★★★★★ "Vanessa Gould has crafted the perfect documentary"
The Upcoming
"Outright entertaining. My favorite documentary of the year so far."
Pete Hammond, Deadline
"One of the few great films I've seen about writing"
"One of the ten best films of 2017"
A FILM BY VANESSA GOULD
"Heartfelt and unshakable"
NPR
"Gould is a masterful documentarian"
The 13th Floor
(CRITIC'S PICK) "A fun and informative documentary that interviews several of the Times' most adept practitioners as they show and tell how it’s done, revealing personal philosophies and work methods as they go about bringing the dead to life."
– Kenneth Turan
(read more)
"My favorite documentary of 2017. So far. It will be hard to top for doing what the best kinds of documentaries do. As documentaries go, few of them are as outright entertaining to watch as director Vanessa Gould’s fascinating treatment of The New York Times obituary reporters."
– Pete Hammond
(read more)
"'Obit' believes in curiosity, anecdote, and concision, the detail that encapsulates and the window that opens onto history. A a remarkably good film about the craft of writing."
– Stuart Klawans
(read more)
"One of the most endearing—and, perhaps surprisingly, uplifting—films I’ve seen in awhile. As Fox tells us, 'Obits have next to nothing to do with death and absolutely everything to do with life.' The same is true of Gould’s remarkable film."
– Caitlin Youngquist
(read more)
★★★ "Informative, fascinating and surprisingly funny. As this riveting documentary demonstrates, the Times staff that chronicles the passing of both heroes and villains strives to make sure their obits have next to nothing to do with death and everything to do with life."
– Rex Reed
"'Obit' is a life-affirming, slyly amusing, affectionate tribute to the skilled reporters at the New York Times who spend their days gathering information and writing the first-draft mini-histories of the most interesting players on the world stage."
– Richard Roeper
"'Obit' is a rich, compelling portrait of a profession that rarely receives the dignity it so graciously affords others..' (link)
"A delightful look at death stories: Director Vanessa Gould cleverly weaves in archival footage, and as the writers narrate obituaries, we see the subjects of the stories in the prime of their lives. The effect is powerful." (link)
"A joyous work despite the potentially morbid subject matter, a celebration of life and the craft of writing.." (link)
"Stunning. Fascinating." (link)
"Death Becomes Them" (link)
"A New Film Brings The New York Times Obituary Section to Life’" (link)
"13 Best Movies in Theaters Right Now–Obit, surprisingly thoughtful." (link)
"4 Must-See Movies from the Tribeca Film Festival" (link)
"Documentary Goes Inside the Secret World of N.Y. Times Obit Writers" (link)
"Tribeca 2016 Women Directors: Meet Vanessa Gould – ‘Obit’" (link)
"'Died Is Died Is Died': Talking with Vanessa Gould and Margalit Fox of Obit" (link)
★★★1/2 "Excellent doc follows New York Times writers who chronicle the lives of the dead. Documentarian Vanessa Gould leads her viewer by the hand through the day in a life of the darling weirdos at The New York Times obituary desk. Here stands one of the quirkiest writing departments you will find still working in print...Gould’s excellent documentary stretches the spectator to consider why bearing witness to a life collectively is so very worth the trouble."
– Julia Cooper
(read more)
"Director Vanessa Gould has crafted the perfect documentary with morbid wit and fearless curiosity... Obit morphs into a chilling suspense thriller as obituary writer Bruce Weber battles with a blank page under a tight deadline. This type of conflict is unique to the writer, and rarely caught on film in such gory detail... Death, the great haunter, hovers at the foot of this film, but is examined in a way that is surprisingly inspirational, uplifting and often hilarious." ★★★★★
– William Garre
(read more)
"'Obit' teems with colorful anecdotes. Gould’s camera hovers as reporters research, call relatives and pitch pieces to editors. She mixes the fly-on-the-wall work with abnormally eloquent interviews — these are Times writers, after all — and splashes of archival footage to take us outside the cubicles. The film celebrates human achievement and human strangeness. It effuses an obit writer’s intellectual curiosity and itch for a good story."
