Barbara Gordon (filmmaker)

Barbara Gordon (née Loeb) is an American documentary filmmaker and author.

She worked on the PBS Emmy Award-winning series The Great American Dream Machine, where she filmed segments on Studs Terkel, Dalton Trumbo, and Jane Fonda.

After graduating from Barnard College, she worked for almost 20 years in television as a writer and producer. In 1979, Gordon released her autobiography I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can, which follows her addiction to Valium and battle toward recovery. A film adaptation, directed by Jack Hofsiss and starring Jill Clayburgh as Gordon, was released in 1982.

She lives in New York City.

Career
After graduating from Barnard College in 1956, Gordon got a job as a secretary in the public relations department at NBC. She worked her way up through the company, eventually becoming a researcher, then a production assistant.

Gordon worked on The Today Show until the late 1960s when she left and went to work for National Educational Television, where she co-produced documentaries.

Gordon worked for a CBS affiliate, WCBS, in New York and won two Emmys for her work on the Channel 2 series Eye On. She produced documentaries on topics spanning from retirement fraud in the volunteer army to the rights of mental health patients to live in communities where they weren't welcome.

Personal life
During 1976, Gordon suffered from an addiction to Valium. She later wrote about her experiences and recovery in her memoir I'm dancing as fast as I can, released in 1979.

Publications

 * I’m dancing as fast as I can - Memoir (1979)
 * Defects of the Heart. Mass Market Paperback (1983)
 * Jennifer Fever. Harper Collins (1988)