Biography
Gail Segal arrived in New York City in the early 80’s after 10 years of a North Carolina education. In New York her education continued with the legendary filmmakers Francis Thompson and Sasha Hammid.
The erratic life of filmmaking allowed for work as a waitress, a researcher, a language coach for travelers, a house painter, a free-lance writer, and a medical receptionist. Among her film producing efforts: a 15-part series for PBS, “The Shakespeare Hour,” a Peabody Award winning feature length documentary, “Arguing the World,” a Texas tale, “Five Wives, Three Secretaries and Me,” and even a bio-pic on William Blake, starring George Rose and Anne Baxter.
A 1984 essay in the American Poetry Review introduced her to the poems of Ellen Bryant Voight. Five years later, she completed an MFA in Creative Writing under Voigt’s tutelage. Her first book of poems, “In Gravity’s Pull” was published in 2002 and second collection, “The Discreet Charm of Prime Numbers” in 2013, An excerpt from her current unpublished chapbook, “Still” can be found on this site.
In the 1990’s, GS developed a documentary program at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies. She also, during this decade, conceived a course in Film Style to be taught to graduate students in the conservatory program for directors at NYU. This led to an invitation to participate as a full-time faculty member. It also inspired the recent book, co-authored with Sheril Antonio, “Dramatic Effects with a Movie Camera,” Bloomsbury Press, 2021.
Her recent film work (writer/director) includes the award winning narrative short, “Filigrane,” set in the Empty Quarter of the U.A.E. and a documentary portrait of women textile workers in the hill towns of Turkey, “Meanwhile, in Turkey.” She is currently in development on three narrative feature projects. One returns her to the Deep South, a second is set in France, and the third project is a love letter to post-pandemic New York City.
GS continues to teach graduate film students at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where she is as an Associate Arts Professor. More about her work at NYU can be found at: https://tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/grad-film/98599158