Gail Dolgin (; April 4, 1945 – October 7, 2010) was an American filmmaker. She was nominated for the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

for ''

Daughter from Danang ''Daughter from Đà Nẵng'' is a 2002 documentary film about an Amerasian, Heidi Bub, meeting her biological family in Da Nang, decades after being brought to the United States in 1975 during Operation Babylift at the end of the Vietnam War. Pl ...

'', and ''

The Barber of Birmingham ''The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement'' is a 2011 documentary film about James Armstrong, one of the unsung heroes of the Civil Rights Movement. Summary A World War II veteran and an original flag bearer for the 19 ...

''.Obituary ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', October 19, 2010, page AA6. ''

'' also won the

Sundance A Sun Dance is a Native American ceremony. Sun dance or Sundance may also refer to: Places ;Canada * Sundance, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * Sundance, Manitoba, a ghost town ;United States * Sundance, New Mexico, a census-designated pl ...

Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary.

Life and career

Dolgin was born to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

Jewish Women's Archive: "Gail Dolgin Documentary filmmaker 1945 – 2010
retrieved July 20, 2014 the daughter of Israel and Diana Dolgin. She had three brothers: Kalmon Dolgin, Neil Dolgin, and Stuart Dolgin (deceased). Her grandfather Kalmon Dolgin founded a New York-based real estate brokerage firm which her father and uncle expanded into real estate development. It is now known as Kalmon Dolgin Affiliates, Inc. and run by her two brothers. She was raised in

Great Neck, New York Great Neck is a region contained within Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, New York (state), New York, on Long Island, which covers a peninsula on the North Shore (Long Island), North Shore and includes nine incorporated villages, among th ...

and earned a bachelor's degree in

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

and a master's in education from the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

. Interested in

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

, she joined

Newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news, news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a Movie theater, cinema, newsreels were a source of cu ...

, an activist film collective in New York, where she decided to pursue filmmaking professionally. In addition to ''Daughter From Danang,'' Dolgin's notable credits include ''

Cuba Va Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the northern Caribbean Sea, ...

'' about Cuban youth after the revolution, and ''

Summer of Love The Summer of Love was a major social phenomenon that occurred in San Francisco during the summer of 1967. As many as 100,000 people, mostly young people, hippies, beatniks, and 1960s counterculture figures, converged in San Francisco's Haig ...

'', about San Francisco in the summer of 1967. She also collaborated filmmaker Vicente Franco on films. Her final project, a documentary film project on one of the unsung figures of the civil rights movement entitled ''

'' was completed posthumously, co-directed and produced with still photographer Robin Fryday. The film premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, three months after Dolgin's death, and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2012. Dolgin was a mentor to

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. The Association of Bay Area Governments ...

filmmakers, hosting monthly gatherings at her home in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

to watch and discuss films with their directors via speakerphone, and served as a judge, board member and reviewer with the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

Independent Television Service ITVS (Independent Television Service) is a service in the United States which funds and presents documentaries on public television through distribution by PBS and American Public Television, new media projects on the Internet, and the weekly se ...

, Berkeley Film Foundation and

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is the oldest Jewish film festival in the world, and currently the largest with a 2016 attendance figure of 40,000 at screenings in San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, San Rafael, and Palo Alto. The three-week summ ...

. Dolgin died in 2010, aged 65, following a 10-year battle with

breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...

. She was candid about her illness, speaking about it during her 2002 acceptance speech at the Sundance Film Festival for ''Daughter from Danang'' and describing how she had found the courage to continue making films. She had one daughter, Amelia Nardinelli.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dolgin, Gail 1945 births 2010 deaths Sundance Film Festival award winners 20th-century American Jews Artists from Berkeley, California People from Great Neck, New York Deaths from breast cancer in California University of Pennsylvania alumni American documentary film producers University of Oregon alumni Film directors from California Film producers from New York (state) Film producers from California American women documentary filmmakers 21st-century American Jews 20th-century American women 21st-century American women