Some of us are destined for fame in our chosen career of editing. Some of us labor in obscurity, and only we know the magic that we have performed. For some of us it is the love of the craft that keeps us going and for some of us that is enough.

The latter seemed to have been the case for Milton Moses Ginsberg, ACE – a film editor as well as an occasional writer/ director – who died May 23 at the age of 85.

Born in the Bronx, Ginsberg attended Columbia University where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in literature. Fellini’s La Dolce Vita inspired him to want to make movies. He began his career in film editing at NBC News, served as an assistant on the classic Candid Camera TV series, and held a production job with documentarians Albert and David Maysles.

In 1969 he made what some consider the ultimate experimental film, Coming Apart. Using a single locked-down 35mm camera and a mirror he chronicled the fall and destruction of a psychiatrist expertly played by actor Rip Torn. His camera is unforgiving and misses nothing in exploring human behavior.

He didn’t make the movie so much because he wanted to; he simply had to. It was a story inside of him that had to get out. Though it received several good reviews, the movie was destined for obscurity until in recent years it was resurrected.

His second feature in 1973 was an ode to the two things that scared him: Lon Chaney’s 1941 film The Wolf Man and the presidency of Richard Nixon. With The Werewolf of Washington Dean Stockwell plays a member of the President’s team who becomes a werewolf at inappropriate times. After these two forays into writing and directing Ginsberg returned to film editing, working on documentaries including the Oscar®-winning Down and Out in America (1986) and The Personals (1998).

In 1975 Ginsberg was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma but continued editing documentaries such as Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones and Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light.

In 1983 something wonderful came into his life when he met another artist: painter Nina Posnansky, who became the love of his life. They married and for 38 years they were inseparable. During this time, Ginsberg made a number of short films such as The City Below the Line, The Mirror of Noir, Kron and The Haloed Bird.

He always had a new project going and had just bought a new camera before he passed away. In his life he made the films he wanted to, worked at his craft and shared his life with another artist who loved him. Whether he knew it or not, he had it all. His films exist for the people who like them and they will find new audiences in the future, for as of this writing both of Ginsberg’s features are being restored on DVDs by Kino Lorber.

He is survived by his wife, Nina, and his brother, Arthur, also an editor and director. – JACK TUCKER, ACE