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Joe Berlinger '83 (right) talks with Danilo Cortes '06 in the Little Hall projection room. Berlinger reviewed video projects by Cortes, who is a film and media studies minor. (Photo by Timothy Sofranko)

Several years into his career in advertising, Joe Berlinger ’83 called his former professor and friend John Knecht. Berlinger explained his dilemma: “I want to make films but I’m in this other career. What should I do?”

Knecht, a professor of art and art history at Colgate, gave a simple but inspiring reply. “Well,” he said, “go make a film.”

So he did. The result was 1989’s Outrageous Taxi Stories, which won 10 major awards on the international film festival circuit, including a nomination for Distinguished Documentary Achievement from the International Documentary Association.

The film was born from a combination of positioning and resourcefulness. “I worked at a company that produced TV commercials and I looked around at my resources and talked a lot of people into doing me favors,” Berlinger said. “I just figured out how to take my situation and use it for maximum benefit.”

Since Outrageous Taxi Stories, Berlinger has produced and directed more than 20 major projects and has garnered much critical acclaim. His work has addressed a wide range of subject matter, from Nazi atrocities in Gray Matter to the American justice system in Paradise Lost to heavy metal superstardom in Metallica: Some Kind of Monster.

From Oct. 23-28, Colgate welcomed Berlinger as its distinguished filmmaker in residence for a week of film screenings, readings, and master classes. All events were free and open to the public, and students and faculty alike had a chance to learn from the man behind the movies.

Over the course of the week, Berlinger had much to tell his viewers and listeners about the process of filmmaking and his conception of himself as an artist.

Berlinger is motivated by the idea of telling good stories, shining a light, so to speak, on people and places that otherwise might be relegated to the shadows.

“The kind of films I make allow me to go into worlds – whether it’s a superstar rock band or a trailer park community in rural Arkansas or a farming community right around the corner in Munnsville, New York – and immerse myself in the way other people live,” he said.

While he shares stories with others, Berlinger noted that his films are often learning experiences for him as well.

For example, he went into filming 1996’s Paradise Lost – the story of three Arkansas teens wrongly accused of murder – without any strong opinions on the death penalty, but emerged vehemently opposed to it.

Because his work often deals with intensely personal stories and emotions, Berlinger often confronts questions about what to reveal. “I would never leave something out of a film if I felt it was essential to communicating the story,” he said.

Joe Berlinger talks to students during a class taught by John Knecht, who is in the foreground. (Photo by Timothy Sofranko)

All the same, he admitted to some discomfort with the more intrusive aspects of his job.

“They hypocrisy of what I do bothers me sometimes,” he said. “If the situation was reversed, I would never allow filmmakers into my life in a moment of crisis. Not in a million years. And yet I convince people that their sharing of their story will help others.”

The result, for Berlinger, is a sort of juggling act of responsibilities: to the audience, to the subject, and to himself as an artist.

“There’s a fine line between being a storyteller and being a manipulator, and I walk that line very carefully,” he said.

Berlinger noted that he isn’t on the “academic circuit,” but that he appreciated the opportunity to revisit Colgate.

“To come back to the place where I developed intellectually and present my work has allowed me to take stock at this point in my career,” he said.

For Berlinger, a German major, learning how to make a film came after Colgate, but his time here as an undergraduate helped him to cultivate a curiosity about the world that later influenced his work. And it’s no coincidence that Brother’s Keeper, which he considers his first professional film, was made in Munnsville, eight miles from Colgate.

 “I very much connect my Colgate experience with my first professional filmmaking experience,” he said, adding that the Munnsville story caught his eye because of its proximity to Colgate.

Not surprisingly, Berlinger is often asked for career advice. “Everyone’s path is different, but the one key ingredient to success is a burning desire to do something,” he said. “If you don’t have a burning desire to do something, it probably won’t happen.”

When asked what he loves most about his job, Berlinger spoke of the many opportunities to expose himself to interesting people and places.

Of Metallica, he said, “I had an all-access pass to their lives. I spent two years observing the inner sanctum of a superstar rock band. It was like a high school kid’s dream.”