STATEMENT OF
LeVar Burton
On Behalf of the Directors Guild of America
Before the
Senate Committee on Commerce,
Science and Transportation
Hearing on the Impact of Smoking in Movies
May 11, 2004
Washington , DC
Mr. Chairman and Committee members, my name is LeVar Burton and I thank you for inviting me to appear before you today to discuss the issue of the depiction of smoking in movies—and its potential impact on youth.
I come here today on behalf of the Directors Guild of America (DGA), of which I am a National Board member as well as Co-Chair of the Guild’s Task Force on Social Responsibility.
Founded in 1936 by the most prominent directors of the period, today the Directors Guild represents over 12,800 directors and members of the directorial team who work in feature film, television, commercials, documentaries and news. The DGA’s mission is to protect the economic and creative rights of directors and the directorial team — working to advance our artistic freedom and ensure fair compensation for our work.
Film is truly an indigenous American art form, and the work of filmmakers — in collaboration with other creative artists in our industry – has documented, reflected upon and portrayed the American experience for almost 100 years. With no disrespect to other great art forms, I think it is fair to say that motion pictures played a very unique role in popular culture during the 20 th Century — and they continue to be enjoyed daily by billions of people around the world. Those of us who work in film feel lucky and privileged to earn our living contributing our talents to a craft we love.
The films we directors create tell the story of people’s lives, be they in the present or the past, in our country or in a foreign culture. In telling our stories – and creating accurate depictions of life on a reel of film – filmmakers seek to capture not only who we are but also who we want to be. Directors may not always hit the mark with every film, but through the revelation of joy and pain, bravery and fear, greatness and weakness, happiness and sadness, we try to seek the truth in the story we are telling.
The process that goes into making a film is understandably unknown to those outside our industry. During the making of a film, directors are actually running a multi-million dollar business—a business involving hundreds of people and a myriad of details and decisions that have to made each day to keep the production on schedule and on budget. Whether it is the crafting of a single scene or the visual creation of a character from the written page, the director is always working to create a dramatic narrative that shapes the story.
They have to reflect on the realities of life and determine if, how, and in what way they might put them into their film. The director and his or her collaborators—the writer, the actor, the cinema-tographer, the art director, the film editor—make these decisions constantly …before the film begins shooting… during shooting… and in the post-production room where the film gets edited.
Smoking is one of those facts of real life that directors face. Without denying all the indisputable evidence that shows what smoking does to your health, the reality is that people smoke in real life. Like most personal traits, smoking can be an important signal that reveals or underscores the emotional or mental state of a character. In other in-stances, portraying smoking on the screen may be unavoidable if we are to establish his-torical accuracy. For example, you can’t portray either President Roosevelt accurately without a cigar or cigarette, nor great geniuses like Albert Einstein. The decision to have a character smoke is one exercised by the individual director as they shape the story of their film.
Having made these points about the filmmaking process, I want to state very strongly that both as individuals—who are parents like you – and as members of the DGA, directors are very aware of the impact films can have on the public consciousness. And they take seriously the responsibility they hold when making creative decisions.
That is why, in June of 1999, the National Board of the Directors Guild of America took the unprecedented step of creating the Task Force on Social Responsibility. The Task Force was established to advise the DGA National Board on important social issues that involve directors and their work. Along with director Taylor Hackford, I serve as Co-Chairman of this Task Force. Some of the most prestigious film and television directors in the Guild are members—and this is not a “In Name Only Committee”. Since its creation we have held many meetings not only among ourselves, but with academics, medical associations, the studios, theatre owners and others from whom we can glean insights and knowledge that will be important to our members as filmmakers and citizens.
Over the past year, one of the issues the Task Force has looked at very carefully is the depiction of smoking in films and television and its impact on young people. We have had many meetings and discussions that led to a series of recommendations that were presented to the DGA National Board of Directors, and unanimously adopted, on November 13, 2003 .
Accompanying this testimony, I will submit those formal recom-mendations for the record, but would like to briefly paraphrase them. First, the Guild is firm in its belief that allowing a character to smoke is a creative decision to be made by individual directors and that our members’ First Amendment rights to free expression must be upheld. The resolution goes on to state that:
In keeping with the objectives of the resolution, in mid-December of last year members of the Social Responsibility Task Force, along with Jack Valenti and the Motion Picture Association of America, met with Senator Ensign and six state Attorneys General, led by Maryland Attorney General Joe Curran, to further open dialogue on this issue. At the meeting, Dr. Madeline Dalton of Dartmouth Medical School presented the findings from her study on the effects of viewing smoking in movies on adolescent smoking initiation. We presented our Task Force’s recommendations and engaged in a meaningful and frank discussion about the study and our recommendations.
While we are independently reviewing the conclusions drawn from the correlations identified in the study, we hold firm in our belief that filmmakers should be aware of the issue of smoking on screen and teen smoking. Further, we believe that the DGA should take a leadership role in our industry –as we often do – by undertaking an internal education campaign to meet that goal.
As a result, over the months since our meeting in Los Angeles , DGA has begun to develop, design and prepare to launch this educational campaign. We have formed a partnership with the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), one of our industry’s leading non-profit organizations devoted to industry education and involvement on a range of societal, and particularly health care, issues. Through this partnership, the DGA plans to reach out to our director members to raise awareness about the impact of smoking in film and television on youth, and to encourage the voluntary reduction of any glamorized portrayal of onscreen smoking.
This campaign is different from other efforts to curb the portrayals of smoking in films because it is an entertainment industry-initiated campaign. At its core, the campaign respects and upholds the right to artistic freedom and expression. But it also recognizes and takes seriously our industry’s social responsibility when it comes to creating full awareness about depicting smoking in movies and television.
The goals of the campaign—which will be launched shortly – are to use written materials, member meetings, and peer-to-peer outreach to educate and inform our director members. We are hopeful that our outreach campaign will serve as a template that will be used by others in our industry and result in new ways of thinking that will show up on the screen.
We all know that tobacco products are a major public health concern in both the United States and around the globe. As I have said earlier, directors recognize the significant social responsibility they carry when making movies and television programs. That is why we have already put in place our own effort to address this public health concern, particularly with respect to teenagers. We know that such an effort will take the involvement of the public health community, parents, teachers and others who impact our youth’s lives every day. The Directors Guild of America welcomes the chance to add our own efforts to theirs.
Thank you.
Action on Smoking and Health
(ASH)
701 4th St. NW / Washington, DC
20001 / (202) 659-4310
A national nonprofit, scientific and educational organization founded
in 1967.
All donations are fully tax deductible.