'Love, Gilda' Director Lisa D'Apolito on Late Gilda Radner: 'The Sweetest, Kindest, Funniest, Good Friend to Everybody'

D'Apolito appears at Nonfictionfilm.com's Emmy Documentary Roundtable to discuss touching film, nominated for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special

"Love, Gilda" director Lisa D'Apolito (center) with the film's producers, James Tumminia and Meryl Goldsmith. Los Angeles, Wednesday, August 14, 2019. Photo by Todd Williamson/January Images

Thirty years after Gilda Radner's untimely passing, her impact is still being felt in multiple arenas.

Comedy stars who followed Radner onto Saturday Night Live - including Amy Poehler, Tina Fey and Maya Rudolph - credit her as an inspiration and an influence on their work. Poehler and Rudolph are among the SNL alums who pay tribute to Radner in the documentary Love, Gilda, directed by Lisa D'Apolito. It's now in contention for two Emmys Awards - Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special and for composer Miriam Cutler's score.
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CNN Films is making Love, Gilda available for free from August 22-29 through cable providers and the CNNgo app

D'Apolito appeared at the Emmy Documentary Roundtable presented by Nonfictionfilm.com, speaking not only about Radner the performer and writer, but about another aspect of her legacy, the dozen-plus Gilda's Clubs around the country. The cancer treatment support centers were created by Radner's husband, actor Gene Wilder, in honor of his wife who died of ovarian cancer at the age of 42.

In the two videos below, D'Apolito discusses her documentary, how she went about getting Poehler, Rudolph, Bill Hader, Melissa McCarthy and others to read on camera from Radner's journals, and a previously unknown screenplay Radner left behind.

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