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Arts > Movies > Directors

 

20th, 21st century > UK, USA

 

Documentary filmmakers

 

 

 

 

Restrepo Trailer

Video    Trailer    DrimsProduction    June 13, 2010

 

The film received the Grand Jury Prize

for best documentary

at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

 

Director: Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger

Release Date: 2 July 2010

Genre: Documentary | War

Studio: National Geographic

 

Plot:

Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington's

year dug in with the Second Platoon

in one of Afghanistan's most strategically crucial valleys

reveals extraordinary insight

into the surreal combination of back breaking labor,

deadly firefights, and camaraderie

as the soldiers painfully push back the Taliban.

 

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh56cCDto08

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sarah Polley    Canada

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Sarah_Polley

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Stories_We_Tell

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/sep/13/
100-best-films-movies-of-the-21st-century

 

https://www.npr.org/2013/05/15/
180847785/a-polley-family-secret-pieced-deftly-together

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/27/
nick-fraser-storyville-documentaries-film-when-we-were-kings-stories-we-tell

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/video/2013/jun/28/
stories-we-tell-trailer-sarah-polley-film-video

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sam Pollard    USA

 

“MLK/FBI” (...) is the latest chapter

in a quietly monumental

filmmaking career.

 

Pollard’s documentary work alone,

whether as director, editor or producer,

includes “Eyes on the Prize II,”

“4 Little Girls”

(on the 1963 Birmingham bombings),

several “American Masters” entries,

and the symphonic

“When the Levees Broke:

A Requiem in Four Acts.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/15/
movies/sam-pollard-mlk-fbi.html

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/15/
movies/sam-pollard-mlk-fbi.html

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/14/
movies/mlk-fbi-review.html

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/jan/16/
mlkfbi-review-martin-luther-king-j-edgar-hoover-documentary-sam-pollard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Raoul Peck    Haiti

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Raoul_Peck

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/nov/21/
raoul-peck-ernest-cole-film

 

 

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/oct/23/
raoul-peck-documentary-silver-dollar-road

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/sep/08/
silver-dollar-road-documentary-review-raoul-peck-amazon-prime

 

 

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/apr/07/
raoul-peck-exterminate-all-the-brutes-colonialism-hbo

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/05/
arts/television/exterminate-all-the-brutes-raoul-peck.html

 

 

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2018/02/25/
588673944/the-young-karl-marx-looks-inside-the-mind-of-a-revolutionary

 

 

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2017/02/14/
515196224/director-raoul-peck-james-baldwin-was-speaking-directly-to-me

 

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/02/05/
513144736/did-i-get-james-baldwin-wrong

 

https://www.npr.org/sections/monkeysee/2017/02/03/
512892549/oscar-documentaries-and-a-foreign-language-film-we-loved

 

https://www.npr.org/2017/02/03/
513311359/i-am-not-your-negro-gives-james-baldwins-words-new-relevance

 

https://www.npr.org/2017/02/02/
511860933/james-baldwin-in-his-own-searing-revelatory-words-
i-am-not-your-negro

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richard Linklater    USA

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Richard_Linklater

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/01/
magazine/richard-linklater-interview.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Martha Coolidge    USA

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Martha_Coolidge

 

 

https://www.criterion.com/films/
33619-not-a-pretty-picture - August 2024

 

https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/03/07/
martha-coolidge-not-a-pretty-picture-review - March 7, 2024

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/
movies/not-a-pretty-picture-anthology-film-archives.html

 

 

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/24/
movies/women-film-directors-make-a-strong-comeback.html

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1983/04/29/
movies/valley-girl-a-coast-comedy.html

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/06/
movies/at-the-movies-three-women-and-their-road-to-directing.html

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Not_a_Pretty_Picture - 1976

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stanley Nelson    USA

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/02/
movies/review-
the-black-panthers-captures-a-militant-movements-soul-and-swagger.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ross McElwee

 

 

 

 

Photographic Memory Offical Movie Trailer

Video

 

2011 film release by Ross McElwee

Feature length 84 Minutes copyright St. Quay Films / French Connection / Arte

 

YouTube > McElweeEntertainment        25 October 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcAjO5G3kTc

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Men of Atalissa

 

produced by The New York Times

video journalist Kassie Bracken

and columnist Dan Barry,

and edited by John Woo.

