In the U.S., it was called Direct Cinema, a movement led by Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker, and Albert and David Maysles. And in Britain, Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Gordon Anderson was a British feature film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading light of the Free Cinema movement and the British New Wave. He is most widely remembered for his 1968 film if...., which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival and was Malc…
Karel Reisz
Karel Reisz was a Czech-born British filmmaker who was active in post–World War II Britain, and one of the pioneers of the new realist strain in British cinema during the 1950s and 1960s.
Tony Richardson
Cecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson was an English filmmaker. He was best known for directing the films Tom Jones, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director; The Hotel New Hampshire; and his final film, Blue Sky.
Who are the key filmmakers of the Direct Cinema movement?
Key filmmakers: Robert Drew, Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker, Albert Maysles, David Maysles What is it? Mirroring similar movements in France and Canada, the US Direct Cinema movement saw Life magazine journalist Robert Drew import ideas around photojournalism into cinema.
What is the origin of direct cinema?
Direct Cinema. Direct cinema is a documentary genre that originated between 1958 and 1962 in North America, principally in the Canadian province of Quebec and the United States, and developed by Jean Rouch in France.
What factors contribute to the Direct Cinema movement?
Many technological, ideological and social aspects contribute to the direct cinema movement and its place in the history of cinema. Direct cinema was made possible, in part, by the advent of light, portable cameras, which allowed the hand-held camera and more intimacy in the filmmaking.
How does direct cinema document presidential campaigns?
Through the inquisitiveness of filmmakers such as Robert Drew, D.A. Pennebaker, and Frederick Wisemanand predicated on innovations such as portable cameras and synchronized sounddirect cinema intimately documented presidential campaigns through the revelers of Woodstock and the dispossessed subjects of Wiseman's "reality fictions".
Who started direct cinema?
Direct Cinema is a filmmaking technique made popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was a revolutionary form of documentary filmmaking for its time and still holds relevance today. The technique was developed by three filmmakers: Richard Leacock, Robert Drew, and Albert Maysles.
What is direct cinema movement?
A method of documentary filmmaking developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in the US and Canada, in which filmmakers sought to capture their subjects as directly as possible.
What is Robert Drew known for?
Robert Lincoln Drew (February 15, 1924 – July 30, 2014) was an American documentary filmmaker known as one of the pioneers—and sometimes called father—of cinéma vérité, or direct cinema, in the United States.
What genre is direct cinema?
documentary genreDirect cinema is a documentary genre that originated between 1958 and 1962 in North America, principally in the Canadian province of Quebec and the United States, and developed by Jean Rouch in France.
Who used direct animation?
The first and best known practitioners of drawn-on-film animation include Len Lye, Norman McLaren, Stan Brakhage, then later artists including Steven Woloshen, Richard R. Reeves, Scott Fitzpatrick and Baerbel Neubauer, who produced numerous animated films using these methods.
What did Errol Morris invent?
the InterrotronIn the 1990s Morris invented a device he called the Interrotron, which allowed his interviewees to look directly at him and at the camera simultaneously.
What is Robert Taylor known for?
Robert Taylor (born Spangler Arlington Brugh; August 5, 1911 – June 8, 1969) was an American film and television actor and singer who was one of the most popular leading men of cinema. Filley, Nebraska, U.S. Santa Monica, California, U.S. Taylor began his career in films in 1934 when he signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
How did Jackson Robert Scott get famous?
Born on September 18, 2008, Jackson Robert Scott's first acting role was as a guest star in the hit CBS TV series Criminal Minds. He then went on to play his breakout role as the iconic character Georgie Denbrough in the 2017 remake of Stephen King's It. Scott also starred in the Academy Award-winning short film Skin.
Who discovered Robert Pattinson?
Vipin Patel, the owner of a British convenience store, was sorting through his newspapers one morning 15 years ago when he learnt that a former employee of his — Robert Pattinson — was cast in the hugely successful film franchise "Harry Potter."
What does SS mean in cinema?
Superscreen is made for seeing films as they were meant to be seen. Superscreen - WHERE MOVIES FEEL LIKE MASTERPIECES. The breathtaking multidimensional sound powered by epic Dolby Atmos speakers will make you feel like you're right there in the film.
What effect does direct cinema have on the audience?
This is why cinéma vérité is sometimes referred to as “direct cinema.” It allows the audience to directly connect with the subject and form their own opinions rather than interpreted for them.