– Soheil Rezayazdi
(read more)
"At The New York Times, the obituary beat is no career dead-end. Obit editor William McDonald gets to weigh the desires of writers like Bruce Weber and Paul Vitello, who seem often to fall in love with these people they'll never meet. Those writers make for fun company here, however much they claim people avoid them at cocktail parties. But they're sometimes upstaged by seersucker- clad Jeff Roth, an overseer of the paper's vast archive of clippings. Wry about the arcane way things are organized (or not) here, he's an obsessive whose enthusiasm is contagious."
– John DeFore
(read more)
"'Obit', ironically, lightens the mood. Vanessa Gould's documentary serves as a genial companion piece to 'Spotlight,' in its sincere devotion to a tiny subdivision of a great American newspaper. Like 'Spotlight,' 'Obit' actually makes you feel good about the media, if only for the care and high standards we see in action, on deadlines that will seem cushy to some and nearly impossible to others.
– Michael Phillips
(read more)
★★★★ "One wouldn't assume a documentary about New York Times obituary columnists would be laugh-out-loud funny. This dying art is practiced by an aging bullpen of wry hunters-and-peckers who strive to immortalize striking details in the lives of people who made a quantifiable impact on the world—on deadline. The writers' stories are juxtaposed snugly beside the details of their subjects to create an exceptionally tight, often hilarious film."
– Nathan Carson
(read more)
"The obituarists are remarkably versatile writers—my own editor thinks they must be some of the best writers in the world." (link)
"A valentine. 'Obit' explores the inner workings of that paper’s obituaries desk, in immensely satisfying, cinéma vérité style." (link)
"A nimbly made movie that benefits from its subjects’ inherent appeal, as well as their profound sense of compassion.." (link)
"Documentary explores the art of obituary writing" with Tom Brook
(link)
"'Obit' Documentary Follows Journalists Who Tell Lively Stories Of Death" with Bob Mondello
(link)
"Vanessa Gould bring the work of obit writers to life" with CBC q's Laurie Brown (link)
"For 'New York Times' Obit Writers, 'Death Is Never Solicitous Of A Deadline'" with Dave Davies (link)
"With Obit, Vanessa Gould proves something I’ve said for years: pound-for-pound…or perhaps word-for-word is more apt…there is no better writing, and no better storytelling, in any national daily newspaper than there is in the obituary section."
– Michael Nazarewycz
(read more)
"Gould, who received a Peabody Award for Between the Folds, a documentary exploring the art of origami, brings a type of Errol Morris intimacy to the film as her interviewees stare down the barrel of the camera while extemporizing, seemingly without need of a directorial nudge."
– Aaron Linskens
(read more)
"A fascinating story of life (and death) in the obit department of the New York Times. The pieces they write have next to nothing to do with death. They’re about the life that preceded the end, and the better the life, the more the obit writer is motivated to step up. (Good movies – like this one – affect critics in a similar way.)"
– Chris Knight
(read more)
"A funny, philosophical film, well worth seeing." –Marc Glassman (read more)
"Remarkable documentary."
–Patrick Mullen (read more)
"Review: ‘Obit’ Follows the Team That Writes Death Notices for The Times" – Gene Seymour (link)
"You’ve Read the Obits, Now See the Movie" – Margalit Fox (link)
"Obit for the Obits" – Bruce Weber (link)
"Lights, Camera, Obits!" – William Grimes (link)
CONNECT WITH US
at The New York Times deposits the details of three or four extraordinary lives into the cultural memory – each life’s story spun amid the daily beat of war, politics, and football scores. It’s amazing what goes on in the obits.
There are only a handful of editorial obituary writers in the world, and none are better than at The Times, where obits have become some of the best writing in journalism. Documentary storytelling in print. First drafts of contemporary history. Mirrors of life’s great variety, humor and pathos. Neatly framed vignettes of worlds that will vanish along with their notable stars.
OBIT is the first documentary to look into the world of editorial obituaries, via the legendary obit desk at The Times. The film invites some of the most essential questions we ask ourselves about life, memory and the inevitable passage of time. What do we choose to remember? What never dies?
