Melody Gilbert

The Summer Help

Melody Gilbert

At their university in Eastern Europe, they are future bankers, journalists and politicians. In America, they are just “the help.” From Martha’s Vineyard to Myrtle Beach, thousands of international students descend upon summer resorts and tourist towns in the U.S. to clean hotel rooms, wash dishes and make pizza for Americans on vacation. Who are these students and what will they find when they get to the country of their dreams? Why do they work at two, three and sometimes four jobs for minimum wage? Is America what they thought it would be? In this documentary, we meet students from Bulgaria who dream about going to America to do the jobs that most American teenagers don’t want to do. What will they find when they get there and how will it change them? At a time of foreclosures and unemployment in the U.S., The Summer Help reminds us that America still represents hope and fulfills dreams for young people from around the world… even if it’s just for one summer.

Disconnected: A Documentary

Melody Gilbert

Mitchell Lundin, Caitlin Magnusson

Three Carleton College students take on the challenge of ditching computers to find out how their academic, social, and work lives will be affected. No Facebook. No e-mail. No YouTube. How will they get their work done? Will they cheat? Who will survive the longest? This documentary follows Andrew, Caitlin, and Chel as they learn to interact with themselves and with others in ways we have largely forgotten.

A Life Without Pain

Melody Gilbert

The film explores the daily lives of three children with Congenital insensitivity to pain, a rare genetic disorder shared by just a hundred people in the world. Three-year-old Gabby from Minnesota, 7-year-old Miriam from Norway and 10-year-old Jamilah from Germany have to be carefully guarded by their parents so they don't suffer serious, life-altering injuries.

Whole

Melody Gilbert

Explores individuals who feel the need to become amputees by interviewing these individuals and psychiatrists, loved ones, etc.

Urban Explorers: Into the Darkness

Melody Gilbert

Welcome to the captivating world of urban exploration, an international subculture of fearless thrill-seekers who lurk beneath city streets and trespass into long-abandoned buildings, defiantly searching for unseen treasures of modern civilization. Documentary filmmaker Melody Gilbert follows Max Action, Slim Jim, Katwoman and Turobzutek as they infiltrate aging lunatic asylums, government sites, faded tourist attractions, sewers, drains, and even the forbidden Catacombs in Paris. Many explore armed with only a camera, often snapping astonishingly beautiful photos.

Silicone Soul

Melody Gilbert

Love comes in many forms, and in Melody Gilbert’s Silicone Soul, the need for companionship and understanding is shown in the bond between humans and their synthetic companions. Tenderly captured by Gilbert, the bonds shown in the film are diverse and layered: from romantic relationships, to friendships, to a recreation of the love between mother and child. Silicone Soul does not allow for its subjects to be easily labeled or judged. Instead, the film is a collection of resoundingly human stories that reflect universal themes—the desire for love, compassion and communication.

Stories I Didn't Know

Melody Gilbert, Rita Davern

As a child from St. Paul, MN, Rita Davern was always told, with pride, how her family once owned Pike Island at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. While researching her ancestors' immigration from Ireland, she begins to explore the complicated legacy of settling on Dakota land, and her quest for reconciliation begins in this eye-opening documentary.