http://www.pbs.org/pov/blog/povdocs/2014/03/
the-men-of-atalissa-watch-the-documentary-go-behind-the-story-with-journalists-from-the-new-york-times/

 

 

http://www.pbs.org/pov/blog/povdocs/2014/03/
the-men-of-atalissa-watch-the-documentary-go-behind-the-story-
with-journalists-from-the-new-york-times/

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbz_wFT9foQ

 

http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000002757071/the-men-of-atalissa.html

 

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/03/09/us/the-boys-in-the-bunkhouse.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Danny Glover

 

 

 

The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975

Movie Trailer (2011) HD

 

THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975

mobilizes a treasure trove of 16mm material

shot by Swedish filmmakers,

after languishing in a basement of a TV station for 30 years,

into an irresistible mosaic of images, music, and narration

chronicling the evolution one of our nation's

most indelible turning points,

the Black Power movement.

 

Featuring candid interviews with the movement's

most explosive revolutionary minds,

including Angela Davis, Bobby Seale,

Stokely Carmichael, and Kathleen Cleaver,

the film explores the community, people

and radical ideas of the movement.

 

Music by Questlove and Om'Mas Keith,

and commentary from and modern voices including

Erykah Badu, Harry Belafonte, Talib Kweli,

and Melvin Van Peebles

give the historical footage a fresh sound and make

 

THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-75

an exhilarating, unprecedented account

of an American revolution.

 

MOVIECLIPS Trailer

YouTube >  MOVIECLIPS Trailers        11 August 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFWHNpfjByQ

 

Related

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/oct/08/black-power-mixtape-danny-glover

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/oct/08/black-power-mixtape-danny-glover

 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/nov/08/usa.gender

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Josh Fox    USA

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/jan/13/
gasland-review
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eugene Jarecki    USA

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/nov/22/
the-house-i-live-in-review

 

http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/10/05/movies/
the-house-i-live-in-directed-by-eugene-jarecki.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julian Temple    UK

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/
julien-temple

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/mar/10/detroit-motor-city-urban-decline

 

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/feb/04/oil-city-confidential-review

 

 

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/dec/09/julien-temple-the-kinks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Donal MacIntyre    Ireland

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Donal_MacIntyre

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michale Boganim    Israel

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/30/
movies/from-ukraine-to-brooklyn-and-still-looking-for-home.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jean-Xavier de Lestrade    France

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Jean-Xavier_de_Lestrade 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ken Burns    USA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/31/
982706363/filmmakers-call-out-pbs-for-a-lack-of-diversity-over-reliance-on-ken-burns

 

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/30/
982637327/ken-burns-hemingway-docuseries-dives-into-the-writers-complicated-life

 

https://www.npr.org/2021/01/19/
958189841/ken-burns-says-u-s-has-3-viruses-covid-19-white-supremacy-and-misinformation

 

 

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/sep/25/
the-vietnam-war-terror-heartbreak-and-helicopters-ablaze-in-an-epic-documentary

 

http://www.npr.org/2017/09/21/
552575164/in-vietnam-war-ken-burns-wrestles-with-the-conflict-s-contradictions

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/
arts/television/ken-burns-and-lynn-novick-tackle-the-vietnam-war.html

 

 

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/
arts/television/21war.html

 

 

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/23/
movies/tv-view-our-war-the-way-it-was.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Errol Morris    USA

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/
errol-morris

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Errol_Morris

http://www.errolmorris.com/

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/aug/29/
separated-review-quietly-furious-take-down-of-trumps-inhumane-border-policy

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/
arts/television/wilderness-of-error-errol-morris-jeffrey-macdonald.html

 

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t3PjviOl_I

- NYT video - 13 February 2014

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/apr/14/
jeffrey-macdonald-murder-errol-morris

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0896866/

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yznRGS9f-jI

- NYT video - 21 November 2013

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ICxqP-t1Ms

- NYT video - 21 November 2013

 

 

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/jul/18/documentary 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/movies/26morris.html

 

http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/movies/25stan.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack Hazan

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/05/
movies/bigger-splash-fiction-about-david-hockney.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charles Burnett    USA

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/jun/06/
filmandmusic1.filmandmusic5 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2008/jun/22/
film.review3 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frederick Wiseman    USA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nick Broomfield    UK

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/
nick-broomfield 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alex Gibney    USA

 

http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/movies/18taxi.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carol Morley    UK