Longtime obituary editor of The New York Times William McDonald, and past and present staff writers on the desk are featured: including Bruce Weber, Margalit Fox, William Grimes, Douglas Martin and Paul Vitello. The Times' century-old archive (appropriately called the morgue), along with its last remaining full-time archivist Jeff Roth, is also featured.
The writers de-emphasize the death, and tell stories of lives lived in extraordinary ways, often below the radar. With this comes uncommon insights – insights only the rare obituary writer could have – into the passage of generations, the astonishing cycle of life, the ebb and flow of time, and culture as it appears to accelerate and vanish at the same time.
OBIT is a recipient of a 2015 NYSCA Artist Grant, and received support from IFP and Made In NY Media Center.
Every morning, a small staff of obituary writers
Former staff editor, NYT Book Review. Cellist. Handspinner. Author of "The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code."
Former NYT book critic, restaurant critic and culture correspondent. Author of two books on culinary history.
Former editor on the NYT Metropolitan, National and Education desks.
Worked at the Times for 34 years, previously as an energy correspondent, a writer of the "About New York" column, and a reporter on everything from environment to jails.
Former editor on NYT Metro, National and Cultural news desks. Editor of three books of Times obits. Member of the Pulitzer-Prize winning team for series on race in America.
Working the Times news morgue since 1993.
Working the NYT Obituaries and Metropolitan desks since 2005. Moonlights as a general assignment reporter.
Previously, a Metropolitan and Religion reporter for the Times, and a columnist for Newsday.
Former theater critic and culture reporter. Fiction editor at Esquire. Cross-country cyclist, author and graduate of baseball umpire school.
In his home town of Sannois outside Paris, in the summer of 2010.
featured in my last film, BETWEEN THE FOLDS, passed away at age 54. For me, it was a dual experience. He had become a good friend, so I prepared as best I could for the loss of a friend. What I didn’t anticipate were the feelings that come with the early death of an artist. Ideas unfinished. Pieces frozen in time. Singular ambitions and thoughts gone with him. Everything stopped. Of course, no one else can ever finish them.
Eric was a solitary person. I was afraid that all we knew of him might disappear with time. I wanted him to have a final acknowledgement – to be recognized publicly. And so I sent a short announcement to most of the big English language newspapers around the world. About a week later, the first and only paper that responded was The New York Times. They ran a beautiful and fitting obituary on him, along with photos of him and his work. It recognized the unique value of the things to which he was so devoted. It logged him into the historical record. A good account of his life and work is now available. Recognition had mostly eluded him, and I can’t even begin to think how he’d feel if he had seen it.
This led me to a deep point of curiosity about the cultural, historical and journalistic gravity of obituaries. As I began a new daily ritual of reading The New York Times obits, I soon discovered that nearly every one points to an incredible human story, along with larger contexts of place and time, history and culture. A few months later, I contacted The New York Times about doing a documentary, and began soon after.
—Vanessa Gould
In 2010, Eric Joisel, one of the artist subjects
THE FILMMAKERS
DIRECTOR & PRODUCER – VANESSA GOULD
VANESSA GOULD is a filmmaker, editor and camera operator working in Brooklyn. Her film BETWEEN THE FOLDS premiered on PBS’s Independent Lens in December 2009 and was re-broadcast the following season. In 2010, it received a Peabody Award. BETWEEN THE FOLDS has been translated into more than ten languages and broadcast in dozens of countries on NHK, CBC, ABC, EBS, NRK, SF, SVT, Al Jazeera, Al Hurra, and other networks. It screened at more than forty-five international film festivals and was recognized with audience and jury awards.
Gould recently completed OBIT, a feature-length documentary about The New York Times obituaries and their writer-reporters, which will be released by Kino Lorber in 2017. In 2012–2013, she produced and shot for Showtime's Emmy®-winning YEARS OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY, a documentary series about climate change executive produced by James Cameron, Jerry Weintraub and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
She was a featured presenter at the EG 2010 conference in Monterey, California, and serves on the jury for the News & Documentary Emmy® Awards, as well as on several festival juries. She studied piano at the New England Conservatory, and art history, architecture and physics at Columbia University. She paints occasionally, and collects folk and traditional music from around the world.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER – PAMELA TANNER BOLL
PAMELA TANNER BOLL is an artist, filmmaker, writer and activist. She is the Co-Executive Producer of the Academy Award-winning documentary, BORN INTO BROTHELS.
