Albert Maysles
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The Journey is the Destination: On the Maysles Documentary Center Production, In Transit
Opening tomorrow at New York’s Metrograph and the Maysles Documentary Center is In Transit, about Amtrak’s long-distance passenger train, the Empire Builder. It was legendary Direct Cinema pioneer Albert Maysles’s final directing credit, a collaboration with young directors Lynn True, Nelson Walker, Ben Wu and David Isui. Below, from our Spring, 2015 print issue, is Paul Dallas’s report on the film. An attractive, middle-aged woman sits isolated against a snowy landscape that sweeps by. Her eyes are bright and sad. “I’ve always been a wife, a mother, somebody’s daughter, somebody’s something,” she explains. “But it didn’t matter. I was just […]
by Paul Dallas on Jun 22, 2017 -
Act Naturally
“Giving the movie its comic and poignant dimension is Brennan’s performance as Brennan.” In the wake of Albert Maysles’ death in March, I returned to this intriguing reference to “performance” in Vincent Canby’s 1969 review of Salesman, Albert and David Maysles’ landmark work of direct cinema. Canby was, of course, referring to Paul Brennan, affectionately known as “The Badger.” Brennan’s performance — if we can call it that — is indeed astonishing. A man of unremarkable looks, he holds the screen with an enthralling intensity. Of course, Brennan isn’t an actor but rather a “real person,” a documentary subject of […]
by Jesse Moss on Apr 28, 2015 -
The 2015 Tribeca Film Festival Awards
Below are the winners of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. Note that the narrative awards were split evenly between Virgin Mountain and Bridgend, with three apiece. WORLD NARRATIVE COMPETITION CATEGORIES: The jurors for the 2015 World Narrative Competition sponsored by AKA, were Paul Attanasio, Sophie Barthes, Whoopi Goldberg, Dylan McDermott, and Burr Steers. ● The Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature – Virgin Mountain, written and directed by Dagur Kári [Iceland, Denmark]. Winner receives $25,000, sponsored by AT&T, and the art award “Ash Eroded Film Reel” by Daniel Arsham. The award was given by Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Apr 23, 2015 -
Why the Art of Observing Life is Enough
The following guest essay by filmmaker Amy Benson, about how sad, unexpected developments changed the course of her documentary, Drawing the Tiger, coincides with a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the film’s completion. Please visit its Kickstarter page to learn more and consider donating. — Editor My husband, Scott Squire, and I started filming what is now Drawing the Tiger seven years ago. It began as a ‘social justice’ documentary; we imagined the tagline would be, “The best thing we can do in the world is educate the girls.” We knew the story we were going to tell… you know it too. […]
by Amy Benson on Apr 1, 2015 -
Getting Close: Remembering Albert Maysles
I woke up in a strange bed in Harlem on a cold and rainy Saturday morning. I was in the second floor guest bedroom of a beautiful old brownstone. The bookshelves were lined with revolutionary material from all cultures, resources for creating manned insurrections, overthrowing governments and surviving months in the wild with only a backpack. Stacks of old records littered the room, mostly ’70s funk, Afro-Cuban jazz and Fela. I grabbed my iPhone, which had slept by my head next to the pillow and considered tweeting or instagramming the moment but quickly dismissed the idea. I stumbled down a […]
by Adam Bhala Lough on Mar 9, 2015 -
Watch: Albert Maysles on The Beales
Last Friday, a day after Albert Maysles’ passing, Grey Gardens opened for a 40th Anniversary run at New York’s Film Forum. The new 2K digital restoration of the 1976 documentary, courtesy of Janus Films, will roll out in limited cities over the next couple of months, and the Criterion Collection has released a brief interview with Maysles on his working relationship with the Beales, in which he speaks about the women’s setbacks and their fascinating — not to be confused with abnormal — qualities. For reminiscences on Maysles and his work, I’d recommend this piece by Richard Brody, which speaks to the undying […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Mar 9, 2015 -
R.I.P., Documentary Great Albert Maysles
The legendary documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles passed away last night, reported The Criterion Collection on the day it is rereleasing one of his most indelible and influential works, Grey Gardens (co-directed with David Maysles, Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer). He was 88. With David, his brother, Albert Maysles made “direct cinema” documentaries that were politically and socially impactful upon release and aesthetically groundbreaking for generations of filmmakers to follow. The 1969 documentary Salesman (co-directed with Charlotte Zerin) captured the everyday sorrows of ordinary people — in this case, door-to-door Bible salesman — toiling in the shadows of both the American […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 6, 2015 -
Coming of Age While Dying: Henry Corra on Farewell to Hollywood
In the late ‘70s, Henry Corra was attending Franconia College, a small experimental liberal arts school in New Hampshire. While there, he and his classmates watched a film called Grey Gardens. Immediately upon graduation, with a smoking-hot performing arts degree in hand, he made his way to New York City and made a beeline to the offices of Albert and David Maysles, the directors of this film that had galvanized him. He told them he wanted to work for them. They promptly hired him. The first time I met Henry was in 2008 at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). […]
by Pamela Cohn on Feb 18, 2015 -
“Pull the Threads until it Unravels”: Advice from TFI’s Fashion in Film Event
Director and cinematographer Christina Voros nicely summed up the difference between the fashion industry and the film industry at the Tribeca Film Institute’s Fashion in Film event Friday: “Fashion is sort of antithetical to film. The fashion industry is all about making sure the seams don’t show, that every thread is in place. Documentary is about pulling on the threads until it unravels.” She was speaking of the process of filming her second documentary feature The Director, about Gucci Creative Director Frida Giannini, but the sentiment was reflected in films and discussions throughout the two-day event. At first blush the […]
by Randy Astle on Sep 24, 2013 -
Tell Me Something: Creative Advice from Documentarians
We’ve all probably had that feeling: you’re in the middle of a project and its shape has formed in your mind, but it’s still fuzzy around the edges. You think you’re going in the right direction, but you don’t know what the final destination is yet. You need some sort of creative road map of practical steps to get the project back on track, to clarify your ideas and refocus your creative energy. Brian Eno suggests taking a hot shower. But for me, talking with other artists who’ve gotten through these challenges before is the best way to get my own creative gears back in motion. It was […]
by Jessica Edwards on Mar 19, 2013
