D.A. Pennebaker, a champion of the cinma-vrit approach to documentary, which emphasized intimate portraits of its subjects, died Thursdayfrom natural causes, his son Frazer confirmed to Rolling Stone. He was 94.
Chronicling rock stars and political operatives, Pennebaker sought to strip away the artifice both in nonfiction films and from the famous figures who populated his movies to craft deceptively casual snapshots of people we thought we knew. Whether in Dont Look Back (about Bob Dylans 1965 tour of England) or The War Room (a look behind the scenes of Bill Clintons 1992 presidential campaign), his handheld camera made viewers feel as if they were along for the ride as history was taking place. Concert films such as Monterey Pop and Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars captured the passion and inventiveness of rock musics cultural zenith, while 2001s Startup.com (which he produced) examined the internet bubble of the late 20th century through the deteriorating friendship of two entrepreneurs. No matter the film, though, Pennebaker was open to the randomness of life to provide unpredictability and energy to his fly-on-the-wall portraits. As he said in 2017, Half the things that happened to me, that I look back on and were really good, were all kind of I think of as luck. Chance.
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Donn Alan Pennebaker was born July 15, 1925, growing up in Chicago to a father, a successful photographer, who divorced his mother when he was still a boy. I didnt want to be what he was, Pennebaker later admitted. He had no time for a family. After studying engineering at Yale, he worked as a carpenter for about a decade before deciding to focus on writing and painting. Eventually, he turned his attention to filmmaking, which led to his first short, 1953s Daybreak Express, about an elevated New York subway line. Scored to Duke Ellington, the non-narrative Daybreak Express was an early indicator of Pennebakers ability to meld music with images, and soon he teamed up with fellow documentarian Robert Drew and others to form Drew Associates, a collective that advocated for a new kind of nonfiction cinema unfussy, lacking polish or traditional talking-head interviews that offered viewers direct, unvarnished access to the films subject.
Pennebaker put that theory into practice on Primary, a 1960 documentary about the Democratic primary in Wisconsin, in which he served as a cameraman. Even more importantly, it was while working on that film that he helped create a lighter, portable sound-recording camera a crucial development in the history of nonfiction filmmaking. It was the synch that really changed documentaries, Pennebaker explained to Film Comment, later adding that, before Primary, [E]verything had to be lip synched when we edited. We had to find the synch. Nothing was even cued. So that was a big problem.
No longer encumbered, he was able to work much more quickly and freely, which he did brilliantly when he signed on to direct a film about Dylan as he toured Britain in 1965. The two men had a handshake deal but no formal plan regarding what Pennebaker would shoot. Dylan was important that was the first thing I was convinced of, the filmmaker recalled. I wanted to find out more about him, and I didnt know any other way. Asking questions was no good; I wanted to watch Dylan in as intimate a way as possible.
The resulting film, Dont Look Back, is one of the quintessential rock movies of the 1960s, tagging along with the young singer-songwriter just as hes ditching his persona of a folk-singing poet and preparing to embrace electric guitars. The Dylan we meet in the documentary is magnetic, surly, exceptionally witty and, above all, unguarded in a way he never would be again. As for the films iconic opening, in which Dylan holds a series of cue cards printed with some of the lyrics to Subterranean Homesick Blues as the song plays on the soundtrack, it became the model for the modern music video.
Dont Look Back took more than a year to find a distributor many balked at its shaky, gritty look but despite its lofty reputation now, Pennebaker never conceived the film as a salute to the voice of a generation or as a conventional rock doc. What I thought was, this person is trying to generate himself, Pennebaker told The New York Times in 2016. Hes trying to figure out who he is and what he wants to do. So I filmed him talking to people and listening to people. When the concerts came, I would only shoot little parts of them. I didnt want it to be a music film. I wanted it to be a film about a person who was finding out who he was.
In Dont Look Backs wake, Pennebaker became an in-demand filmmaker among rock artists, whether shooting the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival for Monterey Pop or witnessing the power of David Bowie and Depeche Modes concerts. But his tastes were wide-ranging: He also made a film about John DeLorean, 1981s DeLorean, in which Pennebaker followed the car designer around Europe as he showed off his namesake vehicle. And then there was 1983s Rockaby, about the preparations to stage a Samuel Beckett play. It was also during this time that he married Chris Hedegus, who had been his collaborator since the late 70s. They continued their creative partnership for the next several decades, peaking with 1993s The War Room, which spotlighted Clintons chief strategists James Carville and George Stephanopoulos and gave a rare glimpse into how a modern campaign is waged. The film earned Pennebaker his only Oscar nomination.
Pennebaker may have trained his cameras on political figures and other newsworthy subjects, but he insisted that his films werent works of advocacy but, rather, simple reporting. Whatever happens when youre shooting necessarily becomes part of your film because its what you saw, he said in 2016. Were not making a sermon. I think thats the failure in a lot of current documentaries. Theyre sermonizing, and for perfectly understandable reasons they want people to act better, or whatever. Its the same reason the bishops sermonize, but thats not our kind of filmmaking.
He backed up his claim in recent films like Startup.com (which Hedegus co-directed alongside Jehane Noujaim) and Unlocking the Cage, which located the personal, human story within the national headlines. Unlocking the Cage followed attorney Steve Wise as he fights for animal rights through the court system, but as always Pennebaker wanted to look at the individuals rather than the larger apparatus. It also helped that he was often captivated by the people he documented. Could I make a film about somebody I didnt like, or whose political message I disagreed with? Probably, he once said. But it wouldnt be as much fun to do.
Pennebaker received his only Emmy nomination in 2004 for Elaine Stritch at Liberty, and the following year the International Documentary Association awarded him with its Career Achievement Award. In 2013, he received an Honorary Oscar. But perhaps the strongest indicator of his legacy is the number of homages made to his work, particularly Dont Look Back, which has been spoofed and copied in everything from Bob Roberts to Im Not There. And while others would often credit him for being a groundbreaking documentarian, he never liked the word documentary being used to describe his vivid, candid films.
For me, I think of them as home movies, he said in 2015, because theyre made by one person and not made with the expectancy of a large return. Theyre made the way music is written, or books. Its just one persons take on whats going on around them. You shouldnt be the adversary, with a lot of equipment to protect you. You should really be vulnerable just as the people you film are vulnerable.
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