What is it called when you direct a movie?
A director is the person who directs the making of a film. The director most often has the highest authority on a film set. Generally, a director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the technical crew and actors in the fulfillment of that vision.
What is direct cinema examples?
Direct cinema observes a subject without interacting with it. The filmmaker doesn't insert their opinion or biases — it's an exploratory process that aims to be as objective as possible. Charlotte Zerwin and Albert and David Maysles' Gimme Shelter is an entertaining and timeless example of direct cinema done well.
What effect does direct cinema have on the audience?
This is why cinéma vérité is sometimes referred to as “direct cinema.” It allows the audience to directly connect with the subject and form their own opinions rather than interpreted for them.
What is direct cinema and how does it differ in approach and technique from a conventional interview based documentary?
What is direct cinema? A documentary that avoids interviews and limits the use of narrators. How does direct cinema differ in approach and technique from a conventional interview based documentary? They set up cameras for weeks instead of having an over voice narration.
What is a DSM in cinema?
The Deputy Stage Manager often referred to as 'DSM' is required to assist the Stage Manager. The Deputy Stage Managers role is to follow the script and ensure all technical cues are correct and all crew members perform the correct effects at the correct time.
Etymology
Jean Rouch claimed cinéma vérité came from Michel Brault and the National Film Board of Canada. Yet the NFB pioneers of the form Brault, Pierre Perrault and the others, never used the term cinéma vérité to describe their work and, in fact, found the term pretentious. They preferred "Cinéma Direct".
Origins
"Direct Cinema is the result of two predominant and related factors—The desire for a new cinematic realism and the development of the equipment necessary to achieving that desire" (Monaco 2003, p. 206) Many technological, ideological and social aspects contribute to the Direct Cinema movement and its place in the history of cinema.
Ideological and social aspects
With improved sound, lighting and camera equipment available, the technical conditions necessary for the advent of Direct Cinema were present. The social and ideological conditions that led to Direct Cinema also appeared.
Regional variants
Direct Cinema began in 1958 at the National Film Board of Canada in Quebec, at the dawning of the Quiet Revolution, a period of intense social and political change.
Direct Cinema and cinéma vérité
Cinéma vérité has many resemblances to Direct Cinema. The hand-held style of camera work is the same. There is a similar feeling of real life unfolding before the viewer's eyes. There is also a mutual concern with social and ethical questions.
See also
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Direct cinema" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
What happened in Kansas City in 1967?
As Rick Montgomery notes in Kansas City: An American Story, on the one hand there was a tendency, at least on the part of city leaders, to believe that things were going well. Mayor Ilus B. Davis told the city’s new human-relations
What happened to the black students protesting the Kansas City Board of Education?
Black students, protesting the Kansas City Board of Education’s refusal to close schools on the day of Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral, marche d to City Hall on April 9, 1968. There police dispersed demonstrators with tear gas which triggered a riot that turned the black community into a combat zone.
Who made the first law and order?
Law and Order, which won an Emmy for Best News Documentary in 1969, is one of the first films created by Frederick Wiseman, a producer/director who has continued to spend most of his long, respected career recording everyday life in a wide variety of American public institutions – including mental hospitals, high schools, welfare institutions, and juvenile courts. Law and Order follows the routine activities of the Kansas City Police Department as they interact with people inside and out of a district station house in an area hard hit by violence during the April 1968 race riots that wracked cities around the nation.
What is the French film truth?
French for “film truth”, cinema vérité was first developed by French ethnologist and filmmaker, Jean Rouch during the early 1960s and brought to documentary filmmaking a natural dialogue and authenticity of action. But unlike its direct counterpart, the philosophy behind this technique was that the filmmaker actively participates in the film as a subjective observer where necessary; combining observational AND participatory filming in the same breath. Essentially, there is an awareness of the camera that is filming the scene, thus establishing a connection between the cameraman/filmmaker and those who are being filmed. It can also involve stylized and staged set-ups and the degree of intervention is greater than in direct cinema, with the filmmaker’s subjective involvement evoking provocation—something critics point out goes against the whole foundation of documentary as a means to portray uninterrupted truths. In its defence, famous vérité filmmaker Dan Kraus once said “no documentary can ever show you the truth, because there are multiple truths, but vérité can at least relay the truth as seen by a single observer…” Similarly, Rouch’s view about the camera provoking subjects was that provocation reveals people’s true selves as the creatures of fantasy, myth and imagination, which he believes constitutes the most authentic self.
