Love Women? Love Film? Love Equality?
Cast Iron Studios is proud to host the enthralling Tom Donahue documentary
“Casting By”
featuring Ed Asner, Jeff Bridges, Glenn Close, Robert De Niro, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Duvall, Clint Eastwood, Danny Glover, Diane Lane, John Lithgow, Bette Midler, Al Pacino, Robert Redford, Martin Scorsese, Cybill Shepherd, Oliver Stone, John Travolta, Jon Voight and many others!
A benefit for VoteERA.org
Marion Dougherty helped usher in the New Hollywood through her casting of films like “Midnight Cowboy,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “Bonnie and Clyde.” She plucked several now-iconic actors out of obscurity, among them James Dean, Warren Beatty, Robert Redford, Christopher Walken and Glenn Close, giving them their first break in front of the camera. With strong, original opinions about authenticity and a knack for discovering unique talent, she turned the old Hollywood system on its head by using actors with a nuanced sense of character and individuality, rather than depending on typecasting, and broke racial barriers by pairing Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the “Lethal Weapon” series.
The casting director is the only opening single card film credit that does not receive its own Academy Award® nomination. However, as Martin Scorsese emphatically states at the start of the documentary, “More than 90 percent of directing a picture is the right casting.” Director Tom Donahue combines extensive archival material and exclusive interviews with A-list actors and directors, including Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, Jeff Bridges, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Jon Voight, John Lithgow, Bette Midler and John Travolta, as well as Martin Scorsese, to tell the story of Hollywood’s most invisible and unheralded profession. (c) Official website
Casting directors don’t receive Academy Awards. But one almost did, once. In 1991, a movement was launched to press the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences into granting an honorary Oscar to Marion Dougherty, a New York casting director who decamped to Hollywood in 1976 to become vice president of casting at Paramount, and later held the same position at Warner Bros. Dougherty was—and is—credited as the grand matriarch of modern casting, and the push to have her recognized at the Oscars received support from Clint Eastwood, Woody Allen, Al Pacino, and a host more of their ilk. Many of those who lobbied on her behalf were filmmakers whose bodies of work she helped mold and actors whose careers may never have happened if not for her dogged advocacy. Dougherty had been instrumental in the development of major players in the post-studio film industry—she was the type of person for whom an honorary Oscar should be a forgone conclusion.
They never gave it to her. She died in 2011.
—Backstage, July 25, 2013
The time is overdue for a casting Oscar category and a posthumous recognition of Dougherty. Both would go a long way toward demonstrating that the Academy—whose membership was revealed in a 2012 Los Angeles Times report to be overwhelmingly white, male, and old—is at long last modernizing.
—Backstage, October 30, 2013
“Casting By”
a benefit for VoteERA.org
Sunday, June 22nd, 2014
7:00 PM
at the historic
Hollywood Theatre
4122 NE Sandy Blvd
Portland, OR 97212
Screening Only: $5
Friend of VoteERA: (Screening + Donation to VoteERA): $15
Silver Sponsor (Screening + Donation to VoteERA + VIP Party): $35
Gold Sponsor (Screening + Donation to VoteERA + VIP Party): $50
Platinum Sponsor (Screening + Donation to VoteERA + VIP Party): $150
Diamond Sponsor (Screening + Donation to VoteERA + VIP Party): $500
Silver Sponsors and above are invited to a special VIP reception at Velo Cult after the film, which includes two drink tickets and complimentary hors d’oeuvres.
Velo Cult
1969 NE 42nd Ave
Portland, OR 97213
(9:00 PM-11:00 PM)
SEE YOU THERE!
A note from Lana Veenker CSA:
Funny, enlightening and poignant, this film appeals to filmmakers, actors and film buffs alike. Hearing how iconic actors like Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman and Glenn Close got their big breaks is at once fascinating and moving. I saw it twice–once in L.A. and once in Berlin–and I laughed and cried both times.
Supporters of women, and those who support equality for women in film and in all aspects of life, will also find enjoyment in this provocative documentary.
While pioneering CD Marion Dougherty helped to create and define the role of casting director, the film begs the question: Is it a coincidence that in a profession dominated by women (the CSA estimates that more than 73% of its membership is female), there is no Oscar category for casting? Or that the DGA objects to them using the term “director” in their job title, whereas other positions are allowed to use it?
We are very excited to bring “Casting By” to Oregon, particularly at a time when VoteERA is seeking to add an Equal Rights Amendment to the Oregon Constitution. These efforts will help pave the way for equality in our national Constitution. (Can you believe that the ERA has been introduced in Congress every year since 1923 and still has not been ratified!?!)
The more we can do to raise awareness about equality for women, the more we can do to achieve it! We hope you all will join us for a fun evening.
