Michael Gassert
- Sound Department
- Producer
- Director
Michael Gassert is an American-Italian sound artist, musician, and acclaimed documentary filmmaker. With Sami Khan and Jonathan Miller, Gassert earned an Emmy® in 2023 for the PBS/POV-acquired Cuban baseball documentary The Last Out (2020), "a powerful true story of athletics and exile" [The Hollywood Reporter 2020]. Gassert served as Co-Director, Producer, Cinematographer, and Sound Mixer.
In addition to the 2023 News and Documentary Emmy® for Outstanding Business and Economic Documentary, The Last Out (2020) received numerous other awards, including the Special Jury Prize for Best New Director at the Tribeca Film Festival (2020), the Matt DeCample Audience Choice Award at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival (2020), Best Cinematography at the Center Film Festival (2021), and the Grand Jury Prize at the Florida Film Festival (2021). While editing The Last Out (2020), Gassert and Khan teamed up again, producing the Oscar®-nominated short, St. Louis Superman (2019), for which Gassert also recorded and mixed the sound.
Firmly rooted in independent film since the beginning of his career, Gassert earned his stripes in production sound on international documentaries and art house classics such as Momma's Man (2008), Another Earth (2011), Circumstance (2011) and the Oscar®-nominated Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012). Working in production, post, and design for narratives, documentaries and commercials, Gassert's sound work can be heard on all major networks and streaming platforms. He has mixed national broadcasts and hundreds of films. Gassert's precise approach is rooted in story and sonic craftsmanship and continues to make him one of the most sought after sound professionals in the business.
Film sound has also served as a gateway to some of Gassert's most notable musical achievements. In 2005, after mixing sound for The Hand of Fatima (2009), Gassert worked as engineer, producer, archivist, and tour manager for The Master Musicians of Jajouka with Bachir Attar, the legendary Moroccan trance group championed by Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones and avant-garde writers William S. Burroughs and Paul Bowls. During his seven years of service with the group (2005-2012), Gassert founded Jajouka's own record label, orchestrated international tours, and released the acclaimed Jajouka Live Vol. 1 (2009), which Led Zeppelin biographer, Stephen Davis, called "the most important Jajouka recording since Brian Jones presents The Pipes of Pan (1971)" [The Beat 2009]. Gassert mixed the group at Royal Festival Hall and the Kennedy Center while recording Jajouka's collaborations with Ornette Coleman, Patti Smith, Flea, Jane's Addiction, and Medeski Martin & Wood, some of which appear on Road to Jajouka (2013).
Gassert's global musical archiving also took him to Nicaragua, where he recorded Mango Ghost's The Last Maypole (2005, 2010) with The Bluefield Sound System under a cultural grant from UNESCO. Gassert produced recordings for modern jazz pianist, Jason Moran, at The Whitney Museum, The Village Vanguard, Birdlard, SF Jazz Center and The Chicago Symphony, some of which are featured on Looks of a Lot (2014). Gassert has also recorded classical master classes with the Kronos Quartet, Renée Fleming, and Philip Glass at Carnegie Hall.
As a musician, Gassert has recorded, written and performed with NYC-based rock and pop groups including Pink Drink, Great Woods, and Loveskills. In 2012 he co-founded Sky Prison with vocalist/songwriter (and Magnolia (1999) standout) Jeremy Blackman. Sky Prison was Gassert's launch point into psychedelic pop and modular synthesis. In 2006, Gassert formed the music production team Mix B in NYC with four partners from the Dominican Republic that would become some of his closest collaborators: Alex Brouwer, Phillip Brouwer, Marco Vicini (Executive Producers of The Last Out) and Arturo Piña, who mixed Gassert's latest musical release Caribe Psych Mod (2025) with Gioel Martin. Gassert currently performs under two guises: as "LEAP$" he pushes sonic boundaries with modular synthesis and as "Joe Music" he sticks to his acoustic, folk-pop roots.
