Daughter from Danang had
two directors that worked together to make such a great documentary of the
joyful, confusing, and all around unique reunion of a mother and daughter,
separated for over 20 years. Gail Dolgin was born on April 4, 1945 in Long
Island, New York. Dolgin did her undergraduate studies in Art History at the University of
Pennsylvania. She then went on to obtain her Master’s Degree in Instructional Technology at the University
of Oregon.
Shortly after Gail
finished with her higher education, she became a member of Newsreel. Newsreel
is an activist film collective located in New York. This is where her passion
and love for filmmaking really started to form and the pursuit to find some way
to make a difference with her filmmaking began. (Photography had actually been
her first love and still is a large part of her life). Beside is a picture of
Gail Dolgin taking some time to enjoy her first love.
One of the two Oscars that
Dolgin was nominated was for Daughter of Danang back in 2003. Unfortunately,
she didn’t win. But Gail was able to win two other awards one in 2002 and one
in 2011. The two prizes were The Grand Jury Prize and the Interfaith Award,
both of which were for Daughter of Danang.
A couple other
documentaries of Gail’s that she is well known for include: Summer of Love, The
Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement, and Cuba Va:
The Challenge of the Next Generation.
Unfortunately, back on October 7, 2010, Gail Dolgin lost a ten year battle with breast cancer. Even through her fight with breast cancer, Gail managed to find it within herself to continue to make documentaries no matter what her personal health issues were. Because of her dedication, love, and hard work her documentaries will be remembered for a long time to come. Dolgin’s documentary, Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement was nominated for an award this year, which just goes to show she left an amazing legacy behind.
The second director that
made Daughter from Danang possible was Vicente Franco. Franco studied Journalism at the University of Madrid, Spain. He also studied Photography at El
Camino College in Torrance, California. Vicente eventually completed his Bachelors degree in Film Production at the
University of California in Santa Barbara, California. He continued on to receive his Master’s degree in Film Production at San
Francisco State University. 
Works Cited
I thought it was very interesting the both of the directors shared a first love for photography. This may be why Daughters from Danang was a popular documentary. I also thought that it was incredible that Gail continued her filming career after being diagnosed with breast cancer. You don't often hear of a people like this that perservere through such hard times. This shows that she had a tremendous passion for film making
ReplyDeleteTerry Rosenberg
I think that because Gail continued her filming career throughout her battle with breast cancer was part of the reason she fought for so long. I also think that it just goes to show how strong of a person she was.
DeleteAlaina,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading about the directors of this film. I found it interesting that the directors had a passion for photography. This was noticeable throughout the film. I like how you provided us with a list of films that both these directors produced. Nice work!
Misty Olinger
Thank you, Misty! I think it is common for directors to have a love for photography and film making.
DeleteGail's story is very inspiring. Passion seems to be a trend with all of the directors of the films we have watched. These directors discovered their "first love" at a young age, and they even pursued an education for their particular passions. It is nice to see that such individuals were involved in the making of this and other films.
ReplyDeleteIn order to make any type of documentary, I think there needs to be some level of passion for the topic they're filming. If not, I think the directors would lose a sense of intimacy in the topic.
DeleteIt was clear to me that both directors had much experience in cinematography. I actually liked this documentary very much and would go so far as to say it has been my favorite so far! The directors did a good job putting together this film and as someone else commented, you could see their first love of photography coming out in the film. One last thing I wanted to ask, or point out was at the very end of the documentary. Just before the credits start rolling, there was a tribute to Stuart Dolgin. Was this a spouse or loved one of Gail's? Obviously there had to be some connection there and was just curious as to the story. Any Ideas Alaina?
ReplyDeleteFrom what I was able to find, Stuart Dolgin was Gail's brother who passed away on July 2, 2001 after a 3 1/2 yr battle with pancreatic cancer. My guess would be that since Daughter of Danang was released the following year, Gail wanted to do something special not only to commemorate her brother but a nice gesture for her family as well. I hope this helps, Scott!
DeleteIt inspires me that even though Gail was battling breast cancer, she still continued to live her dream and make documentaries. People like this give me hope and dream that I can do anything no matter what obstacles I face. Gail didn't give up and despite her health issues, continued living life to it's fullest. I pray that if ever faced with a terrible situation that I would have the strength to fight and live.
ReplyDeleteIt definitely does take a special type of person to continue to live their life to the fullest during such an awful and LONG experience!
DeleteI'm glad that Gail was able to find her passion in life and enjoy her work. So many people don't feel truly fulfilled by her work, but it is very obvious, both from the quality of work and from the fact that she continued working until the end, that she truly enjoyed her career. I think it's impressive that both directors have had successes with previous films as well. They obviously both had a lot of experience combined between the two of them coming into the film which is why it doesn't surprise me at all that it turned out as well as it did.
ReplyDelete-Nicole Eshelman
I agree! I think that this is by far my favorite documentary we watched!
DeleteYou did a great job in presenting these two directors! It was very evident that Gail was passionate about everything she did. Even with battling cancer for 10 years, she still pushed on and did what she love which really showed a lot about her as a person. I also thought it was pretty cool how they were both really interested in photography. What were their favorite things to take photos of, did you find out? But again great job in giving us the background of these two directors that put together film!
ReplyDelete-Michael Chack
Unfortunately, I was not able to find anything about what Gail Dolgin's or Vicente Franco's favorite things were to take photos of. If I had to guess, it would be anything and everything, just simply because they were both filmmakers as well and anything that caught their eye they'd want to capture on film. But thank you for the compliments on the bios as well!
ReplyDeleteI think you did a good job researching the directors. It was interesting to find out more about their private, personal lives in addition to their backgrounds in photography. Like others, I found it inspiring that despite her health issues with cancer that her passion and drive allowed her to continue forward. It is interesting that, despite their passion of photography, that they experienced the greatest success with cinematography.
ReplyDelete