Gorter studied filmmaking and editing at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam and has worked as an independent filmmaker ever since. In the winter of 1990, shortly after Gorbachev’s perestroika began in Russia, she traveled to Saint Petersburg and was seized by the silent revolution taking place there. This led to her first feature-length documentary Piter (2004), which was followed by 900 Days (2011). The latter, about the siege of Leningrad during World War II, won the IDFA Award for Best Dutch Documentary in 2011. Her latest film The Red Soul has been selected for both the Feature-Length Competition and the Dutch Competition at IDFA in 2017.