Yes, you can literally do this. It's not a derived work because your code is entirely independent of the GPL'd code and the GPL can't possibly cover code that you wrote independently. Simply interacting with some external GPL'd program does not expose your code to any GPL requirements.
For example, many databases are GPL'd and provide their entire functionality over RPC. Many CLI programs are GPL'd and (of course) provide their entire functionality over CLI. Neither of these cases place GPL obligations on clients, and it's no different for any given library which you wrap with a CLI.
A contrived wrapper that is not an independently useful program does not allow you to circumvent the GPL.
You are leaning very heavily on a technical distinction (linking vs. not linking) instead of on a holistic analysis of what a "derived work" is.
Now imagine that I rather than edit the video files themself create a playlist, in a (fictive?) format which has the ability to play subsequences of the linked files, and then creates a version of the series which presents the complete opposite message of the original. Would a court find this to be a derivative work of the original videos? What if in my need to edit the video I want to insert certain new short sequences, and thus I distribute a second video along with the playlist, but this video is useless in itself since it just contains a number of short clips in sequence. Would this video be considered a derivative work of the original - remember it serves no purpose in itself except along with the playlist and the original? To me it is not clear, but if they are not derivatives, then this will practically render the concept moot. Since most derivatives could potentially be formulated as the original + a diff. Now I would expect in this case that the combination of the playlist + my video file + original series be considered a derivative work, remember that in the arts transferring a work from one format to another (a dramatization for example) is considered to be a derivative work, even if all the actors would be seen on stage to read from the original book.
As I read it, this is the center of the FSFs argument. Now whether this would apply equally to software I do not know. But I have a hard time imagining that copyright is not as easily circumvented as you seem to indicate.
I think it's pretty obvious that the GPL derives it's power from copyright. Reasoning: If the GPL does not apply, then you don't have any right to anybody else's code (by the Berne Convention), so it gets its power by granting you more rights than you would have had by default. Make sense?