Inspirational Women In Hollywood: How Caitlin Gold of The 51 Fund Is Helping To Shake Up The Entertainment Industry

Don’t worry about what others are doing. Don’t compare. Keep your head down and focus on the stories that you are truly passionate about (but also, look up every once in a while to take a temperature check from people you trust, and from the market at large).

As a part of our series about Inspirational Women In Hollywood, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Caitlin Gold.

Caitlin Gold is a New York based producer whose films have screened at Sundance, Berlin, Tribeca and more. She began producing in 2012 with her first feature film, Naomi McDougall Jones’ debut Imagine I’m Beautiful, released by Screen Media. With a fondness for working with emerging filmmakers, she went on to produce Julia Kots’ debut Inez & Doug & Kira and Catherine Eaton’s debut The Sounding. In 2018, she founded Tanbark Pictures, a development and production company creating artistically ambitious character-driven films while working alongside some of the industry’s most exciting new and underrepresented voices.

Gold is also the Co-Founder and Co-Head of Film at The 51 Fund, a private equity fund dedicated to financing narrative and documentary films directed by women. On behalf of The 51 Fund, she serves as an Executive Producer on Parker Hill and Isabel Bethencourt’s documentary feature Cusp, which premiered in competition at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by Showtime. Next up, she is executive producing Lisa D’Apolito’s Shari Lewis documentary, Shari & Lamb Chop.

Gold is a member of New York Women in Film & Television, and was one of 24 NYWIFT members with projects that screened at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. On behalf of The 51 Fund she was Executive Producer of the Sundance Audience Award winner Shayda. Written and directed by Noora Niasari, the powerful film follows Shayda, a brave Iranian mother who fund refuge in an Australian women’s shelter with her six-year-old daughter. Over Persian New Year, they take solace in Nowruz rituals and new beginnings, but when her estranged husband re-enters their lives, Shayda’s path to freedom is jeopardized.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

I was born and raised in Toronto and I’m very proud to be Canadian. Toronto is and always will be home to me, even though I haven’t resided there since I moved to New York in 2007. My father is a criminal defense attorney and still works like a dog in his mid-70s, and my mother taught English and French at a local high school. I’m the granddaughter of four Holocaust survivors and Judaism, perhaps not religiously but certainly culturally, played a big part in my upbringing and still does today.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

I grew up wanting to be an actress. That’s an understatement. It was the ONLY thing I wanted to do. I was obsessed with movies, television, the theater, all of it. Despite taking acting classes as a kid, I never pursued it professionally in my younger years because I think I was also a little embarrassed by it, like I thought people would think being an actor was silly. I went to undergrad in Canada, to the same university where the majority of my friends went, and put my love of acting aside. But something clicked for me mid-way through my college years where I no longer really cared what others thought. I was confident in myself and my friendships and I realized it was actually cool to not follow the crowd, and be your own person. So, I randomly applied to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) in New York and, to my total shock, was accepted into their two-year acting conservatory program. I moved to New York as soon as I graduated undergrad, thinking I’d give the acting a shot for a couple years and then move home (spoiler alert: I never moved home).

Shortly after graduating from AADA, I began working professionally as an actor. I say professionally but it was mostly bad auditions and really bad off-off Broadway type stuff. It was exciting at first but over time, I started to realize I wasn’t feeling totally fulfilled by the acting. Something was very much missing. On sets, I was always way more interested in what was happening behind the camera and all the people it took coming together to bring this one thing to life. I took an internship at a production company and shortly after I started, they went into production on a film. I assisted the producers on that and basically ended up production coordinating and in the process, I realized that being behind the camera was really where I felt most happy.

I think back frequently to that little girl who just wanted so desperately to be an actress. Now I realize that what I actually wanted to be was a storyteller. As a kid, I assumed the performers are the storytellers — they’re the ones reciting the words, after all. But really, it’s the filmmakers — the writers, the directors, the producers who are the creative forces behind any film. They’re the ones who really bring the thing to life, who push the film into existence.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I mean, I made a million dumb mistakes. One I’ll never forget is when I was just starting out as a PA, I was tasked with ordering walkie talkies for the crew as we were about to start filming. When I called to place the order, the guy asked me what type of surveillance I wanted. I was like “Huh??” He was like “Do you want headsets, earpieces…” I didn’t have a clue as to the difference, so I just went with the cheapest.

The next day, the walkies show up on set with these super old school headsets that probably hadn’t been used on film sets in a decade and the crew was like “What the hell are these?” I was mortified. It was a good lesson in not being afraid to ask questions! Nobody expects you to know it all especially when you’re just starting out and if they do, they’re jerks.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I am so lucky in that I have had some really generous mentors and supportive colleagues my entire career. But one who certainly has been a partner to me longer than most is Naomi McDougall Jones. We started out as actors together at AADA, but over the last 12 years have become so much more. She is a huge part of how I found producing.

