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Apted Is Elected President at Directors Guild Convention

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Times Staff Writer

Michael Apted, a feature filmmaker whose credits include “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and “Gorillas in the Mist,” was elected president of the Directors Guild of America at the group’s national convention in Los Angeles on Sunday.

The 35-year Hollywood director was among a slate of new officers and board members elected by 122 delegates at the convention, representing 12,800 members, the guild said.

Apted replaces Martha Coolidge, who did not seek reelection after taking over as the guild’s president when Jack Shea retired last year. Coolidge was reelected first vice president of the guild’s national board.

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Among other officers elected were Gilbert Cates, a former guild president, as secretary-treasurer and Steven Soderbergh as second vice president.

Apted has directed more than a dozen feature films as well as independently financed documentaries including “Incident at Oglala” and “Bring On the Night.”

Directors’ livelihoods “are under constant threat by runaway production, piracy, and the theft of intellectual property made all the easier by the digital age,” he said in a statement. “I look forward to finding solutions to these problems and to continuing my work attracting younger and more diverse filmmakers.”

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