Leacock circa 1982
Richard Leacock Essays Leacock Project (draft)
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Leacock circa 1982 |
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Born in London, July 18, 1921, Leacock grew up on a banana plantation in the
Canary Islands till shipped off to School in England. He attended Bedales, then
Dartington Hall Schools from 1929 to 1938, then helped form a student film unit
at Dartington.
His primary contribution to educational film in the United States is a series
of four films made for the Physical Sciences Studies Committee (PSSC) in the
late 1950s, A Magnet Laboratory, Frames of Reference, Coulomb’s
Law, and Crystals. One of the pioneers
of the ‘Cinéma Vérité’ movement, his documentary
work also appeared in schools, as edited versions of films made originally for
U.S. television networks. Through his teachings, he has influenced many filmmakers,
and, from his farm in Sartilly, France continues to produce his own documentary
work with his partner and colleague Valerie Lalonde. A brilliant essayist and
film theoretician, Leacock champions the right of the individual filmmaker to
create and produce his or her own work on low budget, and insists on the necessity
of retaining distribution rights as well. cinè16 encourages
film enthusiasts to read Leacock’s essays,
powerfully written, opinionated, and refreshingly non-stuffy.
A Biographical
Filmography
The following was primarily written by Leacock, with occasional
additions by Geoff Alexander. All comments are by Leacock, unless
indicated by (GA).
1935 CANARY BANANAS: 8m. Filmed on his father's plantation,
Leacock’s sophisticated use of pans and tilts described the
process of planting, harvesting, and shipping Canary Island bananas
to his schoolmates. This film was shown to family friend Robert
Flaherty, who would hire him after the war, largely based on the
remembrance of this early film (GA).
1938 filmed the David Lack Expedition to the Galapagos Islands.
1939-42 Read Physics at Harvard University spending much time
producing plays.
1940 Summer job as assistant to assistant editor with Frontier Films
in New York, splicing much of NATIVE LAND (1942), dir. Leo
Hurwitz/Paul Strand.
1941 TO HEAR YOUR BANJO PLAY: 20m, dir. Charles Korvin (Geza
Karpathy). On this summer job, Leacock shot folk singers in the
mountains of Virginia including Texas Gladden and Horton Barker on
35mm with sync sound (this film was completed by Willard Van Dyke
& Irving Lerner after the war, with added footage of Pete Seeger,
Woody Guthrie, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee)
1942 Left Harvard to become a "Combat-Cameraman" in the American
Army, serving in the Arctic, the Burma Campaign and in China.
1946 LOUISIANA STORY: 14 months as cameraman with Robert and Francis
Flaherty (“an experience of a lifetime!”)
1947-8 Cameraman-director with John Ferno (Fernhaut) on seven short
"Human-Geography" films, two in France, and one each in Holland,
Switzerland, Italy, Greece and the Sahara Desert (Desert
Nomads), produced by Louis De Rochemont. Leacock shot and
sent the undeveloped negatives back to New York, where they were
edited and released.
1948 Camera for Willard Van Dyke's MOUNT VERNON and THE NEW
FRONTIER.
1949 Director Cameraman on EARTHQUAKE IN ECUADOR (about effects and
aftermath of the Pelileo Earthquake) for United Nations.
1950 HEAD OF THE HOUSE Writer-Dir.-Edit. An acted "documentary" for
US State Dept.
1952 THE LONELY NIGHT Dir. by Irving Jacoby. Filmed. by Leacock
1954 JAZZ DANCE: 20 min. Cameraman with Bob Campbell on Roger
Tilton's film. Photographed on 35mm with small hand held cameras; a
limited breakthrough.
1954 TOBY AND THE TALL CORN: 30 min. Writer-Director-Camera-Editor, a
film report on a traveling tent-theater in the Middle West, (made for
Omnibus, a television program)
1956 A CONVERSATION WITH MARCEL DUCHAMP. Filmed for NBC News’
‘Conversations with Elder Wisemen’ series.
1957 HOW THE F-100 GOT ITS TAIL 20 min. 35 mm Dir. by Leacock. A
military reenactment for Omnibus TV.
1957-9 Directed four physics films including FRAMES OF REFERENCE,
COULOMB’S LAW, A MAGNET LABORATORY, AND CRYSTALS for the
Physical Science Study Committee.
1958 BERNSTEIN IN ISRAEL: 30 min. A close look at a conducting
tour.(used 16mm film & sound equipment for the first time, also
for Omnibus)
1959 BERNSTEIN IN MOSCOW: 55 min. The New York Philharmonic visit to
USSR
1960 Joined Robert Drew in Drew Associates along with Pennebaker,
Albert Maysles and others, making experiments in journalism that came
to be called "Direct Cinema", which -resulted in such films as:
1959 BULL FIGHT AT MALAGA: 20 min. 1959 Drew and I tried to film
“mano · mano" with equipment built for us that didn't work
the way it was supposed to. With Luis-Miguel Dominguin,
OrdoÒez, Hemingway, et a1.
1960 PRIMARY: 30 min. Sen. Kennedy's election campaign in
Wisconsin.