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/09/
joyce-vincent-death-mystery-documentary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Moore    USA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/
michaelmoore

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Michael_Moore

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/26/
movies/fahrenheit-9-11-anniversary.html

 

https://www.nytimes.com/video/theater/
100000005342372/michael-moore-terms-surrender-broadway.html - Aug. 10, 2017

 

https://www.npr.org/2017/03/06/
518743034/filmmaker-michael-moores-guide-to-challenging-trumps-presidency

 

 

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/sep/11/
where-to-invade-next-film-review-michael-moore-happy-toronto-tiff

 

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/sep/11/
michael-moore-where-to-invade-next-toronto-tiff-jake-gyllenhaal

 

 

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/28/michael-moore-memoir-georgia

 

https://www.npr.org/2011/09/14/
140471057/michael-moore-on-his-penchant-for-trouble

 

 

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/oct/11/michael-moore-catholic-capitalism

 

 

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2007/06/20/
11208212/michael-moores-sicko-flogs-u-s-health-care

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/may/20/
uk.vanessathorpe

 

 

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2004/10/18/
4114227/director-michael-moore-on-politics-and-film

 

 

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/nov/11/
usforeignpolicy.guardianinterviewsatbfisouthbank

 

https://www.npr.org/2002/11/02/
829697/moore-film-targets-gun-violence-american-media

 

https://www.npr.org/2002/10/12/
1151576/bowling-for-columbine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ofra Bikel    Israel, USA    1929-2024

 

filmmaker with a focus on criminal justice

 

Her award-winning documentaries

for PBS’s “Frontline” series

shed light on serious flaws

in several cases and helped lead

to the release of 13 prisoners.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/28/
business/media/ofra-bikel-dead.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Ofra_Bikel

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/29/
nx-s1-5092122/ofra-bikel-documentarian-who-exposed-injustice-dies-at-94

 

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/
remembering-ofra-bikel-frontline-producer/ - August 29, 2024

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/28/
business/media/ofra-bikel-dead.html

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/08/27/
ofra-bikel-dead-pbs-frontline/

 

 

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2008/11/24/
97396759/documenting-chavezs-rise-to-the-top

 

 

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/04/
movies/television-review-a-growth-industry-helping-recall-sexual-abuse.html

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/01/
weekinreview/conversations-ofra-bikel-
the-patience-and-passion-of-a-documentary-film-maker.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sam Hanna    UK    1903-1996

 

pioneering film-maker

from Burnley, Lancashire,

was once called

the ‘Lowry of film-making’.

 

His work depicts people of all ages

as they lived and worked in a region

that was rapidly losing

its economic role

and industrial identity

in postwar Britain.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2024/jun/12/
the-work-of-sam-hanna-the-lowry-of-film-making-
in-pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morgan Valentine Spurlock    USA    1970-2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Morgan_Spurlock

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/24/
nx-s1-4978739/morgan-spurlock-dead-super-size-me

 

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/14/
570717348/filmmaker-morgan-spurlock-posts-online-confessional-of-sexual-misconduct

 

https://www.npr.org/2014/05/09/
308752288/a-movie-about-product-placement-paid-for-by-product-placement

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ellen Margerethe Hovde    USA    1925-2023

 

documentarian

who was one of the directors

of “Grey Gardens,”

the groundbreaking 1975 movie

that examined the lives

of two reclusive women

living in a deteriorating mansion

on Long Island

and inspired both a Broadway musical

and an HBO film

 

(...)

 

Ms. Hovde (pronounced HUV-dee)

worked on several films

with the Maysles brothers,

Albert and David,

in the late 1960s and ’70s,

when they were expanding

the documentary form

with cinéma vérité techniques,

eschewing sit-in-a-chair interviews

in favor of recording life and events

as they happened.

 

In 1969

she was a contributing editor

on “Salesman,”

a documentary by the Maysleses

and Charlotte Zwerin

that followed four salesmen

as they peddled $49.95 Bibles

door to door

in New England and Florida.

 

The next year she was an editor

on “Gimme Shelter,”

the documentary

by the Maysleses and Ms. Zwerin

that captured a Rolling Stones tour,

including the concert

at Altamont Speedway

in Northern California in late 1969

at which a concertgoer was killed

by a Hells Angel.