Pamela has executive produced the following film projects: LIVING IN EMERGENCY: TRUE STORIES OF DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS; IN A DREAM; CONNECTED: A DECLARATION OF INTERDEPENDENCE; OUR SUMMER IN TEHRAN; STRANGE POWERS: STEPHIN MERRITT AND THE MAGNETIC FIELDS; CLOSE TO THE FIRE; SHE'S BEAUTIFUL WHEN SHE'S ANGRY; and E-TEAM.Pamela directed and produced WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS?, a feature-length documentary film that follows five women who are mothers and artists. Pamela also directed A SMALL GOOD THING, a film that asks the question how can we live in a better way. Pamela grew up in Parkersburg, WV.
She received a BA in English from Middlebury College and a Masters in Interdisciplinary Studies from Lesley University. Pamela lives in Winchester, Massachusetts, where she raised three sons, and Boulder, Colorado.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER – GERALYN WHITE DREYFOUS
GERALYN WHITE DREYFOUS is the co-founder of Impact Partners and has a wide background in the arts, long experience in consulting in the philanthropic sector, and is active on many boards and initiatives. She worked at the Philanthropic Initiative in Boston, which guides families of wealth in strategic giving opportunities and also taught Documentary and Narrative Writing with Dr. Robert Coles at Harvard University.
Geralyn is also the Founder/ Board Chair of the Utah Film Center and a charter member of the Utah Coalition for Film and Media. Geralyn's executive producing and producing credits include the Academy Award winning BORN INTO BROTHELS; Emmy nominated THE DAY MY GOD DIED; and multiple film festival winners such as KICK LIKE A GIRL, IN A DREAM, DHAMMA BROTHERS, PROJECT KASHMIR, MISS REPRESENTATION, CONNECTED, THE INVISIBLE WAR and THE HUNTING GROUND.
__________________________________________________________________
OBIT is co-executive produced by:
DIANA BARRETT, ANN BLINKHORN, BARBARA DOBKIN,
NION MCEVOY, ANNE MILLIKEN and KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL
__________________________________________________________________
PRODUCER – CAITLIN MAE BURKE
CAITLIN MAE BURKE is an Emmy-winning producer of documentary features, narrative short films, and non fiction television. In addition to producing OBIT, which she is honored to present at Tribeca, Caitlin's 2016 documentary features include NUTS! (dir. Penny Lane) which had its world premiere at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, where it received a Special Jury Prize.
She produced WE COULD BE KING (dir. Judd Ehrlich) which screened at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival and received a 2015 Sports Emmy for Outstanding Sports Documentary. Caitlin also produced SEX AND BROADCASTING (dir. Tim K Smith) which had a three night sold out premiere at DOC NYC 2014. She co-produced APPROACHING THE ELEPHANT (dir. Amanda Rose Wilder) which won the Emerging Cinematic Vision Award at CIFF 2014, and was nominated for Best Documentary at the Gotham Awards, Best Debut Feature at the 2015 Cinema Eye Honors and the 2015 Truer Than Fiction Independent Spirit Award.) Caitlin has produced and directed television and web series for YouTube, ESPN, TLC, OWN, DISCOVERY ID, SUNDANCE CHANNEL, CNBC and DISCOVERY HEALTH. She lives in Brooklyn.
EDITOR – KRISTIN BYE
KRISTIN BYE is a film editor and graphic designer based in New York City. She has edited numerous documentary and commercial shorts for clients including Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), hillmancurtis, inc., JaegerSloan, Knoll, Nokia, Prescriptives, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Razorfish, R/GA, Squarespace, and Steinway & Sons.
