The Director’s Cut - A DGA Podcast
Brought to you by the Directors Guild of America, ”The Director’s Cut” will bring you the behind-the-scenes stories of today’s most talked about films. Each episode features a different director interviewed by one of their peers, leading to revealing conversations about the grueling, but rewarding process of bringing their films to life.
Brought to you by the Directors Guild of America, ”The Director’s Cut” will bring you the behind-the-scenes stories of today’s most talked about films. Each episode features a different director interviewed by one of their peers, leading to revealing conversations about the grueling, but rewarding process of bringing their films to life.
Listen on:
Episodes

Nov 30, 2018
Nov 30, 2018
46 min
Director Fede Alvarez discusses his film, The Girl in the Spider's Web, with fellow director Sam Raimi. Based on the best-selling novels by David Lagercrantz, the film follows Lisbeth Salander as she hacks a computer program that can access nuclear weapons across the globe. Soon she and journalist Mikael Blomkvist find themselves caught in a web of spies, cybercriminals and corrupt government officials.
See photos and a summary of this event below:
https://www.dga.org/Events/2019/Jan2019/GirlInSpidersWeb_QnA_1118.aspx
Nov 30, 2018
46 min

Nov 30, 2018
Nov 30, 2018
31 min
Director Peter Farrelly discusses his film, Green Book, with fellow director Dan Gilroy. The film tells the true story of Tony Lip, an Italian-America bouncer from the Bronx who is hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley, a world-class African-American pianist on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South in 1962. During the trip, they must rely on "The Green Book" to guide them to the few establishments that were safe for African-Americans.
See photos and a summary of this event below:
https://www.dga.org/Events/2019/Jan2019/GreenBook_QnA_1118.aspx
Nov 30, 2018
31 min

Nov 21, 2018
Nov 21, 2018
32 min
Director Jason Reitman discusses his film, The Front Runner, with fellow director Jon Avnet. The film follows the true story of Senator Gary Hart who was considered the front runner for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination until an extramarrital relationship sidelined his campaign. He was forced to drop out of the race as tabloid and political journalism began to merge -- a phenomenon that would leave a lasting impact on American politics.
See photos and a summary of this event below:
https://www.dga.org/Events/2019/Jan2019/FrontRunner_QnA_1118.aspx
Nov 21, 2018
32 min

Nov 21, 2018
Nov 21, 2018
34 min
Director Barry Jenkins discusses his film, If Beale Street Could Talk, with fellow director Paul Thomas Anderson. Based on the acclaimed novel by James Baldwin, the film tells the story of Tish, a Harlem woman who strives to prove the innocence of her fiance while pregnant with their first-born child.
See photos and a summary of this event below:
https://www.dga.org/Events/2019/Jan2019/BealeStreet_QnA_1118.aspx
Nov 21, 2018
34 min

Nov 16, 2018
Nov 16, 2018
28 min
Director David Mackenzie discusses his film, Outlaw King, with fellow director Jeremy Saulnier. The film follows legendary warrior Robert the Bruce, who claims the throne in 14th-century Scotland and leads a band of outlaws in an uprising as they attempt to win back the crown from English rule.
See photos and a summary of this event below:
https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Dec2018/OutlawKing_QnA_1118.aspx
Nov 16, 2018
28 min

Nov 16, 2018
Widows with Steve McQueen and Dee Rees (Ep. 174)
Nov 16, 2018
Nov 16, 2018
28 min
Director Steve McQueen discusses his film, Widows, with fellow director Dee Rees. Set in Chicago, the film stars Viola Davis as Veronica, who is widowed after her husband is killed by police following an armed robbery attempt. Veronica soon joins forces with three other widows to enact a heist that her husband had been planning.
See photos and a summary of this event below:
https://www.dga.org/Events/2019/Jan2019/Widows_QnA_1118.aspx
Nov 16, 2018
28 min

Nov 16, 2018
Nov 16, 2018
37 min
Director Alfonso Cuarón discusses his film, Roma, with fellow director Alejándro G. Iñárritu. Set in the early 1970s, the film recalls Mr. Cuarón's own upbringing in the middle-class neighborhood of Roma in Mexico City, and serves as a love letter to the women who raised him during a time of domestic strife and social hierarchy.
See photos and a summary of this event below:
https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Dec2018/Roma_QnA_1118.aspx
Nov 16, 2018
37 min

Nov 9, 2018
Nov 9, 2018
39 min
Director Julian Schnabel discusses his film, At Eternity's Gate, with fellow director Lee Daniels. The film is a journey inside the world and mind of the tortured artist who, despite skepticism, ridicule and illness, created some of the world's most beloved and stunning works.
See photos and a summary of this event below:
https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Dec2018/AtEternitysGate_QnA_1118.aspx
Nov 9, 2018
39 min

Nov 9, 2018
Nov 9, 2018
35 min
Director Matthew Heineman discusses his film, A Private War, with fellow director Jeremy Kagan. Based on Arash Amel's Vanity Fair article "Marie Colvin's Private War," the film follows the extraordinary life of celebrated war correspondent Marie Colvin, whose fearless desire to give voice to the voiceless and show the true cost of war drove her to the front lines of conflicts all across the globe.
See photos and a summary of this event below:
https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Dec2018/APrivateWar_QnA_1018.aspx
Nov 9, 2018
35 min

