The Producers Guild of America’s (PGA) National Board of Directors announced the hiring of Michelle Byrd as managing director, PGA East, expanding the current staff with a newly created position. She was appointed after an extensive search led by PGA East chairs William Horberg and Kay Rothman, and with the support of PGA presidents Gary Lucchesi and Lori McCreary, PGA national executive director/COO Vance Van Petten, and PGA associate national executive director/COO Susan Sprung. Starting May 8, Byrd will report to LA-based Van Petten and Sprung, and oversee East Coast operations from the PGA’s New York office.
Prior to the PGA, Byrd spent over 20 years successfully building prominent, non-profit media organizations involved with film, digital, and games. Based in New York, she served 12 years (1997-2009) as executive director of IFP (Independent Filmmaker Project) establishing a legacy of programming and strategic partnerships that remain in place today, including a collaboration with the United Nations and re-positioning IFP’s Gotham Awards into awards season.
From 2010-2013, Byrd was co-president of Games for Change (with Asi Burak) and oversaw the Games for Change Festival and served as an executive producer on “Half the Sky” Movement games (Zynga, Ford Foundation, USAID) based on Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s best-selling book. Most recently, she ran her own consulting practice providing strategic planning, program and partnership development, and management advisory services for Ghetto Film School, Green Beetz, Museum of the Moving Image, New York State Commission on National and Community Service, and the Governor’s Office of Motion Picture & Television Development, among others.
Byrd is a recipient of the “Made in New York Award” from NYC’s Mayor and the “Good Egg Award” from Chicken & Egg Pictures, and sits on the Board of the Adrienne Shelly Foundation and the Advisory Boards of Chicken & Egg Pictures and STREB Lab for Action Mechanics.
Steve McQueen Shows Wartime London Through A Child’s Eyes In “Blitz”
It was a single photograph that started Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen on the journey to make "Blitz." As a Londoner, the German bombing raids on the city during World War II are never all that far from his mind. Reminders of it are everywhere. But the spark of inspiration came from an image of a small boy on a train platform with a large suitcase. Stories inspired by the evacuation are not rare, but this child was Black. Who was he, McQueen wondered, and what was his story? The film, in theaters Friday and streaming on Apple TV+ on Nov. 22, tells the tale of George, a 9-year-old biracial child in East London whose life with his mother, Rita ( Saoirse Ronan ), and grandfather is upended by the war. Like many children at the time, he's put on a train to the countryside for his safety. But he hops off and starts a long, dangerous journey back to his mom, encountering all sorts of people and situations that paint a revelatory and emotional picture of that moment. SEARCHING FOR GEORGE AND FINDING A STAR When McQueen finished the screenplay, he thought to himself: "Not bad." Then he started to worry: Does George exist? Is there a person out there who can play this role? Through an open casting call they found Elliott Heffernan, a 9-year-old living just outside of London whose only experience was a school play. He was the genie in "Aladdin." "There was a stillness about him, a real silent movie star quality," McQueen said. "You wanted to know what he was thinking, and you leant in. That's a movie star quality: A presence in his absence." Elliott is now 11. When he was cast, he'd not yet heard about the evacuation and imagined that a film set would be made up of "about 100 people." But he soon found his footing, cycling in and out of... Read More