Kristin's film credits include IVORY TOWER (assistant editor), a documentary on higher education for CNN Films which premiered at Sundance (dir. Andrew Rossi, PAGE ONE: INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES) and the David Byrne concert documentary RIDE, RISE, ROAR (assistant editor) which premiered at SXSW (dir. Hillman Curtis). She also worked as additional editor on STRAY DOG, a feature documentary following the life of a Vietnam vet (dir. Debra Granik, WINTER'S BONE) and was production assistant on INSIDE JOB (Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature 2011).
Prior to working in film, Bye was a partner at studio 209, a graphic design studio in Portland, Oregon, for over 10 years. She is a Pacific Northwest native, studied art and design in France for 3 years, and loves to explore the world by foot, by bike and through film. She has a degree in International Studies from the University of Washington in Seattle.
GRAPHICS & ANIMATION – ANDREW ROBERTS
ANDREW ROBERTS is an illustrator and motion graphics animator living and working in Brooklyn, NY.
As an illustrator working in a variety of styles, he is a frequent contributor to a wide range of publications including The New York Times, Money Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated for Kids, AARP The Magazine and more.
Prior to receiving his M.F.A. in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Roberts was co-founder and partner of studio 209, a graphic design studio Portland, Oregon, for over 10 years. In his free time, he plays bass guitar, is an avid Man United fan and a lover of all things comic book-related.
CONSULTING PRODUCER & ARCHIVIST – KENN RABIN
KENN RABIN has received two Emmy nominations and a FOCAL International Award for his extensive television and feature work. He began his career working with Bill Moyers at public television station WNET in New York, and to date, his over one hundred credits as writer, producer, researcher, or consultant include PBS’s 14-hour series EYES ON THE PRIZE; Barry Levinson’s YESTERDAY'S TOMORROWS (which he co-wrote and associate produced); PBS’s Frontline, ABC’s 20/20; and the 13-hour landmark public television series, VIETNAM: A TELEVISION HISTORY. His work on the PBS series American Experience, American Masters, Independent Lens and POV include many award-winning films, such as THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND, DAUGHTER FROM DANANG, Firelight Media’s JONESTOWN: LIFE AND DEATH OF PEOPLE'S TEMPLE; and others.
Rabin co-produced and co-wrote THE STORM THAT SWEPT MEXICO, a special broadcast for PBS, and consulted on the Academy Award nominee, HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE. INEQUALITY FOR ALL, a documentary about economist Robert Reich, was released theatrically by Radius/TWC. His most recent documentary credit is for COMPARED TO WHAT: THE IMPROBABLE JOURNEY OF BARNEY FRANK, and his most recent feature credit is the Ava DuVernay film, SELMA, for Paramount.
Other feature credits include Sean Penn’s directorial debut, THE INDIAN RUNNER; George Clooney’s GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK; Steven Soderbergh’s THE GOOD GERMAN; an Amy Heckerling comedy, I COULD NEVER BE YOUR WOMAN; Grant Heslov and George Clooney’s THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS and Gus Van Sant’s MILK.
He is currently working on three feature documentaries: BEATLES LIVE!, produced by One Voice One World Productions in association with the Beatles’ Apple Corps, to be directed by Ron Howard; OBIT, by award-winning producer Vanessa Gould (BETWEEN THE FOLDS); and WE'LL MEET AGAIN, a film about cryonics.
Mr. Rabin is a filmmaker, writer, archivist and teacher interested in issues of intellectual property and audiovisual preservation. He is coauthor of the Focal Press book, Archival Storytelling: A Filmmaker’s Guide to Finding, Using, and Licensing Third-Party Visuals and Music, about to go into its second edition.
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY – BEN WOLF
BEN WOLF is a DP, director, and owner of Brooklyn-based film production company Topiary Productions, Inc. A graduate of Yale (BA Philosophy) and Columbia (MFA Film), he works in a wide variety of genres, including documentary, commercial, and fiction film-making.
Recent projects include serving as DP/co-producer of the documentaries OBIT (dir. Vanessa Gould), THE HAPPY FILM (Stefan Sagmeister), WAYS TO GO (dir. Todd Drezner) and WAVE GOODBYE TO DINOSAURS (dir. RoseMarie Fitzsimons), shooting commercials for Citi, Wells Fargo and New York City, and directing promos for Knoll Furniture and The Museum of Modern Art.
