Maureen Gosling is an American documentary filmmaker, editor, and director. She is best known for her 20-year collaboration with the late director
Les Blank
Les Blank (November 27, 1935 – April 7, 2013) was an American documentary filmmaker best known for his portraits of American traditional musicians.
Life and career
Leslie Harrod Blank Jr. was born November 27, 1935 in Tampa, Florida. He atten ...
.
Life and career
Gosling was born in
Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...
,
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
. Her physician father was a
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
pianist and her mother, who worked in
little theater, was a first generation American of Norwegian/Canadian descent. Gosling earned a BA in social anthropology from the University of Michigan in 1972 after which she became an
apprentice
Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
to documentary filmmaker, Les Blank. Their first film together was in 1972, ''Dry Wood and Hot Pepper'', on
Black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
French Louisiana
The term French Louisiana refers to two distinct regions:
* first, to Louisiana (New France), colonial French Louisiana, comprising the massive, middle section of North America claimed by Early Modern France, France during the 17th and 18th centu ...
Zydeco
Zydeco ( or , french: Zarico) is a music genre that evolved in southwest Louisiana by French Creole speakers which blends blues, rhythm and blues, and music indigenous to the Louisiana Creoles and the Native American people of Louisiana. Al ...
music and
Creole culture
Creole peoples are ethnic groups formed during the European colonial era, from the mass displacement of peoples brought into sustained contact with others from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, who converged onto a colonial territo ...
. Their best-known film is the 1982 British Academy Award-winning ''
Burden of Dreams
''Burden of Dreams'' is a 1982 "making-of" documentary film directed by Les Blank, shot during and about the chaotic production of Werner Herzog's 1982 film ''Fitzcarraldo'', and filmed on location in the jungles of Peru.
Plot summary
Cast
* We ...
'', about the German director
Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog (; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with un ...
’s perilous filming of ''
FITZCARRALDO
''Fitzcarraldo'' () is a 1982 West German epic adventure-drama film written, produced and directed by Werner Herzog, and starring Klaus Kinski as would-be rubber baron, Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an Irishman known in Peru as Fitzcarraldo, who i ...
'' in the Peruvian Amazon. In 1982, ''
Burden of Dreams
''Burden of Dreams'' is a 1982 "making-of" documentary film directed by Les Blank, shot during and about the chaotic production of Werner Herzog's 1982 film ''Fitzcarraldo'', and filmed on location in the jungles of Peru.
Plot summary
Cast
* We ...
'' premiered at the
Filmex
The Los Angeles International Film Exposition, also called Filmex, was an annual Los Angeles film festival held in the 1970s and early 1980s. It was the predecessor of the American Film Institute's Los Angeles International Film Festival. After the ...
film festival in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
. She was nominated for Best Editing by The
American Cinema Editors
Founded in 1950, American Cinema Editors (ACE) is an honorary society of film editors that are voted in based on the qualities of professional achievements, their education of others, and their dedication to editing. Members use the post-nominal ...
for ''
Burden of Dreams
''Burden of Dreams'' is a 1982 "making-of" documentary film directed by Les Blank, shot during and about the chaotic production of Werner Herzog's 1982 film ''Fitzcarraldo'', and filmed on location in the jungles of Peru.
Plot summary
Cast
* We ...
'' in 1983.
Gosling founded Intrépidas Productions in 1997, Yanga Productions with Maxine Downs in 2006, Sage Blossom Productions with Chris Simon in 2012, and Protesta Productions with
Jed Riffe
Jed Riffe is an American filmmaker and founder of Jed Riffe Films + Electronic Media. For over 30 years his documentary films have focused on social issues and politics including: Native American histories and struggles (Ishi, the Last Yahi, Cal ...
and Nina Menéndez in 2018.
In 1996, Gosling was an editing instructor in the Cinema Department at
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...
, fall semester. She served on the board of Cine Acción, a Latino film organization from 1996 to 2002. She is a member of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...
2019.
Filmography
* 1973 - ''Dry Wood'' (sound, assistant editor)
* 1973 - ''Hot Pepper'' (sound, assistant editor)
* 1976 - ''Chulas Fronteras'' (assistant editor, translations)
* 1978 - ''Always for Pleasure'' (sound, assistant editor)
* 1979 - ''Del Mero Corazon'' (director, editor)
* 1980 - ''Poto and Cabengo'' (sound)
* 1980 - ''
Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe
''Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe'' is a short documentary film directed by Les Blank in 1980 that depicts director Werner Herzog living up to his promise that he would eat his shoe if Errol Morris ever completed the film '' Gates of Heaven''. The ...
