FilmMaker BIO
Gilbert Mulamba makes his documentary-producing debut with “The Street Children of Kinshasa”, a narrative short film exploring the causes and consequences of the crisis affecting children in the Capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The film has several elements filmed Kinshasa. Directed, written and edited by Gilbert, the film has screened around the United States and continues to garner attention from several organizations, universities and communities. This past February this film was an official selection of the 2009 Pan African Film Festival in Culver City, where it received excellent reviews from the organizers and film makers from around the world.
An accomplished musician and music producer, Gilbert wrote and recorded the documentary music score and sound effects. As an independent artist, he has released a Jazz CD untitled “Trustin’Him” which has been receiving excellent reviews from top-rated PR companies and Jazz and inspirational sites as well. Gilbert worked as a scientist with Harvard Medical School for several years after earning his Master’s degree from West Chester University. He is currently pursuing a Scientist career in the private sector. Gilbert’s accidental foray into documentary making began when he returned to Kinshasa in 2006 for a family visit and was shocked by the state of the children in the DRC. Unlike most documentary films in the same category, the Street Children of Kinshasa was neither scripted nor planned. There was no pre-planning or budgeting, no schedules for shooting or no screenplay. Simply put, there wasn’t a project to create this film. The almost accidental scenes were shot by curiosity as Gilbert strolled through the street of Kinshasa to rediscover the city where he grew up. It is only later upon returning to the United States that he began reading to find more about what he saw on the streets of Kinshasa. The more he read and discovered, the burden of the crisis’s magnitude prompted him to use the images that he had on his hands to tell the story of the voiceless innocent and abandoned children.
Prior to this documentary, Gilbert’s work in films has is related to writing music score for independent films such as “Dear Angry “ by Anthony Miller, featuring Mark Joy and produced by Award-nominated director David Creech. He also scored the music theme for a full length film by LilacFilms in the RTP area.
He has authored and co-authored several articles that have been published in journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine and Journal of Virology. He speaks English, French, Lingala, Swahili and Tshiluba. He currently resides in the RTP area in NC with his two children Jessye (14) and Jeremy (10).