Film and went on to take in more than $6 million at the box office.

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1 Nancy Gerstman Nancy Gerstman was born in Queens, NY to Mortimer Gerstman and Adelaide Koteen. She has twin brothers, George and Richard. Nancy is a member of the Moises Lazarus Straus branch of the family. She currently resides in Manhattan. Nancy was not an artist herself but she was interested in an art--movies. I was really in love with old movies on television. There were four or more stations in New York and I would watch them constantly, obsessed by them really. I watched everything--from King Kong to Top Hat--musicals, adventure, romance, comedy, horror--everything. That was my art. Nancy went to college in the Midwest. She said, It was so important that I went to school there because I was a little hippie kid in high school who only knew the parameters of my life in New York City and especially Manhattan. being in Illinois opened me up to people and things I knew nothing about. Then I transferred after two years to a college in Boston where I had a more normal college experience if you call being in school in 1970 (with nonstop anti-vietnam War protests) normal. In school my major was English. I wasn t thinking of a career at that point and it would have been very unusual for my peers in the 70s to think about their careers. When she was in her early 20s she got a job at New Directions, a publishing company in Manhattan. It was a boutique company which published works by authors such as Tennessee Williams and Djuna Barnes and poets like Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Denise Levertov. She worked there for three years and then decided to start working in film, first with a publisher of film books along with another job taking tickets in a repertory movie house. She worked at a non-profit film foundation for a year and then made the decision to move to San Francisco. There, she worked for Landmark Theatre Corp, the largest independent movie chain in the U. S. After a few years in San Francisco she moved back to New York to work at a film distribution company. It was this last position that gave her the idea that she could make her mark in film creating an independent company. After meeting her future business partner Emily Russo, they decided that starting their own distribution business was the right path to take. Distribution is the bridge between the creator and the means to get their work seen. Zeitgeist Films, the company that Nancy and her partner founded originally acquired films through

2 word of mouth or festivals and then rented them to theatres, media centers and in the educational market. Zeitgeist grew organically into the streaming, VOD, DVD and TV markets. Thirty years later Zeitgeist has an outstanding catalog of films, an excellent reputation for their taste and identification of talent (they distributed first films by Todd Haynes, Christopher Nolan and Laura Poitras). Last year they became strategic partners with another excellent specialized film company, Kino Lorber. Their first acquisition together, BOMBSHELL: The Hedy Lamarr Story has been a hit throughout the U.S. As a female led company in a male dominated business Zeitgeist could not be prouder of their accomplishments. To achieve Zeitgeist s goals Nancy has gone to film festivals including those in Berlin, Toronto, Cannes and New York. She and her partner also hear about films from trusted colleagues or sales agents, who acquire films which they sell to domestic and international territories. When she and Emily first started the company, they decided they would look at every film that was sent to them. After ten years of doing this, they had not taken on one project that had come in unsolicited, so they ended that practice. It took maturity and experience to figure out what worked best for them. Once they find a film that they want to represent, they negotiate with the sales agent or with whomever is handling the film. If the deal is done the Agreement gives Zeitgeist the right to distribute the film for a certain period of time in a certain territory and through certain platforms like the ones described above. Zeitgeist devises a marketing strategy including hiring a public relations consultant to publicize the film. They have screenings and other events surrounding most films that they release. Nancy emphasized that her company is well known for very unpredictable choices in films. Picky is what some people say. Emily and I don t like when someone says that this is definitely a Zeitgeist film. Usually it won t be. But one quality that all our films have in common is that they're all good. In the past they have inadvertently ended up with about half documentaries, half features, around 6 films per year. She and her partner rarely disagree about movies which, among other things has made for a great working relationship. Nancy said, I see what my filmmakers do as art. I feel like I m an enabler of art. Certainly, there is craft in distributing film but saying I m an artist is not accurate. I think my filmmakers are artists. extraordinary artists. Her passion for film as a child drove her to this career and the need to be involved in film is in her blood. The business has changed radically since Nancy and Emily began and it s considerably more challenging now. When they started Zeitgeist, there were about eight films opening per week so every distributor s film could get full reviews and maintain their runs for weeks at a time. Now, twenty-five or more films open each week and competition for screens and press is fierce. On top of that there are so many new ways to see films outside of a theatre which brings opportunity for some but perhaps less for a small company like Zeitgeist which depends on solid theatrical releases to stay in business. In terms of recognition, not only is Zeitgeist one of the longest-running distribution companies but when critics and even the public know it s a Zeitgeist film they know they are seeing a quality production. In 2008, the Museum of Modern Art gave Zeitgeist a month-long retrospective for their 20 th anniversary including a large gala with hundreds of guests. MOMA showed 20 of their films and had several filmmakers come and speak about their movies. Nancy described it as one of the brightest moments of their careers. The other wonderful honor was when one of their films, NOWHERE IN AFRICA won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and went on to take in more than $6 million at the box office.

3 One of Zeitgeist s other very successful films was BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK. It was about the greatly beloved 83-year-old bicycle riding photographer for the New York Times who had a column called On the Street in the Style section (Bill died in 2017). Emily and I and our staff absolutely loved it. As soon as the fashion bloggers heard about the film the word got out quickly. But the thing about the film that touched people s hearts and made it a hit was that Bill himself had such an amazing personality. He was such a modest person in the crazy fashion world, and so wise, and interesting. That was a home run for us. Zeitgeist Films has opened the doors for filmmakers artists as it were to have a platform for their work and they intend to keep doing that. I would like audiences to be stimulated by our films and, since we have so many types of movies in our catalog, there is no lack of stimulation. Basically, I just think that people should put aside their prejudices and be open to all sorts of movies. Nancy Gerstman s Website: zeitgeistfilms.com

4 The Corporation Image Courtesy of Zeitgeist Films

5 The Divine Order Image Courtesy of Zeitgeist Films

6 Diplomacy Image Courtesy of Zeitgeist Films

AUGUST 3 RD 12 TH, 2018 KEW GARDENS CINEMAS, KEW GARDENS, NY QUEENS MUSEUM, FLUSHING MEADOW PARK, NY THE CENTER AT MAPLE GROVE CEMETARY, KEW GARDENS,

AUGUST 3 RD 12 TH, 2018 KEW GARDENS CINEMAS, KEW GARDENS, NY QUEENS MUSEUM, FLUSHING MEADOW PARK, NY THE CENTER AT MAPLE GROVE CEMETARY, KEW GARDENS, NY WHO WE ARE The Kew Gardens Festival of Cinema is