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Telling stories

By Jim Mount

Fort Wayne Reader

2009-06-04

From its inception, the motion picture medium has always had a special way of affecting audiences. One of the more vivid examples is an early, silent film of a locomotive that appeared to be speeding straight at the camera, sending the first audiences instinctively scrambling to get out of the way. By 1921, motion pictures, still in their infancy, began to broaden out in different ways. Robert Flaherty used this fantastic new medium to “document” the life of Nanook, an Eskimo living by the Hudson Bay, in Nanook of the North. In 1926, Flaherty was sent to Samoa to film Moana, and it was with this film that the term “documentary” was first used to classify a genre of film.

With the technological media revolution, a capability that was once limited to a select few has been made far more broadly accessible to anyone who would be producers and storytellers. One of those people lives here in Fort Wayne, documenting the experiences of people we don't know but whose lives could easily intersect with our own.

The editing suite at PBS39 is small, ten by ten with most of that space closely packed with monitors, playback decks and editing equipment. The lights are dimmed comfortably leaving the room subdued in the glowing ambiance of electronic colors emanating from the monitors. It’s hard to believe that the programming quality that comes out of this little closet is on par with some of the larger production facilities in bigger markets, yet here is where nationally recognized and locally produced documentaries have been made and grafted onto video.

Sitting sideways on a swivel chair, Mary Gerber is relaxed here in her editing suite home at the station. It’s early in the afternoon and she's taking a break from production to share a little bit about what she does. Gerber is not only an award-winning senior producer and director at WFWA, she is a creator and a teller of stories with productions that, as she describes them, focus on the “human element.” Titles include Fort Wayne: City of Churches, The Lindenwood Chronicles, Little River Wetlands (which won a regional Emmy Award) and The Call of Life: 20 Prescriptions for Living the Good Life. But it’s Gerber’s 2006 documentary Expectations: Living With Alzheimer’s Disease, that’s probably won her the most acclaim, netting her a Mature Media Award, a Telly Award, and an award from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Gerber got her start working for a commercial production company. At the time, she was also going to IPFW pursuing a Communications degree with an emphasis on production and feeling pretty fortunate at that stage in her life. As it happened, life intervened and became the practical teacher in her field of study. “I didn’t finish my degree,” she admits. “With the production company I was working for, I was on the road all the time so I couldn’t keep up with my classes. I had to make the choice between continuing to work the field and traveling the country or stay home and go to school.”

That practical experience gained on the road working her job molded the skills she would later use to make it in her field absent a degree. Coupled with an innate desire for creativity, the pieces in Gerber’s life began to fall together. “I began leaning more towards the humanities driven work and being around more real life stories as opposed to making commercials for big screen TVs,” says Gerber, who still does commercial work occasionally. “It was great experience, but I just felt more inclined to the human element rather than TV’s and cars.”

To be a successful producer, a combination of drive, skill and experience would probably be helpful and the road Gerber traveled to get to where she is now certainly reflects the presence of those qualities. “Even before I started working and was still in school, I met an independent producer while I was a receptionist for an advertising company,” Gerber recalls. “He had an office in the basement and so I’d see him all the time and getting to know him, he'd tell me about his trips to third world countries. His mission was giving small countries exposure in order to help them.” An interest in photography was also helpful for Gerber. “He knew I was into photography so he asked me to take some photographs of his and incorporate them into a production he was making.” Gerber says. “Before I knew it, I had pretty much taken over the project.”

Gerber hopes to capitalize on the success of Expectations: Living With Alzheimer’s Disease by creating a series that would address issues such as autism, AIDS, and mental health. “It just provides people with something other than just the medical aspect of it,” Gerber says of the potential Expectations series. “It’s more of a hands-on caring.”

WFWA PBS39 is currently trying to raise funds for a show on the Allen County community program Great Kids Great Communities: Building Assets In Allen County Youth.

Asked about the awards she won for Expectations, Gerber’s focus shifts. “I was elated of course, but with the team here, the more we worked on it, the more involved we became with the families and the unique stories that came from them,” Gerber says. “It's everyone putting together something that builds to the ultimate purpose of the project and that's sharing stories of families dealing with difficulties.”

Eighty eight years after the silent documentation of the life of an obscure Eskimo named Nanook, Mary Gerber carries the spirit of Flaherty’s groundbreaking venture into the 21st century, sharing the lives and struggles of our neighbors we otherwise wouldn't know of.