1960-1 ABC’s ‘CLOSE-UP’ series was originally produced
by in-house producer John Secondari, but four episodes were
contributed by John Drew’s group. In protest of the utilization
of this independent production team, ABC VP of News John Daly
resigned. Leacock was directly involved in the following
episodes:
YANKI NO!: 55 min. Castro's takeover in Cuba.
KENYA: LAND OF THE WHITE GHOST The election of the first black
majority in Kenya.
THE CHILDREN WERE WATCHING. Desegregation in New Orleans, directed by
Leacock.
ADVENTURES ON THE NEW FRONTIER. Focused on the 1960 presidential
primary and inauguration of JFK. This is probably a longer version of
PRIMARY, filmed in 1960 (GA).
1961-2 ‘THE LIVING CAMERA’ series was produced by Robert Drew and
distributed for television by Time-Life. This series explored the lives of ten
people, utilizing the ‘direct cinema’, or ‘Cinéma Vérité’
style of hand-held cameras and synch-sound. Leacock’s contribution included
the following:
ON THE POLE (also known as ‘Eddie’): 55 min. Eddie Sachs
driving the Indianapolis 500. Co-produced and directed.
PETEY AND JOHNNY: 55 min. Teenage gangs in East Harlem. Produced by
Leacock.
NEHRU: 55 min. His last campaign for election. Co-produced, directed,
and shot with Gregory Shuker.
THE CHAIR: 55 min. The last moment commutation of Paul Crump's death
sentence.Co-produced, directed, and photographed.
SUSAN STARR: 19 year-old pianist vies for Mitroupoulos prize. Filmed
by a number of cinematographers, including Leacock.
1963 CRISIS: 55 min. President Kennedy's confrontation with Gov.
George Wallace of Alabama.
1963 Formed Leacock Pennebaker Inc., making:
l963 HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY: 30 min. With Joyce Chopra. Mrs. Fisher bears
quintuplets in Aberdeen, S. Dakota.
1964 REPUBLICANS - THE NEW BREED: 30 min. The Goldwater Campaign,
made with Noel E. Parmentel Jr.
1965 A STRAVINSKY PORTRAIT: 55 min. Made with Rolf Liebermann. Sarah
Hudson recording sound.
1965 GEZA ANDA: 30 min. With Rolf Liebermann, a film on pianism.
Sarah Hudson recording sound.
1965 KU KLUX KLAN --- INVISIBLE EMPIRE: 50 min. Produced
and written by David Lowe for 'CBS Reports', sound by Noel
Parmentel.
1966 OH MEIN PA-PA! A portrait of Paul Burkhard: made with Rolf
Liebermann. Helga Feddersen recording sound.
1966 THE ANATOMY OF CINDY FINK: 20 min. A view of the art world made
with Patricia Jaffe.
1966 OLD AGE, THE WASTED YEARS: Two 30 min. parts for WNET made with
Nell Cox
1966 Helped filming Pennebaker's MONTEREY POP!
1967 Film projections that were seen in Sarah Caldwell's productions
of Berg's Opera LULU, Berlioz's LES TROYENS and others, for The Opera
Company of Boston.
1968 1-PM: 90 min. Pennebaker put together this material, gleaned
from a film we shot under the direction of Jean-Luc Godard which was
to be 1-AM (one American Movie, get it?) which he decided not to
complete.
1968 FRENCH LUNCH: Camera on Nell Cox's film.
1968 HICKORY HILL: 18 min. With George Plimpton. A visit to a
children's charity pet-show at the home of Robert Kennedy.
1969 CHIEFS: 18 min. With Noel E. Parmentel Jr. A convention of 3,500
American Police Chiefs and their wives at Waikiki Beach, Hawaii.
1969 MAIDSTONE: Norman Mailer's film. One of several Cameras.
1970 COMPANY: 60 min. Pennebaker’s film of Original cast
recording session for Sondheim's musical hit. One of three
cameras.
1969 Appointed Professor of Cinema at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
1970 QUEEN OF APOLLO: 20 min. With Elspeth Leacock. A 16 year old is
Queen of a Mardi Gras ball, in New Orleans.
1972 TREAD: 20 min. A direct camera view of a ballet by Merce
Cunningham. By Richard Leacock with Sandy D'Annunzio.
1977 ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER: 30 min. a tribute to the memory of the
founder of the Gardner Museum in Boston.
1978 CENTERBEAM: 20 min. A document of Documenta. John Ruben and
Leacock film of the Centerbeam art machine created by the Center for
Advanced Visual Studies of MIT, in Cissel, Germany
1980 LIGHT COMING THROUGH: 20 min. A Portrait of Maud Morgan,
painter.
1981 COMMUNITY OF PRAISE: 55 min. With Marisa Silver. A portrait of a
fundamentalist Christian family, in middle America. (I have a UMatic
copy of the original edit which I consider to be a far better
film)
1984 LULU IN BERLIN 50 min. with Susan Woll. A conversation with
Louise Brooks (when she was 67) about her work with G.W.Pabst. With
excerpts of her films.
1988 Leacock retired from MIT, came to Paris and started shooting on
Video-8. He met and started working with, Valerie Lalonde. They
became fascinated with the possibility of carrying this tiny,
sensitive tool with them everywhere they went.
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With Valerie Lalonde |
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photo by Pieter Vandermeer |
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