Festival Section: Tribute to Richard Leacock

In this intimate portrait of Richard Leacock, Jane Weiner draws upon footage that she’s shot over 38 years of Leacock’s encounters with Henri Langlois, Chris Marker, Jonas Mekas, Ed Pincus, and others. Leacock reflects on his lifelong quest to capture a sense … Continue reading →

Throughout his career, Richard Leacock was a strong proponent for reducing the costs of filmmaking. In this piece, he embraces the new (at the time) technology of Hi-8 video, collaborating with his partner Valerie Lalonde to capture everyday moments in his adopted … Continue reading →

Two rarely-screened gems from the period when Richard Leacock was a key partner at Drew Associates. In The Children Were Watching (25 min), Leacock witnesses violent clashes over school integration in New Orleans. In The Chair (76 min), the film team of … Continue reading →

Produced by Robert Drew with Richard Leacock playing an important creative role, these two classics on John F. Kennedy were major breakthroughs in what became known as cinema vérité. For Primary (53 min, 1960) Robert Drew and Leacock convinced Kennedy to grant unprecedented … Continue reading →

These four hard-to-find shorts are essential touchstones of documentary film history. Canary Island Bananas (11 min, 1935), Leacock’s first film, made in his teens, memorializes his father’s banana plantation. Toby and the Tall Corn, (30 min, 1954), about a Midwest tent show, … Continue reading →

Co-presented by BAFTA New York and The Robert Flaherty Film Seminar. In his final film, Robert Flaherty (Nanook of the North) hired the young Richard Leacock to film the story of oil exploration in the bayou through the eyes of a Cajun … Continue reading →