SHOOT’s annual New Directors Showcase has come a long way since relatively modest beginnings 10 years ago when it took place in conjunction with the Clio Awards Festival in Miami. We’ve gone from a small meeting room in a Miami Beach hotel to our long-running, ongoing venue, the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Theater in New York City.
Gaining sponsorship and support from the DGA for our Showcase has been gratifying. The venue audience has increased tenfold over those initial sessions in Miami. But it’s more the similarities than the differences that strike me when reflecting on the event as it’s progressed over the past decade. The Showcase has remained unchanged in its core mission–to give meaningful exposure to promising talent.
While SHOOT has always sought new directorial talent to bring to our readers’ attention, the first official New Directors Search was introduced by our publisher and editorial director Roberta Griefer in January 2003. The Showcase event followed in May as the face-to-face component of the coverage SHOOT Magazine/SHOOTonline provided to bring the directors to the attention of the industry. Griefer commented how gratifying the entire search/Showcase experience is each year and how satisfying it is to follow the work of each director as his or her career progresses.
My personal impetus for the project can be traced back to the first installment of this column, back in November 1997, when I reflected upon the tragic passing of director Fred Stuhr. Just 30 years old, Stuhr died in a car accident on Oct. 26, 1997. Stuhr had been directing spots and music videos via production house U Ground.
I met Stuhr on several occasions and became a fan of his work. He was a stop motion animator and director par excellence. Yet if he were traded on the NYSE during his all-to-brief professional lifetime, he would have been regarded by savvy investors as an undervalued stock.
Perhaps the prime factor in his being undervalued in the marketplace at large was his refusal to play games in interest of career advancement. He was simply a dedicated artist who didn’t have much time for industry politics, gratuitous schmoozing and the like.
Yet whenever he got the opportunity, he turned out stellar work for such clients as Converse, Halls and Trident.
So shortly after Stuhr’s passing, I found myself writing a story about him and his career, and then paying tribute to him in this column, acknowledging a talent who should have received more acknowledgement while he was alive.
From that came a pledge I made to myself and our readership that SHOOT would ramp up its already well established efforts to cover and recognize deserving talent whenever possible. That in turn, at least for me, later manifested itself in our annual New Directors Showcase. Each year the selection process seemingly gets more difficult, with talent of merit not making the final Showcase cut. Yet we invite those artisans to keep us posted on their work so that we can bring their accomplishments to our readers’ attention in the future. This is part of what makes the Showcase’s 10-year anniversary meaningful to us because it represents a continuing commitment to up-and-coming filmmakers.
Gene Hackman Died Of Heart Disease; Hantavirus Claimed His Wife’s Life About One Week Prior
Actor Gene Hackman died of heart disease a full week after his wife died from hantavirus in their New Mexico hillside home, likely unaware that she was dead because he was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease, authorities revealed Friday. Both deaths were ruled to be from natural causes, chief medical examiner Dr. Heather Jarrell said alongside state fire and health officials at a news conference. "Mr. Hackman showed evidence of advanced Alzheimer's disease," Jarrell said. "He was in a very poor state of health. He had significant heart disease, and I think ultimately that's what resulted in his death." Authorities didn't suspect foul play after the bodies of Hackman, 95, and Betsy Arakawa, 65, were discovered Feb 26. Immediate tests for carbon monoxide poisoning were negative. Investigators found that the last known communication and activity from Arakawa was Feb. 11 when she visited a pharmacy, pet store and grocery before returning to their gated neighborhood that afternoon, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said Friday. Hackman's pacemaker last showed signs of activity a week later and that he had an abnormal heart rhythm Feb. 18, the day he likely died, Jarrell said. Although there was no reliable way to determine the date and time when both died, all signs point to their deaths coming a week apart, Jarrell said. "It's quite possible he was not aware she was deceased," Jarrell said. Dr. Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner, said he believes Hackman was severely impaired due to Alzheimer's disease and unable to deal with his wife's death in the last week of his life. "You are talking about very severe Alzheimer's disease that normal people would be in a nursing home or have a nurse, but she was taking care... Read More