specials will offer viewers provocative dialogue and perspectives on the craft they won’t able to see anywhere else."
"With these DGA programs, we will be able to share with our viewers what it means to be a filmmaker," said Liz Manne, Sundance Channel’s Senior Vice President, Programming and Creative Marketing, Sundance Channel. "We think this makes for vital and engaging television for both up-and-coming filmmakers as well as film fans."
The first special, directed by Jim Drake, contains highlights from a Meet the Nominees event that took place earlier this year at the DGA in Los Angeles. The directors were nominated for their films: Titanic by James Cameron, Amistad by Steven Spielberg, Good Will Hunting by Gus Van Sant, As Good As It Gets by James L. Brooks and LA Confidential by Curtis Hanson. A subsequent special will feature panel discussions with the yet-unnamed DGA nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film in 1998.
"We are excited to be working with Sundance Channel to bring a wider audience to events that illustrate the outstanding artistic and technical abilities of our members," commented Jack Shea, president of the DGA." We are pleased to be partners with an organization that shares our goal of helping filmmakers realize their artistic vision."
In 1936, a group of top film directors gathered at the home of King Vidor. Out of this secret meeting, attended by John Ford, Howard Hawks, William Wellman and others, came the Screen Directors Guild. While these directors were all economically quite successful and considered to be at the peak of their careers, they all saw the need for a Guild to protect their creative rights and vision as Directors from the producers of that era. Now, over 60 later, the Directors Guild of America’s mission remains the same: to protect the artistic and economic rights of its members.
Sundance Channel (www.sundancechannel.com), under the creative direction of Robert Redford, brings television viewers nationwide the best of new independent features, as well as documentaries, shorts, animation and international cinema, running uncut and commercial-free 24 hours a day. It is available throughout the U.S. via cable, wireless cable and direct-to-home satellite on EchoStar, PrimeStar and USSB. Sundance Channel, launched in 1996, is a venture among Robert Redford, Showtime Networks Inc. and PolyGram Filmed Entertainment. Sundance Channel operates independently of the non-profit Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival, but shares the Sundance mission of supporting independent artists and providing them with wider opportunities to present their work to audiences.