Q&A with Legendary 1st Assistant Director Glen Trotiner

Glen Trotiner began his professional career in motion pictures as an assistant director on Brian DePalma’s classic film “The Untouchables”.

He continued to work as an assistant director on dozens of highly successful films, including “Biloxi Blues”, “See No Evil, Hear No Evil”, “Awakenings”, “Big Daddy”, “Phone Booth”, “Maid In Manhattan”, “What Happens In Vegas”, and “Bride Wars”. He was also an assistant director on the first three seasons of HBO’s groundbreaking television series “Oz”.

Among the many films which he’s helped produce are “Bernard and Doris”, for which he and director Bob Balaban were nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award, “The Trust”, which was written and directed by award winning filmmakers Benjamin and Alex Brewer, “Braven”, the well-reviewed directing debut of Stunt Coordinator Lin Oeding, and “Big Time Adolescence”, which was nominated for the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

He wrote and directed the independent feature film “Overnight Sensation”, which won best screenplay at both The Long Island Film Festival and the Malibu Film Festival. He has also directed second units on multiple feature films, including “Love or Money”, “Last Holiday”, “Perfect Stranger” and “Braven”.

His thirty-five-year career in film has taken him all over world, from South Beach Miami to the South American jungle, from the cliffs of Newfoundland to the bank of the River Rhine, and from the peaks of the Austrian Alps to the sands of the Middle East.

The journey has given him the opportunity to cue the fountains of the Bellagio Hotel on Las Vegas Boulevard on and off, recreate the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Central Park West, simulate a riot among hundreds of striking workers outside the Domino Sugar Factory in Red Hook, Brooklyn, time travel to the Hollywood premiere of “Valley of the Dolls”, and orchestrate Steve Rogers being chased and cornered by agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Manhattan’s Times Square.

Mentoring future filmmakers has always been of great importance to him. A graduate of the Directors Guild of America Training Program, he now holds a seat on the Program’s Board of Trustees. His over twenty-five years of service is the longest of anyone in the history of the Training Program.