Boston-based filmmaker and former Harvard Film Archive curator John Gianvito had made a few films before the 20th century became the 21st, but he would wind up emerging as one of the definitive filmmakers of the current century during its first decade. His six years of work on Gulf War I cri de cœur The Mad Songs of Fernanda Hussein wound up serving as one of the definitive commentaries on the upcoming century when it premiered in 2001.