 

In 1974

she was credited as a director,

along with the Maysleses,

on “Christo’s Valley Curtain,”

which was about

an environmental art project

the artists Christo

and Jeanne-Claude erected

in Colorado in 1972.

 

That film was nominated

for an Academy Award

for best documentary short.

 

The next year came “Grey Gardens.”

 

That film, which garnered

considerable attention at the time

and in 2010 was named

to the National Film Registry

of culturally significant movies,

took a close-up,

often uncomfortable look

at the lives of Edie Beale

and her mother, Edith Beale,

relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

who had dropped out of high society

and were living in East Hampton, N.Y.,

in a crumbling mansion along

with assorted cats and raccoons.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/11/
movies/ellen-hovde-dead.html

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/11/
movies/ellen-hovde-dead.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leon Jacques Gast    USA    1936-2021

 

filmmaker whose 22-year quest

to make “When We Were Kings,”

a documentary about Muhammad Ali

and George Foreman’s

epic 1974 boxing match,

involved a Liberian shell company,

the Hells Angels,

a drug deal gone bad,

the singer Wyclef Jean

and ultimately an Academy Award

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/12/
movies/leon-gast-dead.html

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/12/
movies/leon-gast-dead.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael David Apted    UK    1941-2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peter Lorrimer Whitehead    UK    1937-2019

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Donn Alan Pennebaker    USA    1925-2019

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/aug/04/
da-pennebaker-obituary

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/03/
movies/d-a-pennebaker-dead.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Harold Monroe Tulchin    USA    1926-2017

 

In August 1969,

Nina Simone took the stage

at Mount Morris Park in Harlem

for a remarkable performance

in which she sang

“To Be Young, Gifted and Black”

and recited a poem that asked,

provocatively,

if her audience was ready

to “kill if necessary,”

“smash white things”

and “give yourself, your love, your soul,

your heart, to create life.”

 

Ms. Simone was one of many artists,

mostly African-American,

who appeared that summer

at the Harlem Cultural Festival,

a series of six free Sunday concerts.

 

Stevie Wonder was there,

as were other popular music acts,

each of which could have attracted

a big crowd on its own:

 

the 5th Dimension,

Abbey Lincoln, B. B. King,

Sly & the Family Stone,

Herbie Mann, Hugh Masekela,

Gladys Knight & the Pips,

David Ruffin, Mahalia Jackson

and the Staple Singers.

 

The series,

partly overlapping

with another music festival

being held in upstate

New York that summer,

became known

as “the Black Woodstock.”

 

All six concerts

— at what is now called Marcus Garvey Park —

were videotaped

under the direction of Hal Tulchin,

a television veteran.

 

He compiled an estimated 40 hours of music,

dance and comedy

(by Moms Mabley and George Kirby).

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/14/
arts/television/hal-tulchin-90-dies-documented-a-little-seen-black-woodstock.html

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/14/
arts/television/hal-tulchin-90-dies-documented-a-little-seen-black-woodstock.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Murray Lerner    USA    1927-2017

 

Murray Lerner ('s) documentaries

captured some of the world’s

greatest folk and rock musicians

in era-defining performances

 

(...)

 

Mr. Lerner filmed the Newport Folk Festival

for four years in the early and middle 1960s,

including the much-referenced moment

when Bob Dylan plugged in an electric guitar.

 

He also filmed

the volatile 1970 Isle of Wight Festival,

where commercial and communal

sensibilities collided.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/
movies/murray-lerner-who-filmed-musics-biggest-stars-dies-at-90.html

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/
movies/murray-lerner-who-filmed-musics-biggest-stars-dies-at-90.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gary Joe Keys    USA    1934-2015

 

 

 

 

Gary Keys in 1992.

 

Photograph: John D. Kisch

Separate Cinema Archive, via Getty Images

 

Gary Keys, Filmmaker Who Documented Duke Ellington, Dies at 81

NYT

AUG. 30, 2015

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/31/
movies/gary-keys-filmmaker-who-documented-duke-ellington-dies-at-81.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

filmmaker whose documentaries captured

some of the most important figures in jazz

from the 1960s through the 1980s

— notably Duke Ellington,

the subject of three of his films —

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/31/
movies/gary-keys-filmmaker-who-documented-duke-ellington-dies-at-81.html

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/31/
movies/gary-keys-filmmaker-who-documented-duke-ellington-dies-at-81.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Albert H. Maysles    USA    1926-2015
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bruce Jeffrey Sinofsky    USA    1956-2015

 

 

 

 

Bruce Sinofsky, right,

with his collaborator Joe Berlinger in 1996.

