Case Study

Thelma Schoonmaker was born on January 3, 1940 in Algeria. She is an editor within the
film industry and has edited films such as The Departed in 2006, The Wolf of Wall Street in
2013 and Goodfellas in 1990.

Working as an editor for Martin Scorsese, who had tried for years to convince her to work for
him, she was unable to work in Hollywood, however because she could not get into the
union. Scorsese called her to ask to work on The raging bull in 1980, she again demurred
because of lack of union membership, however within this she believe Al Pacino was the
one who got her into the union but to this day she does not know what influence was used to
gain her access to her union membership. Her father worked for an oil company, so this was
how she was born in Algeria, but growing up in Aruba, she did not move to the USA until her
teen years.

Before getting into editing, she wanted to be a diplomat, but had an Honorary doctor of the
the School of Motion Picture, Television and Production Design in Helsinki, Finland. She has
edited every single film of Martin Scorseses since Raging Bull in 1980, also directing
Scorseses first film (Whos that knocking at my door). After exploring different career routes,
Schoonmaker decided to go into editing through the influence of Scorsese.