(USA) 89 minutes
Directed by: Tom Donahue
This documentary combines over 230 interviews, extensive archival footage, animated stills and documents to tell the untold tale of the Hollywood casting director. It is a celebration of the casting profession, highlighting its previously unsung role in film history. It focuses on casting pioneer Marion Dougherty, an iconoclast whose exquisite taste, tenacity and gut instincts brought a new kind of actor to the screen that would mark the end of the old studio system and help usher in this revolutionary new period. This is perhaps arguably the greatest assemblage of talking-head star power in any documentary ever made – featuring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Woody Allen, Robert Redford, Bette Midler, Glenn Close, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Diane Lane, Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, John Lithgow, Oliver Stone, Paul Rudd, Jon Voight, John Travolta and others. In 2026, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented the first Academy Award for Achievement in Casting – long long overdue.
Introduced by director Tom Donahue and Robert Roussel who co-wrote Marion Dougherty’s personal memoir entitled MY CASTING COUCH WAS TOO SHORT
Incline Village Cinema – December 5 – 3:30pm