Direct Cinema: Observational Documentary And The Politics Of The Sixties

Direct Cinema is the first comprehensive historical study of the seminal `direct cinema' movement of 1960s America. A pivotal moment in both documentary cinema and modern American culture, filmmakers such as Robert Drew, D. A. Pennebaker and Frederick Wiseman used mobile cameras and synchronised sound to reveal the hidden side of 1960s America - behind the scenes of John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign (Primary, 1960), on the road with salesmen hawking bibles door-to-door (Salesman, 1969) and amongst the revellers at the legendary Woodstock festival (Woodstock, 1970). Outlining the methods and achievements of these pioneers who created the notion of the 'fly on the wall' documentary, this volume suggests that direct cinema was an integral part of the artistic and political revolutions of the 1960s, and a resurgence of the United States' homegrown philosophical ideals.