Gassert's work as a documentary director is supported by The Sundance Institute, The Gotham, Rooftop Films, IDA, and his alma mater, The University of Wisconsin-Madison. As a Brooklyn resident since 2004, Gassert continues to work internationally. You can find him in the Dominican Republic and in his native Wisconsin where he's directing, producing, and shooting his next two long form documentary projects, La Escuelita (with Alex Brouwer as Executive Producer) and There Will Be Brats (with Dallas Lillich as Co-Director).
In addition to the 2023 News and Documentary Emmy® for Outstanding Business and Economic Documentary, The Last Out (2020) received numerous other awards, including the Special Jury Prize for Best New Director at the Tribeca Film Festival (2020), the Matt DeCample Audience Choice Award at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival (2020), Best Cinematography at the Center Film Festival (2021), and the Grand Jury Prize at the Florida Film Festival (2021). While editing The Last Out (2020), Gassert and Khan teamed up again, producing the Oscar®-nominated short, St. Louis Superman (2019), for which Gassert also recorded and mixed the sound.
Firmly rooted in independent film since the beginning of his career, Gassert earned his stripes in production sound on international documentaries and art house classics such as Momma's Man (2008), Another Earth (2011), Circumstance (2011) and the Oscar®-nominated Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012). Working in production, post, and design for narratives, documentaries and commercials, Gassert's sound work can be heard on all major networks and streaming platforms. He has mixed national broadcasts and hundreds of films. Gassert's precise approach is rooted in story and sonic craftsmanship and continues to make him one of the most sought after sound professionals in the business.
Film sound has also served as a gateway to some of Gassert's most notable musical achievements. In 2005, after mixing sound for The Hand of Fatima (2009), Gassert worked as engineer, producer, archivist, and tour manager for The Master Musicians of Jajouka with Bachir Attar, the legendary Moroccan trance group championed by Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones and avant-garde writers William S. Burroughs and Paul Bowls. During his seven years of service with the group (2005-2012), Gassert founded Jajouka's own record label, orchestrated international tours, and released the acclaimed Jajouka Live Vol. 1 (2009), which Led Zeppelin biographer, Stephen Davis, called "the most important Jajouka recording since Brian Jones presents The Pipes of Pan (1971)" [The Beat 2009]. Gassert mixed the group at Royal Festival Hall and the Kennedy Center while recording Jajouka's collaborations with Ornette Coleman, Patti Smith, Flea, Jane's Addiction, and Medeski Martin & Wood, some of which appear on Road to Jajouka (2013).
Gassert's global musical archiving also took him to Nicaragua, where he recorded Mango Ghost's The Last Maypole (2005, 2010) with The Bluefield Sound System under a cultural grant from UNESCO. Gassert produced recordings for modern jazz pianist, Jason Moran, at The Whitney Museum, The Village Vanguard, Birdlard, SF Jazz Center and The Chicago Symphony, some of which are featured on Looks of a Lot (2014). Gassert has also recorded classical master classes with the Kronos Quartet, Renée Fleming, and Philip Glass at Carnegie Hall.
As a musician, Gassert has recorded, written and performed with NYC-based rock and pop groups including Pink Drink, Great Woods, and Loveskills. In 2012 he co-founded Sky Prison with vocalist/songwriter (and Magnolia (1999) standout) Jeremy Blackman. Sky Prison was Gassert's launch point into psychedelic pop and modular synthesis. In 2006, Gassert formed the music production team Mix B in NYC with four partners from the Dominican Republic that would become some of his closest collaborators: Alex Brouwer, Phillip Brouwer, Marco Vicini (Executive Producers of The Last Out) and Arturo Piña, who mixed Gassert's latest musical release Caribe Psych Mod (2025) with Gioel Martin. Gassert currently performs under two guises: as "LEAP$" he pushes sonic boundaries with modular synthesis and as "Joe Music" he sticks to his acoustic, folk-pop roots.
Gassert's work as a documentary director is supported by The Sundance Institute, The Gotham, Rooftop Films, IDA, and his alma mater, The University of Wisconsin-Madison. As a Brooklyn resident since 2004, Gassert continues to work internationally. You can find him in the Dominican Republic and in his native Wisconsin where he's directing, producing, and shooting his next two long form documentary projects, La Escuelita (with Alex Brouwer as Executive Producer) and There Will Be Brats (with Dallas Lillich as Co-Director).
