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“When
you’re a mother with two kids, you learn not to waste time,”
says Gilbert, who is also now editing a documentary project
on Juvenile Justice she hopes to complete next year.
Gilbert’s first feature documentary film, Homecoming,
Sometimes I am haunted by memories of red dirt and clay,
received its national premiere on PBS. Widely recognized as
being the first film to explore the rural roots of
African-American life, it earned her the NBPC Prized Pieces
Award for Best Documentary in 1999 and the Paul Robeson
Award for Best Documentary the following year.
She
co-authored, with Quinn Eli, a companion book to the film
titled Homecoming: The Story of African American Farmers,
which was published by Beacon Press.
Her most
recent documentary, Children Will Listen, also
received a national primetime premiere on PBS in the fall of
2004. That film tracks the junior production of Stephen
Sondheim’s Into the Woods featuring 140 Washington,
D.C. public school children.
Both
films will be shown to the public at UT in the Center for
Performing Arts Room 1039 on Mon. Sept. 24 at
7:30 pm.
Gilbert
has successfully channeled her passion for filmmaking into a
vehicle for social change and social justice.
As Pat
Murphy, Gilbert’s immediate predecessor at the Eberly Center
said, “Charlene brings a new level of creativity and energy
to the center as evidenced by her experience as a
documentary film maker.”
Gilbert’s films and videos have been screened at numerous
international and national festivals including the Athens
International Film and Video Festival, the AFI Los Angeles
International Film Festival, the Philadelphia Festival of
World Cinema, the Women in the Director’s Chair Festival,
the Chicago International Television Festival and the
Silverdocs AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival.
She has
received several awards and fellowships including Harvard
University’s Bunting Fellowship, the Rockefeller Media Arts
Fellowship and the Kellogg National Leadership Fellowship
award.
Gilbert
was born in
Montezuma,
Georgia,
near
Warner
Robins. She is the daughter of Charles Gilbert, Ph.D. (his
doctorate is in organization management) and Earlene
Gilbert. She has one brother, Chuck Gilbert.
Charlene
Gilbert received her bachelor’s degree in political science
and economics from Yale University and her Master of Fine
Arts degree in film and media from
Temple
University.
She came
to UT from the
School
of
Communication
at American University in Washington, D.C. where she was an
associate professor for six years. Previously Gilbert taught
at SUNY Buffalo, which put her just a short drive on the QEW
away from the state-of-the-art film editing studios in
Toronto.
Gilbert’s credentials in women’s and gender studies are
equally as impressive. “I became a public advocate when I
was a rape crisis counselor,” recalls Gilbert. “I later
became an activist and legislative coordinator for the
Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless when I realized
that so many of the homeless families were headed by women,”
she adds.
As she
also told a reporter from the Blade last week,
Gilbert believes she has a “responsibility and commitment to
do whatever I can do in my lifetime to enhance the lives of
women, people of color and poor people.
“We need
to reach more women,” Gilbert told The Sojourner’s
Truth. “It is part of our mission of improving the human
condition. We need to address domestic violence and intimate
violence and educate people about that. We want to eliminate
that as an issue in families and communities.”
The
center is also in the forefront of an innovative program on
why Muslim families should be free of domestic violence.
“My goal
is to bring the Eberly Center in front of the community. I
want to get the word out on the center. I want to make sure
all women know that the doors are open. Our resources are
valuable, take advantage of them.
“[I want] to create a center that is a safe, nurturing and
enriching environment for a broad spectrum of women both on
campus and in the surrounding Toledo Community. I want to
build on the work that has been done for years here at the
center through our Project Succeed program which serves
women in transition as a result of a divorce, death of a
spouse, a layoff or any other situation that requires a
woman to move in new directions. The Center will continue
to offer a variety of workshops and resources for women
seeking assistance to move forward in terms of a career or
higher education.”
She is
excited about the work the center is doing to support single
mothers at UT. “Women with a college degree earn 75 percent
more. A college education is an avenue available to most
women,” says Gilbert.
She
points to the Single Mom Support Group, which met Sept. 19,
and is “focused upon particular needs and situations facing
single mothers such as child care.”
Gilbert
also plans to maximize using the Internet as a resource. “We
are revamping our Web site which will be totally new and
operational by Jan. 1. It is an important element of the
social network.
“We are
also trying to find public partners. I hope that we can work
together with [Toledo Public Schools] in a program that
would also leverage women and girls in schools,” says
Gilbert.
“I also want to build community partnerships with
institutions serving girls in the greater Toledo area
particularly around the development and support of girls
interested in science, technology, engineering, math and
medicine. I want to leverage the resources of the Center in
a way that contributes to positive outcome for girls in a
variety of situations throughout this region.
The
center’s Women in Transition Groups focus upon computer
tutoring, assertiveness training for women, understanding
self-esteem, returning to learning and they offer a stress
reduction seminar.
Thursday
Brown Bag Seminars at the center includes topics such as the
Oct. 18 Womanhood, HIV and Sexual Assault in Tanzania.
Beginning this week and running until Nov. 16, the center is
also hosting an art exhibition featuring photographs by
Stephanie Matthews titled Red Thread Photographic
Collection, Vol 1. There will be a reception for the
photographer on Oct. 4.
“I would
be happy to speak to any group and to help with any issues
relating to women,” says Gilbert. You can call her at (419)
530-8570 or visit
www.womenscenter.utoledo.edu
Gilbert
lives in Sylvania Twp. with her daughters Ashara, 8, and
Simone, 4. “My youngest daughter is named after the
legendary singer Nina Simone,” explains Gilbert.
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