Mr. Wolf holds a B.A. in philosophy from Yale and an M.F.A. in film from Columbia.
COMPOSER – JOEL GOODMAN
JOEL GOODMAN creates music for narrative feature films, documentaries, television, album releases and other forms of collaborative media. As an Emmy Award-winning composer Joel has scored over 125 films and television programs that have received 4 Oscar nominations, 15 Emmy awards and over 25 Emmy nominations. He has scored over 40 films for HBO and composed the Main Theme for the long-running and critically acclaimed PBS series American Experience. His scores can regularly be heard in movie theaters and on television around the world.
Joel has collaborated with an impressive array of distinguished directors and producers including Neil LaBute, Albert Maysles, Kevin Spacey, Andrew Jarecki, Barbara Kopple, Wong Kar-wei, Rachel Grady, Marshall Curry, Sebastian Junger, Michael Epstein, Oren Jacoby, Irene Taylor Brodsky, and Fisher Stevens. Joel recently completed scores to: DIRTY WEEKEND (dir. Neil LaBute); WALT DISNEY for American Experience; and AN HONEST LIAR. A native New Yorker, Joel lives in Los Angeles, where he enjoys time with his family, riding his bicycle and of course, many hours writing music.
SOUND MIXER – DAVID HOCS
DAVID HOCS brings over 20 years experience in the film industry, specializing in on-location sound for documentaries, commercials and scripted dramas.
He has worked on Academy acclaimed and Emmy Award winning projects including films such as
INSIDE JOB (dir. Charles Ferguson), CLIENT 9 (dir. Alex Gibney), WAITING FOR SUPERMAN (dir. Davis Guggenheim), THE ROAD BACK: LANCE ARMSTRONG (dir. Alex Gibney), THE CARRIER (dir. Maggie Betts), GONZO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF HUNTER S. THOMPSON (dir. Alex Gibney), NO END IN SIGHT (dir. Charles Ferguson), CRAZY LOVE (dir. Dan Flores, Fisher Stevens), SHUT UP AND SING (dir. Barbara Koppel).
CO-PRODUCER – JOSH WICK
JOSH WICK is an independent filmmaker and producer from Brooklyn, NY. His feature film work includes: OUT OF MY HAND (dir. Taskeshi Fukunaga, 2015) and WENDELL AND THE LEMON (dir. Lawrence Krauser, 2015) as executive producer; FRANCIS OF BROOKLYN (2012), as executive producer, writer and director; THE ASSASSIN (2007), as executive producer and co-writer.
Mr. Wick is also an actor and his latest roles include lead performances in Nameinuse Productions’ WHITE CREEK (2014) and ORPHANED (2013). He is a founding member of the Spectacle Theater film collective in Brooklyn, NY.
ASSISTANT EDITOR – HENRY CARROLL
HENRY CARROLL is a film and music student at Vassar College and Connecticut native. As a student filmmaker, Henry has written, directed, and edited a variety of short films using HD camcorders, DSLRs, and 16mm film cameras. In addition to this, Henry plays the double bass and bass guitar, writes online film criticism, and is a featured author in issue 5.3 of the undergraduate academic film journal Film Matters.
Currently, Henry is an editorial assistant for the documentary OBIT (dir. Vanessa Gould) and for Flatbush Pictures, an independent film content studio in Brooklyn, NY. Prior to this, Henry worked for Mandalay Sports Media as a production intern. Henry hopes to eventually become a freelance editor.
MEDIA & OUTREACH STRATEGIST – LAURA VIGILANTE
LAURA VIGILANTE is a New York producer and creative strategist. She began her career as an outreach and impact producer at Six Foot Chipmunk, where she worked on social issue documentaries, including THE SQUARE, AMERICAN PROMISE, GOD LOVES UGANDA, INEQUALITY FOR ALL, and ESCAPE FIRE. She evolved into the role of Creative Executive at Candescent Films where she provided financial and creative support to documentaries, such as CARTEL LAND, (T)ERROR, and THE WOLFPACK.
