Hello, and thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Directors Cut, brought to you by the Directors Guild of America,

featuring today's top directors sharing behind-the-scenes stories of their latest films and insights into the craft of directing.

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This episode takes us behind the scenes of director Steve McQueen's new thriller,

Widows. Set in Chicago, the film stars Viola Davis as Veronica, who is widowed after her husband is killed by police following an armed robbery attempt. Veronica soon joins forces with three other widows,

who have nothing in common except for their husband's outstanding criminal debts

and a desire to shape their own futures to enact a heist that her husband had been planning.

In addition to widows, Mr. McQueen's directorial credits include the feature films Hunger

and Shame, the pilot of the series Codes of Conduct, and the short film art pieces Static,

Deadpan, Exodus, and bear.

He was nominated for both the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature

Film and the Academy Award for Best Director for his 2013 film 12 Years a Slave.

Following a recent screening of the film at the DGA Theatre in Los Angeles, Mr. McQueen spoke with director D. Reese about filming Widows.

During their conversation, Mr. McQueen discusses what drew him to adapt the BBC miniseries from 1983 as a feature film,

how his roots in contemporary art influence his directorial style, and the wisdom of letting the characters tell you how to shoot a scene.

Thank you.

Thank you for coming on your Saturday night.

It's just really my honor to get to sit and talk to you about your craft.

And one of the things that I was most excited about was, you know, looking at your work in modern

art and, you know, thinking about the 2009 Biennale, where your piece called Giardini, which is

about absence in a way, and is

also presented in this kind of two-channel style.

...