Catherine Gund

Catherine Gund, the Founder and Director of Aubin Pictures, is an Emmy-nominated producer, director, writer, and activist. Her media work focuses on strategic and sustainable social transformation, arts and culture, HIV/AIDS and reproductive health, and the environment. Her films - which include Chavela, Dispatches from Cleveland, American Rhapsody, Born to Fly, What's On Your Plate?, A Touch of Greatness, Motherland Afghanistan, Making Grace, On Hostile Ground, and Hallelujah! - have screened around the world in festivals, theaters, museums, and schools; on PBS, the Discovery Channel, and the Sundance Channel. Gund serves on several boards including Art Matters, Solidaire, Osa Conservation and The George Gund Foundation. She co-founded the Third Wave Foundation which supports young women and transgender youth, and DIVA TV, an affinity group of ACT UP/NY. She was the founding director of BENT TV, the video workshop for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth. She was on the founding boards of Bard Early Colleges, Iris House, Working Films, Reality Dance Company and The Sister Fund and has also served for MediaRights.org, The Robeson Fund of the Funding Exchange, The Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School, and the Astraea Foundation. Gund's most recent projects include: Dispatches from Cleveland (CIFF, MSPIFF), a documentary series in five parts that looks at the police murder of 12-year-old Tamir Rice and shows how people joined together to vote out the prosecutor who didn't have their backs; Chavela (Berlinale, Hot Docs, Ambulante) a documentary about the life of the iconic Latin-American gender-bending diva, Chavela Vargas; and Born to Fly (SXSW, Full Frame), a documentary that pushes the boundaries between action and art, daring us to join choreographer Elizabeth Streb and her dancers in pursuit of human flight. She lives in NYC with her four children.