Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Ricky Leacock Dead

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Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 03-24-2011, 09:33 PM:

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

Richard Leacock, Innovative Documentary Maker, Dies at 89
By WILLIAM GRIMES
Published: March 24, 2011

Richard Leacock, a 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, died on Wednesday at his home in Paris. He was 89.

His death was confirmed by his daughter Victoria Leacock Hoffman.

Although overshadowed by colleagues like Albert and David Maysles and D. A. Pennebaker, Mr. Leacock was a seminal figure in developing the artistic theories and the small, lightweight camera and sound equipment that led to a new style of reportorial filmmaking, one that had a profound influence not just on nonfiction filmmakers but also on directors, like John Cassavetes, who were seeking a more immediate, spontaneous style.

Posted by Lionel Fouillen (Member # 1475) on 03-24-2011, 10:49 PM:

Also known as the inventor of Super8 as far as I remember.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 03-25-2011, 03:40 AM:

Very sad news. In addition to his other work, he directed what is probably my all-time favorite educational film: Frames of Reference. I'll have to dig out my 16mm print of this over the weekend....

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 03-25-2011, 09:53 AM:

He, and the other founders of Cinema Verité, can also be unfairly blamed for the plague of shaky cam. These guys, of course, knew how to hold their cameras, but nonetheless shaky cam is a nod to verité.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 03-25-2011, 11:36 AM:

They also knew how to use it judiciously as a tool and with restraint....today restraint is a word hardly anyone knows or understands.

I ran MONTEREY POP at least 3 times over the past years, always in 4rk mag. Great film....great filmmakers.