 

Photograph: Jonathan Wiggs

The Boston Globe, via Getty Images

 

Bruce Sinofsky, Lauded Documentary Filmmaker, Dies at 58

NYT

FEB. 24, 2015

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/
movies/bruce-sinofsky-documentary-filmmaker-dies-at-58.html 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

filmmaker

whose critically lauded documentaries

tracked a notorious East Arkansas murder case

and portrayed the heavy metal band  Metallica

as a dysfunctional family

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/
movies/bruce-sinofsky-documentary-filmmaker-dies-at-58.html 

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/
movies/bruce-sinofsky-documentary-filmmaker-dies-at-58.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul Almond    Canada    1931-2015

 

Canadian director

whose television film “Seven Up!”

examined the lives of a group

of midcentury British children

and became the basis

of the documentary series

that has followed them into middle age

 

(...)

 

One of the most highly regarded

documentaries of all time, the “Up” series,

as it is collectively known,

is most closely associated with Michael Apted,

who directed all but the inaugural installment.

 

But it was Mr. Almond

who helped conceive that film,

first shown on British television in 1964.

 

Forty minutes long

and shot in black and white,

“Seven Up!”

examined the enduring British class system

through the lives of 14 7-year-olds

from across the socioeconomic spectrum.

 

He can be heard asking the children

— 10 boys and four girls —

questions about family, love

and adult aspirations.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/
arts/television/paul-almond-the-director-of-seven-up-dies-at-83.html

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/
arts/television/paul-almond-the-director-of-seven-up-dies-at-83.html

 

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/apr/15/
paul-almond-director-seven-up-dies-aged-83

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Drew    USA    1924-2014

 

pioneer of the modern documentary

who in "Primary" and other movies

mastered the intimate, spontaneous style

known as cinema verite

and schooled a generation

of influential directors that included

D.A. Pennebaker and Albert Maysles

 

(...)

 

Mr. Drew's dozens of films

included "The Chair,"

a 1963 documentary

about a death penalty case

in Illinois, and "784 Days

That Changed America:

From Watergate to Resignation,"

winner in 1982 of a Peabody award.

 

Many of his movies

were edited and co-produced

by his wife, Anne Drew,

who died in 2012.

 

While a photographer and editor with Life,

Mr. Drew formed Drew Associates in 1960

with the goal of applying

his magazine experience to films.

 

Among those joining him

were such future directors as Mr. Pennebaker

 ("Don't Look Back,"  ''The War Room"),

Mr. Maysles

(who with brother David

made "Gimme Shelter" and "Grey Gardens")

and Mr. Leacock

("Happy Mother's Day").

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2014/07/30/us/ap-us-obit-robert-drew.html

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/aug/07/
robert-drew

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/24/
movies/the-kennedy-films-of-robert-drew-associates-reissued-on-dvd.html

 

 

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/aug/07/
robert-drew

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/01/
movies/robert-l-drew-pioneer-in-filmmaking-dies-at-90.html

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jul/31/
robert-drew-pioneer-of-documentary-film-making-dies-at-90

 

 

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2013/11/16/
245550528/jfk-wrote-the-book-on-modern-presidential-campaigns

 

 

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/19/
arts/the-tv-watch-how-the-death-of-a-president-led-to-the-birth-of-a-medium.html

 

 

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/13/
movies/film-albert-maysles-camera-sees-and-says-it-all.html

 

 

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1983/02/20/
movies/why-are-documentaries-so-dull.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Grosvenor Gardner    USA    1925-2014

 

 

 

 

 Robert Gardner

on the banks of the Ganges in the mid-1980s.

 

Photograph: Ned Johnston

 

Robert Gardner Dies at 88; Filmed Cultural Practices

NYT

JUNE 27, 2014

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/
arts/robert-gardner-dies-at-88-filmed-cultural-practices.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

intrepid filmmaker who specialized

in anthropological documentaries,

examining lives in remote societies

around the globe

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/arts/robert-gardner-dies-at-88-filmed-cultural-practices.html

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/arts/
robert-gardner-dies-at-88-filmed-cultural-practices.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Malik Bendjelloul    Sweden    1977-2014

 

Swedish filmmaker

who won the 2013 Academy Award

for best documentary with his debut feature,

“Searching for Sugar Man,”

about a forgotten American balladeer

who, unwittingly,

had achieved fame halfway around the world

 

(...)