What is the film that uses Vérité?
One of the earliest and most widely known of Rouch’s films using vérité was Chronicle of a Summer (1960), which he did with fellow French filmmaker Edgar Morin. By gathering a number of Parisians, including a few supporters of a group with socialist ideologies, either through one-on-one interviews or group discussions, the film addresses topics ranging from happiness and love to colonialism and racism. True to the active role of vérité filmmakers on-camera, the action of the characters in the film seem to always be a response to an impulse by the leader of the conversation or the interviewer. Both Rouch and Morin play with their own roles within the film and are never detached or disengaged from the process of filming. They even included responses from all of the characters in the edited film after showing them the original; allowing for the luxury of self-representation in all parties that resulted in a sense of equality never achieved in direct cinema.
When was Cinéma Vérité made?
Cinéma Vérité Vs. Direct Cinema: An Introduction. From its very beginnings in 1877 when Eadweard Muybridge took sequential photographs of moving horses and animated them with the zoópraxiscope—a device he invented two years later to project the images—documentary film has taken many forms and adopted numerous styles and techniques.
When was the first movie camera invented?
Most notably, was when the Lumiére brothers invented the first movie camera in 1895 that could hold fifty feet of film stock, with which they captured a train pulling up to a station. As a result, the concept of unedited documentation of real-life situations referred to as “actualities” came about.
Who were the Maysles brothers?
The Maysles brothers, Albert and David Maysles of the United States were most well-known for developing direct cinema. Three of their most popular works in the genre were Salesman (1969), Gimme Shelter (1970), and Grey Gardens (1975).
What is direct cinema?
Direct Cinema was a key progenitor of the fly-on-the-wall format that has dominated documentary — particularly on British TV — for years (although Direct Cinema is without commentary or talking heads).
Who were the Drew Associates?
Forming The Drew Associates with Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker, Albert Maysles, David Maysles, the group made a trio of politically charged documentaries — best of the bunch: Primary about the 1960 Presidential campaign — that sought to record the action without interference.
Who directed Oh the Places You'll Go?
Jon M. Chu Directing An Animated Adaptation Of Oh! The Places You'll Go!
Etymology
- Jean Rouch claimed cinéma vérité came from Michel Brault and the National Film Board of Canada. Yet the NFB pioneers of the form Brault, Pierre Perrault and the others, never used the term cinéma véritéto describe their work and, in fact, found the term pretentious. They preferred "Cinéma Direct". Cinema vérité, the phrase and the form, can thus be...
Origins
- "Direct Cinema is the result of two predominant and related factors—The desire for a new cinematic realism and the development of the equipment necessary to achieving that desire" (Monaco 2003, p. 206) Many technological, ideological and social aspects contribute to the Direct Cinema movement and its place in the history of cinema.
Ideological and Social Aspects
- With improved sound, lighting and camera equipment available, the technical conditions necessary for the advent of Direct Cinema were present. The social and ideological conditions that led to Direct Cinema also appeared. Direct Cinema seemed to reflect this new attitude. It emerged from a desire to compare common opinion with reality. It attempted to show how thing…
Regional Variants
- Quebec
Direct Cinema began in 1958 at the National Film Board of Canada in Quebec, at the dawning of the Quiet Revolution, a period of intense social and political change. At that time, a university education was a rare thing for a Québécois. Public life was English. The people of Quebec were … - U.S.A.
In the United States, Robert Drew, a journalist with Life magazine during the war, decided to apply the photojournalist method to movies. He founded Drew Associates (which included Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker, Terence Macartney-Filgate, and Albert and David Maysles.) They star…
Direct Cinema and Cinéma Vérité
- Cinéma vérité has many resemblances to Direct Cinema. The hand-held style of camera work is the same. There is a similar feeling of real life unfolding before the viewer's eyes. There is also a mutual concern with social and ethical questions. Both cinéma vérité and Direct Cinema rely on the power of editing to give shape, structure and meaning to the material recorded. Some film hi…
Examples of Direct Cinema Documentaries
- On the Bowery – Lionel Rogosin, 1956 (docufiction)
- Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment – Robert Drew, 1963
- The Chair – Robert Drew, 1963
- The Mills of the Gods: Viet Nam – Beryl Fox, 1965
See Also