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Nina Gilberti’s Shortlist




Published on March 22, 2011

The Shortlist article series is your opportunity to learn about the films that inspire intellectual, artistic and activist leaders—leaders like Nina Gilberti. We asked Nina to share her favorite films and her thoughts on the power documentaries have to change the world.  So what films make Nina’s shortlist?  Keep reading to find out.

Nina Gilberti
Photo by James Lemmo

Who is Nina Gilberti?

Before changing careers to film, Nina Gilberti was a professional artist, illustrator, and photographer for over ten years.  She received an M.F.A. degree in Film at Temple University where she garnered 11 national and international awards for her short films.  In addition, she was nominated for an American Cinema Editors award and received a Directing Internship through the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences to study with a director in dramatic, long form television at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California.

Shortly after relocating from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, she began her career as a film editor working for the “King of B Movies” Roger Corman.  She has edited 20 feature films with various production companies including New Line Cinema and Trimark Pictures.  She is currently working in her sixth season as a film editor on the popular crime drama Criminal Minds for CBS.  She received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Single Camera Editing for the ABC documentary Positive: A Journey into AIDS.

She is currently producing and directing a feature length documentary called When Jane & Johnny Come Marching Homeless.


Nina Gilberti on the Power of Film

I do believe there is tremendous power in documentary film and within that is the ability to change a collective viewpoint.  With Jane & Johnny my purpose is to do just that – to wake up a nation from its apathy and move people to take some form of responsibility to help those who have sacrificed so much for all of us.  Giving veterans and their families an opportunity to express their voice on camera not only is incredibly moving to witness, but is deeply empowering to the individual being interviewed.  For the first time, they seem to be validated by being heard and having a witness – the camera – to document it.  Those I have interviewed have expressed great appreciation afterwards and have experienced a catharsis, which is at least a start towards healing.

What results from these interviews of raw candor and emotion is the connection to the human journey and the broken spirit we have all experienced at one time or another.  The visceral emotion we feel as we watch and become affected by a film can have a profound effect within the very cells of our body and can motivate us to create an entire movement towards healing on many levels.

Psychiatrist Judith Herman writes in her book Trauma and Recovery, “the interpretation of what seems to be a cathartic experience for the participant can also be seen as a means to initiate a collective working through trauma within the audience.  Since we have gone through the act of listening, we too can function as a witness.”  And if we bear witness together, we can heal together.


Nina Gilberti’s Shortlist

An American Family
The first reality television series – cameras followed the Loud family, Bill, Pat, and their five children from Santa Barbara for 300 hours.  From the divorce of Bill and Pat to the coming out of their gay son, Lance, the series was ground breaking and unforgettable.  HBO’s Cinema Verite, coming out April 23rd, is about the making of An American Family.  How can cameras not affect one’s behavior?

Grey Gardens
Big Edie and Little Edie are mesmerizing as they play to the cameras and the filmmakers at their decrepit mansion, Grey Gardens, living in squalor and isolation.  It is entertaining, shocking, and sad at the same time.

Salesman
Cameras follow four salesmen who go door-to-door selling expensive Bibles to low-income families.  The film centers on Paul, “The Badger”, who has the most difficult time.  It makes a heartbreaking statement on the pursuit of the American dream.

The UP Series
One of the most amazing documentaries I have ever seen.  It follows the same group of 14 children from different socioeconomic backgrounds in Britain through adulthood, from age 7 to 49.  The original premise was that each child’s social class predetermines their future.  Astounding filmmaking, for the sheer tenacity.

Waiting for Fidel
Newfoundland media tycoon Geoffrey Sterling and Socialist and leader of the Liberal Party of Newfoundland Joseph Smallwood, along with Michael Rubbo, make up the “cast” of this film.  All three fly to Cuba and have a scheduled meeting with Fidel Castro to shoot a film with him – but he never shows.

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse
This documentary follows the production problems, health crises, monsoons, and huge overruns that plague the making of Apocalypse Now and nearly destroys the career of Francis Ford Coppola.  Coppola, at a press conference in 1979, famously said “My film is not about Vietnam.  My film is Vietnam.”  A fascinating inside look at a personal and professional breakdown.

 

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Nina,  I found your interview with Media Rights interesting and informative.  Although I’ve known you since you were just a little tyke, I’m constantly learning new things about you.  I am so amazed and proud of your accomplishments and talentS.  I can’t wait until the whole world—or at least, the whole country—gets to see youR documentary “When Jane and Johnny Come Marching Homeless.”  I know how hard you’ve been working on this important story, which needs to be told NOW!  Best wishes, Jo and Jill

Posted on 2011 04 08 by Jill G