Last weekend the Directors Guild of Great Britain and BECTU hosted a meeting in London of the powerful English speaking Directors’ Guilds, representing over 10,000 directors from Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK and USA. Their members direct over 95% of the English language films and television programmes made worldwide.

Information was exchanged on a wide variety of topics, including creative rights, authorship and directors' fees. In the UK the DGGB and BECTU will be commencing discussion of fees with British broadcasters next month.

Top of the agenda however were status and creative rights. The directors maintain that they are authors of their work notwithstanding the collaborative nature of the film making process. Directors' contracts in all areas of work should properly reflect their unique contribution.

In the feature area delegates discussed the need for directors to have greater access to development funds. Concern was also expressed about distribution problems for smaller budget quality pictures. The vision of the independent film maker is all too rarely seen in our cinemas.

The conference was highly successful. The delegates left confident that regular sharing of information would now equip their various organisations to assert creative rights more strongly and defend the director’s role worldwide. The next meeting is scheduled for Summer 2003 in Dublin.

UK Contact:
Malcolm Moore, Chief Executive DGGB malcolm@dggb.co.uk Tel: 020 7278 4343
Tom Bell, National Official BECTU tbell@bectu.org.uk Tel: 020 7346 0900
In attendance:
Australian Screen Directors Association
Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph & Theatre Union
Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of Canada
Directors Guild of Great Britain
Screen Directors Guild of Ireland
Screen Directors Guild of New Zealand