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Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) have agreements concerning diversity that require
those who employ directors (1) to “make good faith efforts to increase the number of working ethnic
minority and women Directors,” and other members of the directorial team, (2) to report to the DGA
on compliance, (3) to comply with antidiscrimination laws, and (4) to give the DGA various
mechanisms of enforcement power.
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The DGA has used the data it obtains from employers to produce
an annual report on the number of women and people of color hired to direct television each year. The
DGA also reportedly meets with employers to discuss matters of diversity and discrimination.
These industry agreements have not proved effective in appreciably increasing the number of
women directors who actually get work, as the DGA’s own statistical reports reveal. Information about
the DGA’s actual enforcement of the diversity agreements is not publicly available. However, women
reported a widespread perception that the DGA leadership did not prioritize increasing the number of
women directors hired and at times has expressed hostility or blocked efforts of female members to
make the issue a higher priority.
The DGA has also worked with studios to create fellowship or “shadowing” programs aimed at
increasing diversity, but these programs have been, at best, ineffective at reducing gender disparities
in hiring of directors and, at worst, perceived by women directors as patronizing and a double-
standard. The programs are described as providing women and people of color who have not yet
broken into directing with opportunities to shadow experienced directors on set, with networking and
mentoring opportunities and training.
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However, we spoke with at least 10 women who had
participated in these highly selective programs and every one told us that the programs were too
small, too hard to get into, and, most importantly, did not lead to employment opportunities for most
women—instead, as one woman put it, these programs are “window-dressing.” The programs, most of
which are unpaid, do not guarantee a job for those who complete them and do not translate into jobs
for most participants. One woman told us that of her cohort of 15 at one of the programs, only two
women parlayed the experience into work opportunity.
Many women, particularly experienced directors, view these programs as condescending to
women, especially where women directors are required to participate as an express or implied
condition of getting work, while comparably experienced men are not. We learned of directors with
significant directing experience being put through the programs. One director put it this way:
For those of us who have been in the business for a while, who have managed against
tremendously difficult odds to make movies or find employment in TV, even accumulate long
lists of awards along the way . . . . these [programs] are a slap in the face and just another way
to humiliate a group of people who are already being marginalized by a flawed and bias[ed]
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Basic Agreement, Article 15 (non-discrimination terms covering directors and directorial team in
film and television.), available at
http://www.dga.org/~/media/Files/Contracts/Agreements/2011%20BA%20sc/2011%20BA%20ful
l.pdf; Freelance Live and Tape Television Agreement, Article 19, available at
http://www.dga.org/Contracts/Agreements/FLTTA2011.aspx (non-discrimination terms covering
directors and directorial team in live productions and projects shot on videotape). These agreements
were made after the DGA sued two studios for failing to hire women and people of color. The district
court judge denied the plaintiffs’ class certification motion and dismissed the DGA as a class
representative, finding the DGA had conflicting interests and evidence indicated that the DGA was
partially responsible for any alleged discrimination at issue, given its own practices. See Dirs. Guild of
Am., Inc. v. Warner Bros., Nos. CV 83-4764-PAR; CV 83-8311-PAR, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16325 (C.D. Cal.
Aug. 30, 1985). It is our understanding that the parties then reached a settlement which led to the
diversity agreements.
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Directors Guild of America, http://www.dga.org/The-Guild/Diversity.aspx.