Nov 2, 2018
Nov 2, 2018
44 min
Director Joel Edgerton discusses his film, Boy Erased, with fellow director Gavin O'Connor. Based on the memoir of the same name by Garrard Conley, the film tells the true coming of age and coming out story of Jared, who is viciously outed to his parents. Pressured into attending a church-supported gay conversion program, he butts heads with its head therapist and begins to find his own voice and accept his true self.
See photos and a summary of this event below:
https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Dec2018/BoyErased_QnA_1018.aspx
Nov 2, 2018
44 min

Nov 2, 2018
Nov 2, 2018
31 min
Director George Tillman Jr. discusses his film, The Hate U Give, with fellow director Greg Berlanti. Based on the best-selling young adult novel by Angie Thomas, the film tells the story of Starr Carter, a sixteen-year-old African-American girl who witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer and faces pressure from her community.
See photos and a summary of this event below:
https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Dec2018/HateUGive_QnA_1018.aspx
Nov 2, 2018
31 min

Nov 2, 2018
Nov 2, 2018
35 min
Director Paul Greengrass discusses his film, 22 July, with fellow director Brian Helgeland. The film dramatizes the true story of Norway's worst terrorist attack, following the survivors and grieving families as they rally the country for justice and healing.
See photos and a summary of this event below:
https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Dec2018/22July_QnA_1018.aspx
Nov 2, 2018
35 min

Oct 26, 2018
Oct 26, 2018
20 min
Director Alison Chernick discusses her film, Itzhak, with fellow director Robert Weide. The film follows celebrated violinist Itzhak Perlman, looking beyond his performances to see the polio survivor whose parents emigrated from Poland to Israel, and the young man who struggled to be taken seriously as a music student when schools saw only his disability.
See photos and a summary of this event below:
https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Dec2018/DocSeries_Itzhak.aspx
Oct 26, 2018
20 min

Oct 26, 2018
Oct 26, 2018
27 min
Director Felix Van Groeningen discusses his film, Beautiful Boy, with fellow director Mike Mills. Based on the pair of memoirs by father and son David and Nic Sheff, the film chronicles the heartbreak experienced by a family coping with addiction over many years -- including survival, relapse, and recovery.
See photos and a summary of this event below:
https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Nov2018/BeautifulBoy_QnA_1018.aspx
Oct 26, 2018
27 min

Oct 19, 2018
Oct 19, 2018
31 min
Director Jonah Hill discusses his film, Mid90s, with fellow director Bennett Miller. The film follows thirteen-year-old Stevie, who spends summer in 90s-era LA navigating between his troubled home life and a group of new friends that he meets at a Motor Avenue skate shop.
See photos and a summary of this event below:
https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Dec2018/Mid90s_QnA_1018.aspx
Oct 19, 2018
31 min

Oct 19, 2018
Oct 19, 2018
40 min
Director Bradley Cooper discusses his film, A Star is Born, with fellow director Jason Bateman. The film features Cooper as a seasoned musician who falls in love with a struggling singer and actress named Ally, played by Lady Gaga.
See photos and a summary of this event below:
https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Nov2018/AStarIsBorn_QnA_1018.aspx
Oct 19, 2018
40 min

Oct 12, 2018
Oct 12, 2018
31 min
Director Drew Goddard discusses his film, Bad Times at the El Royale, with fellow director Matt Reeves. The film follows seven strangers who meet at Lake Tahoe's El Royale, a rundown hotel with a dark past. As secrets come out and lives are entangled over the course of one night, everyone will have a last shot at redemption.
See photos and a summary of this event below:
https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Nov2018/BadTimes_QnA_1018.aspx
Oct 12, 2018
31 min

Oct 12, 2018
Oct 12, 2018
34 min
Director Damien Chazelle discusses his film, First Man, with fellow director Darren Aronofsky. The film tells the riveting stories of NASA's mission to land the first human being on the moon, and of Neil Armstrong, the astronaut chosen to make the one small step for man and giant leap for mankind on July 20, 1969.
See photos and a summary of this event below:
https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Nov2018/FIRSTMAN_QnA_1018.aspx
Oct 12, 2018
34 min

Oct 5, 2018
Oct 5, 2018
32 min
Director Tamara Jenkins discusses her film, Private Life, with fellow director Mike White. The film stars Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti as a couple struggling to conceive who undergo multiple fertility therapies. But the process of trying to add to their family challenges their relationship with each other as they descend deeper and deeper into the world of assisted reproduction and domestic adoption.
See photos and a summary of this event below:
https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Nov2018/PrivateLife_QnA_0918.aspx
Oct 5, 2018
32 min

Oct 5, 2018
Oct 5, 2018
31 min
Director Dan Fogelman discusses his film, Life Itself, with fellow director Ron Howard. The film centers on the story of a young New York couple who experience unexpected twists in their journey from their college romance to marriage and the birth of their first child, creating reverberations that echo across continents and through lifetimes.
See photos and a summary of this event below:
https://www.dga.org/Events/2018/Nov2018/LifeItself_QnA_0918.aspx
Oct 5, 2018
31 min

The Director's Cut
Formed in 1936 to protect the economic and creative rights of Hollywood film Directors, the Directors Guild of America has been committed to upholding those core values ever since. A longstanding tradition of the Guild is for its members to share the knowledge of their craft with future generations, so through The Director’s Cut we bring insights from some of today’s best Directors to you.
If you enjoyed The Director’s Cut, please subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Podbean or your favorite podcast app so you won’t miss an episode.
We love feedback! Have any ideas or requests for content? Please reach out to us at podcast@dga.org.