When we were both utterly disillusioned with the acting opportunities coming our way, we decided to produce a film that we could both star in — this became one of the first features I ever produced, IMAGINE I’M BEAUTIFUL. We didn’t stop there. We co-founded The 51 Fund together which is financing films by female-directors, and truly has been one of my longest professional relationships to date. She is also an incredible human being and my dear friend.

You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?

Just get out there and make stuff. Practice your craft, learn the business, make connections, forge relationships. Then, focus on making great stuff! Find your tribe, get to know the players. And never stop watching tv and movies just for enjoyment.

Every industry iterates and seeks improvement. What changes would you like to see in the industry going forward?

More than anything I want more women in high level positions at the studios and the streamers. At The 51 Fund, we are working so hard to support more female directors. But until more women are in the decision-making seat where it really counts, the change we are seeking won’t be seismic.

You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?

My company, Tanbark Pictures, has a really exciting slate of projects that we’re working on. Next up, we have a powerful debut film from Tina Satter called REALITY, starring Sydney Sweeney as American whistle-blower Reality Winner, who was sentenced to five years in federal prison for leaking intelligence about Russian interference in the 2016 election. It’s an extraordinary piece of filmmaking and very eye opening. We also have a development slate chock full of exciting projects from filmmakers I adore.

On The 51 Fund side, next up, we have Sony Pictures Classics releasing our film SHAYDA, written and directed by the phenomenal Noora Niasari, which premiered at Sundance and won the Audience Award for World Dramatic Cinema. I cannot wait for the world to see this film.

We are very interested in looking at diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture and our youth growing up today?

1. Film and TV are the most fundamental way we come to understand ourselves, the world, and our place within it. If we don’t see ourselves reflected back to us on screen, we question our place within the ecosystem. We ask, “Do we matter?” The answer is, of course we do.
2. Film and TV are the most fundamental way to come to understand others. Through these mediums, we are exposed to experiences and perspectives different than our own. That exposure is a critical component in fostering empathy.
3. Diverse content is, simply put, smart business. We’ve seen time and time again that audiences crave content by and about women, people of color, people of varying genders and sexual orientations. Films and television series that showcase diverse characters and experiences generally perform extremely well from a financial perspective. So if people want to make lucrative content, it makes perfect sense to invest in diverse creators.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.

1. This industry is a marathon, not a sprint. You have to be in it for the long game and also, burn out is very real.
2. They call is development hell for a reason. You have to love something enough to fight for it every day for years and years to come.
3. When they say, “it’s all about who you know,” they mean it. This is a relationship-driven business, so work hard to forge meaningful relationships.
4. Making “good” or even “great” stuff isn’t enough to stand out. Your work has to be exceptional!
5. Don’t worry about what others are doing. Don’t compare. Keep your head down and focus on the stories that you are truly passionate about (but also, look up every once in a while to take a temperature check from people you trust, and from the market at large).

Can you share with our readers any self-care routines, practices or treatments that you do to help your body, mind or heart to thrive? Please share a story for each one if you can.

We moved outside of the city during the pandemic and it has been amazing for my mental health. Having and taking literal space now is huge.

I also force myself to get outside at least once a day and walk. Even if it’s 20 or 30 minutes. Just get outside.

I’ve started to say “no” more AND I’ve stopped apologizing for it. If I don’t have the bandwidth, I don’t have the bandwidth and I don’t need to make apologies for that.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

What’s that one about jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down? I love that one. My career has very much been about leaps of faith and learning as I go along.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

Oh my, this question makes me cringe. I am most definitely not a person of enormous influence. BUT, if I was, and could inspire such a movement, it would absolutely focus on giving women a more prominent and consistent seat at the table. Women are 51% of the US population so it would be hard to target a greater amount of people than that.

In my experience, when women are the decision-makers, good things happen. When you have women running film sets, or women in the director’s seat, or women choosing what movies get bought or how much to spend on marketing…they do it through a lens that is just different. It’s done with empathy, it’s done with compassion, it’s done with taking people’s hearts and souls into account, it’s done with thinking about people’s families and their physical and mental health. It’s done in a thankful way too. And all of this goodwill trickles down.

Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!

Terrible answer but Andy Cohen?? He’d spill so much tea (my guilty pleasure is basically anything on Bravo).

Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?

Yes, I’m at @caitlin_gold on Instagram and our companies are @tanbarkpictures and @the51fund.

This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!

THANK YOU!