Frederick Wiseman’s second film as a director looks at an urban Philadelphia high school, capturing interactions between students, teachers, parents and administrators. The film was lauded by critics (“brilliant” wrote Richard Schickel) and dreaded by locals (it didn’t play on Philadelphia public television for over 30 years). A landmark in American documentary, this is an […]
During the fertile early years of Drew Associates following the breakthrough of Primary, came this seldom-seen portrait of David Allen, a jazz trumpeter struggling in the Santa Monica drug rehabilitation center Synanon House. Pennebaker’s love of music drew him to David and the film prefigures later portraits such as Dont Look Back. He teamed with […]
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster requires no affinity for heavy metal music to appreciate the many pleasures of this documentary classic. Oscar-nominated filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky (Paradise Lost) follow the members of the band over several years as they engage in group therapy. Reviewing the film for the New […]
Newly restored for its 20th anniversary, Hoop Dreams has never looked so good on the big screen. The film follows two Chicago teens, Arthur Agee and William Gates, over their four years of high school as they aspire to use their basketball skills to create better futures for their families. When the film was released, […]
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 of “being there” and on his work with collaborators such as Robert Flaherty, Robert Drew, and […]
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 home of France. This observational diary (whose title playfully notes how Leacock’s name sounds like the […]
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 Leacock, Robert Drew, Gregory Shuker and D.A. Pennebaker follow the attorney Louis Nizer as he attempts […]
Produced by the team of Drew Associates 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 access to his Presidential campaign. In Crisis (52 min, 1963), Drew’s team […]
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, was a breakthrough in handheld camerawork. Happy Mother’s Day (26 min, 1964; co-directed by Joyce Chopra) […]
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 boy. The exquisite cinematography helped the film win the first BAFTA award for documentary (a category […]