Fine film-maker whose subjects ranged from Kennedy to Hendrix
If you remember the 1960s, you may well remember the documentary films shot by Richard Leacock, notably Monterey Pop (1968). This concert film, made in the summer of 1967 at a music festival in California, featured the Animals, Canned Heat, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Mamas and the Papas, Jefferson Airplane, the Who and Ravi Shankar, among others. Leacock, who has died aged 89, was one of six cinematographers on the film – including its director, Da Pennebaker – and had already established himself as a leading figure in the "direct cinema" movement, the American version of cinéma vérité, which was characterised by filming events as they happen without interpretive editing or narration.
"I don't like being told things," Leacock said. "I like to observe." To this end, he was instrumental in perfecting a lightweight, handheld 16mm camera, synced to a quiet sound recorder,...
If you remember the 1960s, you may well remember the documentary films shot by Richard Leacock, notably Monterey Pop (1968). This concert film, made in the summer of 1967 at a music festival in California, featured the Animals, Canned Heat, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Mamas and the Papas, Jefferson Airplane, the Who and Ravi Shankar, among others. Leacock, who has died aged 89, was one of six cinematographers on the film – including its director, Da Pennebaker – and had already established himself as a leading figure in the "direct cinema" movement, the American version of cinéma vérité, which was characterised by filming events as they happen without interpretive editing or narration.
"I don't like being told things," Leacock said. "I like to observe." To this end, he was instrumental in perfecting a lightweight, handheld 16mm camera, synced to a quiet sound recorder,...
- 3/25/2011
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
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