Vigilante recently worked on the global launch of the new HP Inc., and is currently a producer on LAST CALL, an upcoming feature documentary by Emmy Award-winning director Lana Wilson. She is currently an outreach and impact producer for NUTS!, THANK YOU FOR PLAYING, OBIT, CANARY IN A COAL MINE, and PRIVATE VIOLENCE. Vigilante serves on the Screening Committee for Hamptons International Film Festival and is a member of New York Women in Film (NYWIFT). She graduated with honors from Columbia University and received an award for her outstanding commitment to diversity, social justice, and multiculturalism.
MEDIA & OUTREACH STRATEGIST – COLLEEN HAMMOND
Colleen Hammond has extensive experience in arts fundraising, community engagement and high-end event production with a special interest in women’s issues, film and travel. Colleen worked at Tribeca Film Institute from 2010 - 2015, most recently serving as their Director of Development, Individual Giving. She has also worked with Project Entrepreneur - a program of the Rent the Runway Foundation, Social Diva Media, Cinevegas Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival and more. Colleen is currently producing a feature length comedy and recently launched her company Undertheres, selling educational underwear.
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT – REID ANTIN
REID ANTIN is a rising senior film major at Vassar College, where he also works assisting professors in the Film Department, writes as a film critic for The Miscellany News, and is the Co-President of the Vassar Filmmakers Club. In the past, he has interned at Martin Scorsese’s Sikelia Productions and at the Tribeca Film Institute. He has also worked as a 35mm film and digital projectionist at the Wellfleet Drive-In and at Vassar.
This summer he will be a production assistant on OBIT, a member of the Telluride Student Symposium, a script-reader for Sentinel Pictures, a set PA for numerous projects, as well as a director on many of his own upcoming shorts. After many digital endeavors, such as LIKE A GHOST, he just completed his first two films shot on 16mm, EVEN FLASHERS FALL IN LOVE, and TOY SWAPPING. He is currently shopping around his six feature scripts (and writing his seventh). Above all, Reid prides himself on being a self-proclaimed encyclopedia of world cinema, and when he can, he subsists on a diet of one to two movies a day.
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT – SARAH GITTINS
SARAH GITTINS is a student filmmaker, studying film and physics at Vassar College. She is working on the feature documentary OBIT and for the production house NC17, a company who wishes to explore the combination of technology and film.
She recently worked on the feature documentary GOOD TASTE IN SOLITUDE, now in post-production, as a production assistant. She has written, directed and produced short films such as WHERE ARE YOU GOING?, LET ME IN, HEY LOVE and IF I JUST-. The short film LET ME IN was featured on a Boston local television station for multiple weeks. She was a writer, DP and editor on the 16mm short NOTHING BUT TREBLE. In 2014, she worked for the Arts Arena as a camera operator and editor in Paris.
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT – ELIZABETH ROSENKRANZ
ELIZABETH ROSENKRANZ is currently studying Cinema and Studio Art at Denison University. A native of Ohio, she is spending the summer in New York as a PA on the OBIT documentary as well as at Smuggler, a commercial production company. She has written and shot three shorts on 16mm film, and has worked on multiple student films as a production assistant and assistant camera. She is the head projectionist of the Denison Film Society, which brings films to campus every week on both Blu-ray and 35mm.
Her main medium is printmaking, but she also enjoys photography and drawing. Recently she has been exploring multi-media sculpture and other installation art. She is interested in combining film and studio art in both theatrical and gallery settings.
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT – SOPHIE NOBLER
SOPHIE NOBLER is an actor, improvisor, and aspiring filmmaker. She will graduate from Barnard College this spring where she studies theater and performs improv. Sophie is thrilled to be part of the OBIT team, where she spent most of her time researching archival materials. She is currently an archival intern at Moxie Firecracker Films, helping them with their upcoming documentary about Gloria Vanderbilt. She is also a production intern at Scratch at Viacom, where she helps with company productions.
Sophie spent this past semester in Prague studying film and acting for film at the Prague Film School. She wrote, directed, and starred in her short film "Interns"; and acted in many student films. She equally enjoys working in front of and behind the camera.
