Forward Films

The documentary media production company of San Francisco-based filmmaker Jen Gilomen

I make documentary media and act as a producer, consulting producer, story consultant, and cinematographer for fellow filmmakers.

Current Projects

Born for this

documentary film & storytelling project

Born for This follows one Black couple as they plan and hope for a home birth with their midwife and doula. The feature film will be completed in 2023, and a companion storytelling project and exhibition is in production.

delivering justice

feature documentary film

Delivering Justice follows powerhouse midwife Tanya Smith-Johnson, a mother of six and leader of the reproductive justice movement, as she aims  to bring midwifery care to Black and Native communities by advancing legislation in her home state of Mississippi and opening a “teaching birth center” in New Mexico. The film is currently in production.

FREELANCE WORK

producer & cinematographer

Jen is a frequent collaborator with a vast array of experience directing, producing, filming and editing documentary media. As a cinematographer she often acts as a one-woman band, filming scenes, lighting interviews, and recording audio. As a long-time producer, Jen also frequently collaborates with emerging and established filmmakers as a producer or consulting producer to help guide their storytelling and get all of their ducks in a row. See her full bio and reel below or simply…

Jen Gilomen

Director, producer, cinematographer

Jen Gilomen is an award-winning documentary producer, director, and cinematographer who has created films screened on PBS, Netflix, Amazon, and at film festivals around the world.  She produced and shot UNSETTLED, a feature doc by Tom Shepard which premiered in the SFFILM festival and on the PBS World Channel in 2019 before winning 17 awards and screening at over 50 festivals. With her long-time filmmaking partner Sally Rubin, Jen produced, directed and shot the short documentary LIFE ON THE LINE, which broadcast on PBS stations over 3600 times in its first six months of distribution.  Jen and Sally also co-directed and produced the feature documentary DEEP DOWN, which Jen shot and Sally edited. The film premiered on Independent Lens, streamed on Netflix and Amazon, participated in the U.S. State Department’s American Documentary Showcase, and received a national Emmy nomination. Jen often works collaboratively with subjects and has practiced participatory filmmaking and done extensive impact work since 2005.

In addition to directing, producing, and shooting her own work, Jen often creates client media and serves as a DP, additional cinematographer, or consulting producer for other talented Bay Area filmmakers.  She has had a long career mentoring and supporting other filmmakers as a director at BAVC Media, supervising producer at ITVS, board member of Working Films, member of distribution coöperative New Day Films, and co-founder of the Collective of Documentary Women Cinematographers.  Jen is an associate of the U.C. Berkeley Investigative Reporting Program and member of the Documentary Producers Alliance, Film Fatales, and Bay Area Women Director’s Collective, and lives in San Francisco with her wife and four-year-old daughter. She is currently producing the feature doc COACH EMILY by director Pallavi Somusetty as well as directing, producing, and shooting two films about different aspects of the maternal healthcare crisis, one a feature called DELIVERING JUSTICE, and the other BORN FOR THIS, through her production company Forward Films.  [IMDB]

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