Biographies

Thomas C. Gaunt is a Chicago based artist and filmmaker whose films have won awards at film festivals around the country and aired on PBS, MTV2 Europe and The Hallmark Channel.  He is the founder of At The ROOTS Films, a Chicago based production company whose mission is to produce meaningful films and television programs that have an impact on society.  He is currently co-producer, cinematographer and assistant editor of the documentary Art House, a The Kindling Group production about Chicago’s ACME Artist’s Community directed by Kelly Luchtman.  The documentary follows seven diverse artists as they attempt to create a communal live / work space.

Gaunt recently received the “Audience Award” at the Indianapolis International Film Festival and a “Crystal Heart Award” at the Heartland Film Festival for A Place Called Home: An Adoption Story, a personal documentary about his parent’s unique adoption of nine siblings, ages 1-15 years old.  Over the course of three years, the documentary follows the family’s progress and hardships as the parents and the adopted children come to terms with their past and begin to reshape their future.  In 1999 he co-photographed the critically acclaimed documentary Corrections, directed by Ashley Hunt, which chronicles the privatization of prisons.  Corrections went on to premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah and premiere on The Hallmark Channel.  In 1997, he received a grant from the Puffin Foundation to produce and direct Living on the Border in Middle America, a film about five second generation Latino’s and their struggle with defining cultural identity in a university setting.  Living on The Border, premiered at the Olympia Film Festival in 1998.  In 1995, Gaunt completed Caught in the Loop, an experimental documentary on homelessness in Chicago.  The film premiered on PBS, screened at over fifteen film festivals across the country and won three awards including the “Gold Award” at the Houston International Film Festival and the “Audience Award” at the Indiana Film & Video Festival. 

Gaunt spent three years learning the craft of documentary filmmaking while working for Kartemquin Films, a Chicago based film collective known for producing critically acclaimed documentaries such as 1994’s Hoop Dreams and 2002’s Stevie.  After graduating with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Film and Video Production from the School of The art Institute of Chicago, he began working as a staff producer at CAN TV (Chicago Access Network Television).  He went on to create, produce and direct CAN TV Community Forum, an award-winning talk show program dedicated to giving a voice to local nonprofit organizations that provide vital services and information to underrepresented communities in Chicago.  The majority of CAN TV Community Forum programs addressed a variety of social issues including the environment, labor, race relations, gender rights, human rights, civil rights, civil liberties, health care, prison reform, housing, and immigration to name a few.  In his first year he produced and directed over 150 CAN TV Community Forum programs for CAN TV. CAN TV Community Forum episodes won a “First Place Award” and two “Honorable Mention Awards” at the Hometown Video Festival in 2002.