Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1500026
30 C I N E M O N T A G E C A M B E R N By Kristin Marguerite Doidge I t was 1968 when a man with a mov- ie walked into a room looking for an editor. The film was the low-budget comedy "2000 Years Later" (1969), and the young editor was Donn Cambern, ACE. "I had never really edited a movie at all," he later told Gabriella Oldham in an inter- view for her book, "First Cut: Conversations With Film Editors," in 2012. "In a sense, editing is like the old guild process that's trial and error and you learn from other Remembering Donn Cambern 1929-2023 THE GUILD SAYS GOODBYE TO AN ACCOMPLISHED EDITOR, DEDICATED LEADER, AND PASSIONATE MENTOR people. There were very few textbooks, and the more you get your hands on the film, the more you understand how to ma- nipulate it." What may have begun as trial and error blossomed into an illustrious career as an editor, mentor, and advocate that spanned more than five decades and included more than 36 credits on feature films, including "Easy Rider" (1969), "The Last Picture Show" (1971), "The Hindenburg" (1975), "Romancing the Stone" (1984), and "The Bodyguard" (1992). Having been born into a musical family in Los Angeles in 1929, Cambern's first love was music. His mother, May, was a compos- er, author, and acclaimed harpist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (her music can be heard on a number of classic Hollywood films and TV shows), while his father, Car- roll, worked as a sheet-music publisher for Carl Fischer Music. JUST BEGUN: Twenty-year old Donn Cambern on his honeymoon in Los Angeles in 1950 with wife Patricia, 19. P H O T O : C A M B E R N FA M I LY.