'' (sound, editor)
* 1980 - ''
Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers
''Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers'' is a 1980 documentary film about garlic directed by Les Blank. In 2004, the film was selected for preservation in the United States’ National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, h ...
'' (sound, editor)
* 1982 - ''
Burden of Dreams
''Burden of Dreams'' is a 1982 "making-of" documentary film directed by Les Blank, shot during and about the chaotic production of Werner Herzog's 1982 film ''Fitzcarraldo'', and filmed on location in the jungles of Peru.
Plot summary
Cast
* We ...
'' (co-filmmaker, sound, editor)
* 1983 - ''Sprout Wings and Fly'' (co-filmmaker, editor)
* 1984 - ''
In Heaven There Is No Beer?
''In Heaven There Is No Beer?'' is a 1984 American documentary film by Les Blank about the life, culture and food surrounding devotees of polkas.
Accolades
It won a special jury award at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival, as well as the Grand Prix ...
'' (co-filmmaker, sound, editor)
* 1985 - ''Cigarette Blues'' (editor)
* 1986 - ''Huey Lewis and the News: Be-Fore!'' (sound, editor)
* 1987 - ''Gap-Toothed Women'' (co-filmmaker, sound, editor)
* 1987 - ''Ziveli! Medicine for the Heart'' (co-filmmaker, sound, editor)
* 1988 - ''Ry Cooder and the Moula Banda Rhythm Aces'' (sound, editor)
* 1989 - ''J’ai Eté au Bal / I Went to the Dance'' (co-filmmaker, sound, editor)
* 1990 - ''Yum, Yum, Yum! A Taste of Cajun and Creole Cooking'' (co-filmmaker, sound, editor)
* 1991 - ''Julie: Old Time Tales of the Blue Ridge'' (co-filmmaker, editor)
* 1991 - ''Marc & Ann'' (co-filmmaker, sound, editor)
* 1993 - ''A Skirt Full Of Butterflies'' (producer, director, editor with Ellen Osborne)
* 1994 - ''The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists'' (co-filmmaker, sound, editor)
* 1994 - ''My Old Fiddle: A Visit with Tommy Jarrell in the Blue Ridge'' (co-filmmaker, sound, editor)
* 1994 - ''Roots of Rhythm'' (sound)
* 1995 - ''The Hidden Cities of San Francisco: The Mission District'' (editor)
* 1998 - ''Stripped and Teased'' (editor)
* 1998 - ''The Way Home'' (editor)
* 1999 - ''Nuestro Camino'' (Our Own Road) (editor)
* 2000 - ''
Blossoms Of Fire
''Blossoms of Fire'' (also known as ''Ramo de fuego'') is a 2000 documentary film about the people of Juchitán, Oaxaca, Mexico. The documentary was directed by Maureen Gosling and Ellen Osborne.
Overview
Author Elena Poniatowska described the w ...
'' (director, producer, editor)
* 2000 - ''Bomba, Dancing the Drum'' (editor)
* 2001 - ''Boys Will Be Men'' (editor)
* 2002 - ''A Dream in Hanoi'' (editor)
* 2003 - ''Fallon: Deadly Oasis'' (editor)
* 2004 - ''Líderes Campesinas'' (editor)
* 2005 - ''Waiting To Inhale'' (editor)
* 2005 - ''Heart of the Congo'' (editor)
* 2006 - ''California’s “Lost” Tribes'' (co-writer, editor)
* 2008 - ''Poetry Inside Out'' (editor)
* 2010 - ''5 Variations on a Long String'' (editor)
* 2010 - ''Cruz Reynoso: Sowing the Seeds of Justice'' (editor)
* 2010 - ''I Hear What You See'' (editor)
* 2011 - ''Smokin’ Fish'' (editor)
* 2011 - ''Painting the Streets of Bamako'' (co-filmmaker, editor)
* 2013 - ''This Ain’t No Mouse Music!'' (director, producer, editor with Chris Simon)
* 2014 - ''Racing to Zero'' (editor)
* 2015 - ''A New Color'' (editor)
* 1974/2015 - ''
A Poem Is A Naked Person'' (sound, assistant editor)
* 2017 - ''The Long Shadow'' (co-creator, editor)
* 2018 - ''A Dangerous Idea'' (editor)
* 2020 - ''The Nine Lives Of Barbara Dane'' (director, editor)
* 2020 - ''Pleistocene Park'' (editor)
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gosling, Maureen
1949 births
American film editors
American women film editors
American documentary film producers
American documentary film directors
Living people
University of Michigan alumni
American women documentary filmmakers