Film Forum

A documentary filmmaker since 1972, Maureen Gosling has served as a director, producer, editor, sound recordist, distributor. She is best known for her 20-year collaboration with the late Les Blank on over twenty films, including the British Academy Award-winning BURDEN OF DREAMS, I WENT TO THE DANCE, GARLIC IS AS GOOD AS TEN MOTHERS, and GAP-TOOTHED WOMAN. She directed, produced, and edited the feature documentary, THE 9 LIVES OF BARBARA DANE on jazz/blues/folk singer activist Barbara Dane; THIS AIN'T NO MOUSE MUSIC!, with Chris Simon, on the legacy of American roots music record producer, Chris Strachwitz; and the short Bamako Chic, with Maxine Downs PhD. She directed, edited, and produced BLOSSOMS OF FIRE, on the Zapotecs of southern Oaxaca, Mexico. For the last 16 years she has worked with producer, Jed Riffe, on nine films, including LEISTOCENE PARK, now streaming on VICE-TV; and THE LONG SHADOW, broadcast on PBS. Her films have been broadcast nationally and internationally, shown theatrically, and distributed educationally. In April 2023, Gosling was honored at the Centre Pompidou’s cycle 'Americana: Les Blank & the Ross Brothers and in 2024', at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley’s Les Blank Retrospective. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences.

Harrod Blank is known mostly for his work in making and documenting art cars, including Oh My God! and the Camera Van and films WILD WHEELS and AUTOMORPHOSIS. Since 2005, he has been building an art car museum and environment, Art Car World, on the border of Mexico in Douglas Arizona. His film work continues with exploring a 30 year epic project on the Burning Man festival, on which his father Les Blank was a cinematographer. After his father's death in 2013, Harrod has been running the non profit Les Blank Films to continue his father’s legacy. He has remastered 7 of his films including the latest, BURDEN OF DREAMS, and is finishing his last film, YOU CAN'TSQUEEZE BLOOD OUT OF A TURNIP featuring folk artist Butch Anthony.

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