DIRECTORS GUILD VOTES TO OPPOSE `INTRUSION'.

Byline: Martha Bellisle Associated Press 

Fearing that lawmakers who blame Hollywood for recent acts of youth violence will strangle filmmakers' freedom, the Directors Guild of America voted Saturday to lobby against legislative restrictions and provide legal help to directors who become targets of ``government intrusion.''

The 21-member national board of directors unanimously approved a resolution that also calls for establishing a task force of leading directors to ``explore and research the issue of violence.''

The task force would devise methods to educate guild members, the ``creative community'' and the public on violence and the ``rights and responsibilities of Hollywood,'' the resolution said.

``Our mission is both to ensure that the First Amendment rights of our members are not trampled upon by overzealous legislators and also to raise the consciousness level of the entertainment community with regard to the social responsibility of filmmakers,'' DGA President Jack Shea said in a statement in Los Angeles.

The guild represents about 11,000 film and television directors and assistants across the country.

Since the April 20 high school massacre at Littleton, Colo., President Clinton and Congress have taken Hollywood to task, suggesting the industry has contributed to a culture of violence through bloody images. The Senate authorized an investigation into the marketing of violent games and shows to children and a federal study into the psychological effects on youths of violent video games and music. It also passed a requirement that government agencies consider a show's violence level before granting a permit to film on federal property.

Shea has said the First Amendment rights of filmmakers are as threatened now as during the 1950s era of anti-Communist blacklisting.

The DGA resolution states that ``the issue of the portrayal of violence in motion pictures and television should be decided between filmmakers and their audience,'' and that guild directors who are subpoenaed by government agencies will receive guild support and legal representation.

Filmmakers must be protected from ``unwarranted and unconstitutional government intrusion,'' the resolution states.

Meanwhile, the DGA board also voted to seek federal help to keep U.S.-developed films and TV programs from being made abroad to save money.

A report presented to the board said so-called economic runaway production last year cost the equivalent of 23,500 full-time entertainment industry jobs.

The resolution directs guild members to lobby national lawmakers for ``federal government solutions - which may include legislative and executive branch activities - to the problem created by subsidies offered by other countries'' to lure production abroad.