Tami Gold

Introduction (2-3 lines)

Tami Gold (Filmmaker, Artist & Educator) began working in media in the Newsreel Film Collective. She is the recipient of a Rockefeller Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, Video Arts Fellowships from the New Jersey and New York State Councils on the Arts, the Excellence in the Arts Award from the Manhattan Borough President, The American Film Institutes Independent Filmmakers Production Fellowship.

Tami produced and directed (with David Pavlosky) PUZZLES, which tells the story of a brutal attack in a gay bar and how a community responds. In 2011 Tami directed PASSIONATE POLITICS a documentary about Charlotte Bunch, an outspoken lesbian feminist trailblazer and author of the transformative concept that Women’s Rights are Human Rights, aired on PBS. In 2010 Tami directed RFK IN THE LAND OF APARTHEID, a documentary about Robert Kennedy's visit to South Africa in 1966 and the connection between the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa and the US Civil Rights Movement. In 2006, Tami produced the activist video about the popular struggle in Oaxaca, Mexico, LAND RAIN AND FIRE (with Gerardo Renique), which aired internationally and opened the International Labor Film Festival in Turkey. She authored a companion article A RAINBOW IN THE MIDST OF A HURRICANE (Radical Teacher 2008). In 2004, Tami produced and directed EVERY MOTHER’S SON (with Kelly Anderson) winner of the Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award and broadcast on the PBS. This film profiles three mothers whose son’s were killed by the NYPD. In 2000, Tami produced and directed MAKING A KILLING (with Kelly Anderson), a documentary that addresses the marketing practices of the tobacco industry in the developing world which premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival, was aired in Nigeria, Serbia, Lagos and Vietnam. Tami’s other films: ANOTHER BROTHER, the story of an African American Vietnam Veteran aired on PBS; JUGGLING GENDER: Politics, Sex and Identity, screened at the New York Film Festival's video series; OUT AT WORK: Lesbians and Gay men on the Job, screened at the Sundance Film Festival and was shown on HBO and authored a companion article MAKING OUT AT WORK (Social Text - Routledge); SIGNED SEALED AND DELIVERED, Labor Struggle in the Post Office, aired on PBS and LOOKING FOR LOVE: Teenage Mothers among others. Tami is a Professor at Hunter College.

TAMI GOLD is a professor at Hunter College, a filmmaker, writer and a visual artist. Her films have consistently been at the forefront of social justice, focusing on issues of race, gender, sexual identity, labor and police brutality. They have reached audiences near and far, airing on PBS, HBO and on television in Nigeria, South Africa, Germany, France, Turkey, Serbia, Lagos and Vietnam. Her work has also screened at the MOMA, the Whitney, The Chicago Arts Institute, The Kennedy Center, the American and British Film Institutes, Sundance, Tribeca and The New York Film Festival, and in over 150 film festivals worldwide. She is recipient of Rockefeller and Guggenheim fellowships.

In 2016 Tami was a contributing author of Think/Point/Shoot: Media Ethics, Technology and Global Change, Focal Press.

In 2014 Tami was selected (with Sha Sha Feng) to exhibit a work-in-progress of an art installation entitled SURVELLANCE: Silence = Death at the (e)merge Art Fair in Washington, DC. The Vetting Committee members were: Ai Weiwei, artist, Beijing; Mika Yoshitake, assistant curator, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; and Jeffreen M. Hayes, director, Rebuild Foundation, Chicago, St. Louis & Omaha. In addition, she was invited to present the concept and philosophy of this art piece on the panel: CONNECT: SOCIAL PRACTICE presented by The Washington Post.

Also in 2014 Tami completed the documentary PUZZLES: When Hate Came to Town (with David Pavlosky). This film tells the story of a violent hate crime in a LGBT bar and explores the connection between joblessness, homophobia, intolerance, and, ultimately, violence.

In the same year Tami was a PARC Fellow and traveled throughout the West Bank, Palestine. Based on this experince she produced Palestine 2014 Life Under Israeli Occupation - a collection of her photography and writings.

In 2011 Tami directed PASSIONATE POLITICS a documentary about Charlotte Bunch, an outspoken lesbian feminist trailblazer, charismatic builder of bridges and author of the transformative concept that Women’s Rights are Human Rights, aired on PBS and on TV stations through Africa, Latin America and Europe.

Through her collaboration with Hunter faculty she was invited to direct (with Larry Shore) RFK IN THE LAND OF APARTHEID: A Ripple of Hope, a documentary about Robert Kennedy's visit to South Africa in 1966 and the connection between the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa and the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, Prime Time Broadcast on PBS in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Tami has been studying and teaching different popular movements and in 2006, she produced and directed a video report about the popular struggle in Oaxaca, Mexico, LAND RAIN AND FIRE (with Gerardo Renique), which aired internationally in Turkey, Korea and on free Speech TV and on Spanish language TV. She then authored a companion article about the role of media in this struggle - A RAINBOW IN THE MIDST OF A HURRICANE (Radical Teacher 2008).

Issues of aggressive policing have been central to Tami’s organizing work. In 2004, she produced and directed EVERY MOTHER’S SON (with Kelly Anderson), which profiles three mothers whose son’s were killed by the NYPD and unexpectedly find themselves united to seek justice and transform their grief into an opportunity for profound social change. The film won the Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award, was nominated for an EMMY and broadcast on the PBS series POV. She has been on WABC and PBS addressing Stop and Frisk and other related issues. Currently EVERY MOTHER’S SON is streaming over POV/PBS and is being screening throughout the United States.

In 2000, Tami traveled to Vietnam, the Czech Republic and China researching the role of giant tobacco multi nationals on public health. The result of this work is the documentary MAKING A KILLING (with Kelly Anderson); a documentary that addresses the marketing practices of the tobacco industry in the developing world. MAKING A KILLING premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival, was screened for delegates at the World Health Organization and aired in Nigeria, Serbia, Lagos and Vietnam.

Tami’s other films include: ANOTHER BROTHER, the story of an African American Vietnam Veteran nationally broadcast over PBS; JUGGLING GENDER: Politics, Sex and Identity, screened at the New York Film Festival's video series; OUT AT WORK: Lesbians and Gay men on the Job, screened at the Sundance Film Festival and was shown on HBO and authored a companion article MAKING OUT AT WORK (Social Text - Routledge); SIGNED SEALED AND DELIVERED, Labor Struggle in the Post Office, aired on PBS and LOOKING FOR LOVE: Teenage Mothers.

In 2005 Tami designed a cross-cultural documentary course, which she taught at the University of Cape Town in partnership with Hunter College Film and Media Studies Department. This unique course brought fifteen students from both Hunter College and the University of Cape Town together to study and produce documentaries about different aspects of life in South Africa.

Working in conjunction with the Center for Cuban Studies, Tami organized a course in 1993 where she brought Hunter College graduate students to Havana, Cuba. Students visited the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC), met with Cuban filmmakers and presented their work at The International School of Film and Television (EICTV) in San Antonio de los Baños.

New Day Films by Tami Gold

Awards & Accolades

2018 Fulbright Specialist Program
2014 PARC Media Development Seminar/Fellowship
2009 Ford Foundation Grant
2005 Urban Visionaries Award, Museum of Television and Radio
2004 Tribeca Film Festival – Audience Choice Award
2004 Jews For Racial & Economic Justice – Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer Award
2001 Rockefeller Film and Video Fellowship
2000 GLAAD Media Award
1997 Uncommon Woman Award - Legacy Foundation
1988 Manhattan Borough President's Awards for Excellence in the Arts
1985 The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship - Video Artist
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