[1] Gottheim went to Oberlin College for undergraduate studies, where he became interested in poetry and fiction.
[1][2] Gottheim became a faculty member at Binghamton University, where he began teaching literature.
He purchased a Bolex camera and began learning how to make films.
[1] In 1969 Gottheim brought filmmaker Ken Jacobs to Binghamton, and they established a film department, the first in the SUNY system.
[3] His Elective Affinities series, named after the novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, is a collection of four films: Mouches Volantes, Four Shadows, Tree of Knowledge, and Natural Selection.