Bob Magaw
Footballguy
Albert Maysles, Pioneering Documentarian, Dies at 88 (I didn't know he had a master's degree in psycholgy, but in some director commentaries I listened to, he came across as very articulate, engaging and insightful).
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/07/movies/albert-maysles-pioneering-documentarian-dies-at-88.html?_r=0
Albert Maysles, the award-winning documentarian who, with his brother, David, made intensely talked-about films, including Grey Gardens and Gimme Shelter, with their American version of cinéma vérité, died Thursday night at his home in Manhattan. He was 88.
His death was confirmed by K. A. Dilday, a family friend.
Mr. Maysles (pronounced MAY-zuls) departed from documentary conventions by not interviewing his films subjects. As he explained in an interview with The New York Times in 1994, Making a film isnt finding the answer to a question; its trying to capture life as it is.
That immediacy was a hallmark of the Maysles brothers films, beginning in the 1960s, when they made several well-regarded documentaries. But it was
(1985) and Soldiers of Music (1991), about Mstislav Rostropovichs return to Russia. That film was made, with three co-directors, after David Maysless death of a stroke in 1987. Albert Maysles was also a co-director of Deborah Dickson and Susan Froemkes Abortion: Desperate Choices, which won a 1992 Emmy.Mr. Maysles made five films about the work of the installation artist Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude. The first was Christos Valley Curtain (1974), which was nominated for a documentary short-subject Oscar, and the last was The Gates (2005), about the artists temporary transformation of Central Park.
Mr. Maysles received the National Medal of Arts from President Obama in July. His most recent documentary, Iris (2014), about the fashionable interior decorator Iris Apfel, was shown at the New York Film Festival in October. And the Tribeca Film Festival recently announced it would screen the world premiere of In Transit, a film he directed with Nelson Walker, Lynn True, David Usui and Ben Wu, exploring the long-distance train route of the Empire Builder.
Albert H. Maysles was born in Boston on Nov. 26, 1926. His parents, a postal clerk and a schoolteacher, lived in Dorchester and later moved to suburban Brookline, where Albert and his younger brother grew up. Albert had a learning disability, which led him, he said, to develop the intense listening skills that served him so well in documentary filmmaking.
He studied psychology at Syracuse University, received a masters degree from Boston University and taught psychology there for three years before making his first film. It was Psychiatry in Russia (1955), a silent documentary that he shot on a trip to the Soviet Union.
He followed that with Youth in Poland (1957), for which his brother, who had been working as a production assistant on Hollywood movies, was co-director.
Albert was soon invited to be part of a film crew, including the documentarian D. A. Pennebaker, put together by Robert Drew. They were working with new battery-powered cameras and sound recorders that allowed them greater freedom to be unobtrusively close to their subjects. Mr. Maysles was co-cinematographer on Mr. Drews Primary (1960), about an early Democratic presidential contest between John F. Kennedy and Hubert H. Humphrey.
In 1962, the brothers established Maysles Films, putting the new technology to work. They made ends meet by doing television commercials for large corporations like IBM and Merrill Lynch, then made their early reputation with Salesman (1968), a study of four door-to-door Bible sellers who target the poor. But the Maysles had already done impressive if sometimes seemingly lightweight work, including Whats Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A. (1964), which followed the British rock group to three American cities. With Love From Truman and Meet Marlon Brando, both 1966, were also well received.
As the years passed, Mr. Maysles worked, often with co-directors, on a wide range of subjects, including the Getty Museum, Gypsy music, Sports Illustrateds annual swimsuit issue and poverty in the Mississippi Delta. In 2006 he founded what is now the Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem.
Survivors include his wife of 39 years, Gillian Walker; two daughters, Rebekah and Sara; a son, Philip; and a stepdaughter, Auralice Graft.
Interviewed in 2005 by The Times, Mr. Maysles was asked the key to his successful career. He answered, Making films exactly the way I believe they should be made. But he also told Interview magazine: One of the things that makes it easy is that I have a true love for people, and so I have no difficulty getting and keeping access.
Remembering Albert Maysles (including classic music documentaries on the Beatles and Rolling Stones, as well as critically acclaimed non-music themed Salesman and Grey Gardens (all but the Beatles are in the Criterion collection, and the Maysles brothers have another Criterion Grey Gardens-related doc, follow-up The Beales of Grey Gardens).
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/06/remembering-albert-maysles/?action=click&contentCollection=Movies&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article
Gimme Shelter page on Criterion includes no less than a half dozen critical essays, reflecting its historical importance in documenting the Altamont fiasco/tragedy. Part of it was being at the "right place" at the right time, but they were also at the right place at the right time earlier with the Beatles first US visit. At some point you have to say they played some role in making their luck (but no doubt, being in position to document arguably the coup-de-grace of the '60s spirit of the age had an element of chance involved). Gimme Shelter is a consensus as one of the greatest rock documentaries ever (if not the greatest).
http://www.criterion.com/films/637-gimme-shelter
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/07/movies/albert-maysles-pioneering-documentarian-dies-at-88.html?_r=0
Albert Maysles, the award-winning documentarian who, with his brother, David, made intensely talked-about films, including Grey Gardens and Gimme Shelter, with their American version of cinéma vérité, died Thursday night at his home in Manhattan. He was 88.