 

The film tells the story of Sixto Rodriguez,

a singer, songwriter and guitarist from Detroit

who recorded two blues-tinged folk-rock albums

under the single name Rodriguez

in the early 1970s

and then vanished from the music scene,

a casualty of poor publicity and meager sales.

 

(...)

 

For decades he supported himself

and three daughters doing manual labor,

unaware that his music

— songs of protest and hardscrabble life

rendered in a heartfelt tenor —

had resonated in South Africa,

where opponents of apartheid

especially admired his anthems of struggle.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/14/
movies/malik-bendjelloul-36-dies-directed-sugar-man-movie.html
 

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/14/
movies/malik-bendjelloul-36-dies-directed-sugar-man-movie.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Maurice Fresco    USA    1930-2014

 

 

 

 

Robert M. Fresco in Atlantic City

at the 1964 Democratic National Convention,

where he was filming a documentary.

 

Photograph: unknown

 

Robert M. Fresco, Oscar-Winning Documentary Filmmaker, Dies at 83

NYT

FEB. 20, 2014

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/21/
movies/robert-m-fresco-a-filmmaker-and-writer-dies-at-83.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker

who began his career as a writer of horror pictures

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/21/movies/robert-m-fresco-a-filmmaker-and-writer-dies-at-83.html

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/21/
movies/robert-m-fresco-a-filmmaker-and-writer-dies-at-83.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saul Irwin Landau    USA    1936-2013

 

a determinedly leftist

documentary filmmaker

and writer whose passion

for asking what he called

“the most intrusive questions”

yielded penetrating cinematic profiles

of leaders like Fidel Castro

and Salvador Allende

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/arts/saul-landau-maker-of-films-with-leftist-edge-dies-at-77.html

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/
arts/saul-landau-maker-of-films-with-leftist-edge-dies-at-77.html 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leslie Harrod Blank Jr.    USA    1935-2013

 

Les Blank ('s) sly, sensuous

and lyrical documentaries about regional music

and a host of other idiosyncratic subjects,

including Mardi Gras, gaptoothed women, garlic

and the filmmaker Werner Herzog,

were widely admired by critics and other filmmakers

if not widely known by moviegoers

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/movies/les-blank-documentary-filmmaker-dies-at-77.html

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/movies/
les-blank-documentary-filmmaker-dies-at-77.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Kee    UK    1919-2013

 

Robert Kee (...) belonged

to a vanishing tradition

of great TV documentary makers and presenters

with roots in print journalism and books.

 

He might be presenting

the BBC's Panorama or ITN's lunchtime

news programme of the early 1970s,

First Report,

but his roots and style were always back

in the puritanical tell-it-as-it-is ethic

of Picture Post magazine.

 

Thus, of the Famous Five

who in 1983 founded the commercial

breakfast television station TV-am,

he was the least glitzy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2013/jan/11/robert-kee-obituary

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2013/jan/11/robert-kee-obituary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Timothy Alistair Hetherington    UK    1970-2011

 

The photographer and film-maker

Tim Hetherington was killed

at the age of 40 while covering

the escalating violence in Misrata, Libya

(...).

 

The canon of work he bequeaths

defines a generation of reportage.

 

His eye and ability

for capturing on film

some of the most disturbing events

of the past decade was as relentless

as it was unsurpassed.

 

With a great sense

of self-deprecation and humanity,

Hetherington was driven repeatedly

to explore the ragged,

violent margins of society

to bring back portraits of people

profoundly affected by conflict.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/apr/21/tim-hetherington-obituary

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/media/
tim-hetherington

 

 

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/a-show-of-respect-for-a-fallen-friend/

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2011/sep/17/sebastian-junger-war-film-afghanistan

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/apr/21/tim-hetherington-remembered

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2011/apr/21/tim-hetherington-in-pictures

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/apr/21/tim-hetherington-obituary

 

 

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/07/
restrepo-film-review

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richard Leacock    UK    1921-2011

 

filmmaker who helped create

the documentary style

known as direct camera or cinéma vérité,

and who played a pivotal role

in making some of the most innovative

documentaries of the 1960s

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/arts/richard-leacock-innovative-documentary-maker-dies-at-89.html

