Direct Cinema: America 1960-75 Order of Discussion

• French “Cinema verité” and Jean Rouch • Direct Cinema • Contributing conditions • Filmmakers • Robert Drew & Drew Associates • Richard Leacock • D.A. Pennebaker • David Maysles • Frederick Wiseman • Symbiopsychotaxiplasm (William Graves, 1968) • Significance of direct cinema • Screenings of A Happy Mother’s Day and Titicut Follies “Cinema verité”

Jean Rouch (1917-2004) Chronicle of a Summer (Edgar Morin & Jean Rouch, 1961) Chronicle of a Summer (Edgar Morin & Jean Rouch, 1961) Direct Cinema

“The new documentary sought to study individuals, to reveal the moment-by-moment development of a situation, to search for instants of drama or psychological revelation.” Drew and Associates

Robert Drew LIFE Photojournalist Twenty TV documentaries produced by Time.Inc 1960-63 Primary (1960), Jane (1962), The Chair (1962)…

Drew Associates’ Filmmakers: Richard Leacock D.A Pennebaker David and Albert Maysles Primary (Robert Drew, 1960) The “Crisis Structure”

“In each of the stories there is a time when man comes against moments of tension and pressure, and revelation, and decision. It’s these moments that interest us the most.” (Robert Drew)

“A politician/professional/ordinary person is put on the spot, put through unusual demands and emotions, and there is a suspense to the outcome.” (Charles Warren, 59) The Chair (Robert Drew, 1962) Richard Leacock and D.A. Pennebaker

Form a production company together.

Leacock: “uncontrolled cinema.”

Leacock’s A Happy Mother’s Day (1963) Monterey Pop! (Leacock & Pennebaker, 1968) Don’t Look Back (D.A. Pennebaker, 1967) Don’t Look Back (D.A. Pennebaker, 1967) Albert and David Maysles

Albert and David Maysles

Salesman (1969) Gimme Shelter (1970) Grey Gardens (1976) Gimme Shelter (Maysles, 1970) Gimme Shelter (Maysles, 1970) Gimme Shelter (Maysles, 1970) Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (William Greaves, 1968) A Happy Mother’s Day (Richard Leacock & Joyce Chopra, 1963) Titicut Follies (Frederick Wiseman, 1967)

• Frederick Wiseman (former Boston lawyer) made Titicut Follies to expose the conditions of Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.

• Continued to make films that visited institutions: schools, hospitals, army bases…etc.