His death was confirmed by K. A. Dilday, a family friend.
Mr. Maysles (pronounced MAY-zuls) departed from documentary conventions by not interviewing his films subjects. As he explained in an interview with The New York Times in 1994, Making a film isnt finding the answer to a question; its trying to capture life as it is.
That immediacy was a hallmark of the Maysles brothers films, beginning in the 1960s, when they made several well-regarded documentaries. But it was
(1985) and Soldiers of Music (1991), about Mstislav Rostropovichs return to Russia. That film was made, with three co-directors, after David Maysless death of a stroke in 1987. Albert Maysles was also a co-director of Deborah Dickson and Susan Froemkes Abortion: Desperate Choices, which won a 1992 Emmy.Mr. Maysles made five films about the work of the installation artist Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude. The first was Christos Valley Curtain (1974), which was nominated for a documentary short-subject Oscar, and the last was The Gates (2005), about the artists temporary transformation of Central Park.
Mr. Maysles received the National Medal of Arts from President Obama in July. His most recent documentary, Iris (2014), about the fashionable interior decorator Iris Apfel, was shown at the New York Film Festival in October. And the Tribeca Film Festival recently announced it would screen the world premiere of In Transit, a film he directed with Nelson Walker, Lynn True, David Usui and Ben Wu, exploring the long-distance train route of the Empire Builder.
Albert H. Maysles was born in Boston on Nov. 26, 1926. His parents, a postal clerk and a schoolteacher, lived in Dorchester and later moved to suburban Brookline, where Albert and his younger brother grew up. Albert had a learning disability, which led him, he said, to develop the intense listening skills that served him so well in documentary filmmaking.
He studied psychology at Syracuse University, received a masters degree from Boston University and taught psychology there for three years before making his first film. It was Psychiatry in Russia (1955), a silent documentary that he shot on a trip to the Soviet Union.
He followed that with Youth in Poland (1957), for which his brother, who had been working as a production assistant on Hollywood movies, was co-director.
Albert was soon invited to be part of a film crew, including the documentarian D. A. Pennebaker, put together by Robert Drew. They were working with new battery-powered cameras and sound recorders that allowed them greater freedom to be unobtrusively close to their subjects. Mr. Maysles was co-cinematographer on Mr. Drews Primary (1960), about an early Democratic presidential contest between John F. Kennedy and Hubert H. Humphrey.
In 1962, the brothers established Maysles Films, putting the new technology to work. They made ends meet by doing television commercials for large corporations like IBM and Merrill Lynch, then made their early reputation with Salesman (1968), a study of four door-to-door Bible sellers who target the poor. But the Maysles had already done impressive if sometimes seemingly lightweight work, including Whats Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A. (1964), which followed the British rock group to three American cities. With Love From Truman and Meet Marlon Brando, both 1966, were also well received.
As the years passed, Mr. Maysles worked, often with co-directors, on a wide range of subjects, including the Getty Museum, Gypsy music, Sports Illustrateds annual swimsuit issue and poverty in the Mississippi Delta. In 2006 he founded what is now the Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem.
Survivors include his wife of 39 years, Gillian Walker; two daughters, Rebekah and Sara; a son, Philip; and a stepdaughter, Auralice Graft.
Interviewed in 2005 by The Times, Mr. Maysles was asked the key to his successful career. He answered, Making films exactly the way I believe they should be made. But he also told Interview magazine: One of the things that makes it easy is that I have a true love for people, and so I have no difficulty getting and keeping access.
Remembering Albert Maysles (including classic music documentaries on the Beatles and Rolling Stones, as well as critically acclaimed non-music themed Salesman and Grey Gardens (all but the Beatles are in the Criterion collection, and the Maysles brothers have another Criterion Grey Gardens-related doc, follow-up The Beales of Grey Gardens).
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/06/remembering-albert-maysles/?action=click&contentCollection=Movies&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article
Gimme Shelter page on Criterion includes no less than a half dozen critical essays, reflecting its historical importance in documenting the Altamont fiasco/tragedy. Part of it was being at the "right place" at the right time, but they were also at the right place at the right time earlier with the Beatles first US visit. At some point you have to say they played some role in making their luck (but no doubt, being in position to document arguably the coup-de-grace of the '60s spirit of the age had an element of chance involved). Gimme Shelter is a consensus as one of the greatest rock documentaries ever (if not the greatest).
http://www.criterion.com/films/637-gimme-shelter
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