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/arts/
richard-leacock-innovative-documentary-maker-dies-at-89.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arthur Everett Holch Jr.    USA    1924-2010

 

Emmy Award-winning television documentarian

whose work at midcentury and afterward

tackled charged subjects

like race relations, Nazism and Communism

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/arts/02holch.html

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/arts/02holch.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Geoffrey Jones    UK    1931-2005

 

Maker of tiny documentary gems

in the 1960s and 70s

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/aug/17/
guardianobituaries.film

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/aug/17/
guardianobituaries.film

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Grierson    UK    1898-1972

 

More feared and respected than liked,

John Grierson had a sharp mind

and an uncompromising sense of values

- a strong brew of socialism and Calvinism.

 

(He has often been compared

to his fellow Scot John Reith,

whose faith in the BBC's

mission to educate and instruct

had much in common

with Grierson's view of documentary film.)

 

Didacticism

was the essence of his personality.

 

After a period on minesweepers

during the first world war,

Grierson did a degree in moral philosophy

at the University of Glasgow

- it was the time of "Red Clyde" -

and then went to the US,

studying the sociology

of mass communications and public opinion.

 

Routine stuff now,

but unusual in its day.

 

He also studied the techniques of cinema.

 

Two things above all impressed him:

 

the unprecedented achievements

of Robert Flaherty, world-famous

for his hugely successful (if fanciful)

1922 portrait of Inuit life,

Nanook of the North;

 

and the innovative editing techniques

of early Soviet cinema,

particularly those of Eisenstein

in Battleship Potemkin.

 

By the time Grierson came back

to Britain in 1926,

he was a man with a mission:

to create a national documentary movement,

more or less from scratch.

 

But he had no production company,

no equipment, no workers,

no patrons and no money.

 

What he did have

was a highly persuasive manner

and an unusual secret weapon: herrings.

 

(...)

 

The resulting film, Drifters,

cost only £2,948,

and it expanded the possibilities of cinema

for ever.

 

It had its first public screening

on November 10 1929 at the Tivoli Theatre,

home of the Film Society,

at an event that also saw

the UK premiere of Battleship Potemkin,

previously banned in England

as enemy propaganda.

 

Drifters opened the bill;

it thrilled the audience with its daring

and - as far as they knew -

fresh editing style.

 

Potemkin made far less impact:

it looked like watered-down Grierson.

 

Drifters became

the hit film of the season,

and soon went into handsome profit.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/sep/01/
film

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/nov/10/
gpo-films-pioneers-study

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/sep/01/
film

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The FSA photographs,

along with Pare Lorentz's

government-sponsored documentaries

The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936)

and The River (1937),

with their images of drought, flood,

and other rural calamities,

helped Gregg Toland (the cinematographer)

and John Ford (the director)

give authenticity to their 1940 screen adaptation

of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

 

(Indeed, the poetic narration

and visual beauty of the Lorentz films

actually influenced Steinbeck

as he was writing the original novel.)

 

The Ford film, in turn,

fixed the iconography of the thirties

for future generations.

 

We can see its long afterlife

in films like Hal Ashby's

1976 biography of Woody Guthrie,

Bound for Glory.

https://www.npr.org/templates/
story/story.php?storyId=113057611 - September 22, 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2009/09/22/
113057611/a-waltz-through-depression-era-art-and-culture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related > Anglonautes > Arts > Films / Movies > Documentaries

 

documentary filmmakers >

timeline, list by name

 

 

 

 

 

Related > Anglonautes > Vocapedia

 

pictures / films / movies / cinema

 

 

 

 

 

Related > Anglonautes > Images

 

films / movies > actors, actresses

 

 

 

 

 

Related > The Guardian > In the director's chair        UK

 

Jason Solomons interviews film-makers on video,

discussing their latest work, career to date and their visions

https://www.theguardian.com/film/series/
inthedirectorschair

 

 

 

 

The Guardian > Documentaries films        UK

https://www.theguardian.com/film/documentary

 

https://www.theguardian.com/documentaries

 

 

 

 

PBS > Documentaries with a point of view        USA

http://archive.pov.org/blog/#.VTZ7jZO9FhY

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related > Anglonautes > Arts > Films / Movies > Documentaries > UK, USA

 

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