About Gaylen Ross
GAYLEN ROSS has directed, produced, written and edited award-winning documentary films for over 25 years, premiering in national and international film festivals, premiering on PBS as part of the prestigious POV series, A&E Television, and The Learning Channel, and for England's BBC's "Storyville," and Channel4; and shown in Israel, Italy, Australia, The Netherlands, Japan, and Canada.
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Her films have also been official selections of the Berlin Film Festival, Montreal World Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, Heartland Film Festival, Edinburgh Film Festival, Haifa Film Festival (Israel), Cinema du Reel at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, the Nyon Documentary Festival (Switzerland), Encontros Inernacionais (Portugal) the Margaret Mead Film Festival in New York, Williamstown Film Festival, Santa Fe Film Festival, and Jewish Film Festivals in New York, Vienna, San Francisco, Boston, London, Berlin and Brazil.
Additional awards for films include the CINE Gold Eagle, Telly Award, US International Film and Video Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, Chicago International Television Competition, CableAce nomination, Chris Award, National Educational Film and Video Festival, and the Louisville Film Festival.
KILLING KASZTNER: THE JEW WHO DEALT WITH NAZIS was an official selection of the Toronto International Film Festival, broadcast in England as part of BBC Storyville, in Israel on Channels 2 and 8, shown in 11 countries with an unprecedented theatrical release in the US and in France. It was named by the Los Angeles Times as one of the best documentary films of 2010.
CARIS' PEACE about actress Caris Corfman, about an actress who lost her memory, premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival, won Honorable Mention in Calgary’s ‘Picture This’ Film Festival on disabilities, First Prize Documentary in the Athens Film Festival (Ohio), and the L-Dub Film Festival, Florida, and was featured as a special presentation of the Rubin Museum of Art’s Brainwave series in New York City.
The documentary film on New York's world of diamond dealers, DEALERS AMONG DEALERS received a Gold Plaque from the Chicago Film Festival, and was named "Best of Fest" in the Edinburgh Film Festival. She was producer/writer of the Emmy award winning BLOOD MONEY: SWITZERLAND'S NAZI GOLD a feature-length documentary on the Swiss Banks and the Holocaust.
Her other documentaries include LISTEN TO HER HEART: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF LAURIE BEECHMAN, about the acclaimed Broadway and cabaret star; SELLING THE DREAM: STOCK HYPE AND FRAUD, a far-reaching examination of stock and securities fraud; TO RUSSIA FOR LOVE, on the Russian mail-order bride business; NOT JUST LAS VEGAS, on gambling in the United States; and, OUT OF SOLIDARITY, the story of three families of the outlawed Solidarity union, and their first years in America.
With filmmaker Andy Cohen, Ross' latest projects BEIJING SPRING, about the artistic freedom and democracy movement following China's brutal cultural revolution; and, XIMEI (executive produced by Ai Weiwei), about a Chinese woman who contracts AIDS, prompting a scandalous cover up by local government officials, premiering at the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) in Geneva, Switzerland.
In production are the films SAPIRO: THE JEW WHO SUED HENRY FORD produced with Carol King and co-directed with Michael Rose, and with Andy Cohen on the legendary music and theater cabaret of Greenwich Village, THE VILLAGE GATE.
Currently Ms. Ross is in post–production on her film TITLESHOT, a stark chronicle of professional boxing through the rise and fall of 1990’s junior middleweight contender Godfrey Nyakana as it focuses its lens on sides of the sweet science rarely seen.
Gaylen Ross has produced and directed videos for The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous and the UJA Federations of North America, the latter a recipient of a New York Film Festival award. Gaylen Ross is a recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts film grants, a film grant from New York Council for the Humanities, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship.
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Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Ms. Ross has been awarded the Indianapolis Public School Hall of Fame as one of 5 honorees in 2015, and named as an Honorary Board member of the Indiana Jewish Historical Society, and one of four Jewish women shaping Indiana history.
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In front of the camera, as an actress, Gaylen Ross had a very brief but distinguished career as the star of two George Romero classics, Dawn of the Dead and Creepshow.
To contact: gaylenross@grfilmsinc.com