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RIP - Albert Maysles


Jeff Wexler

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“As a documentarian, I happily place my fate and faith in reality. It is my caretaker, the provider of subjects, themes, experiences – all endowed with the power of truth and the romance of discovery. And the closer I adhere to reality the more honest and authentic my tales. After all, the knowledge of the real world is exactly what we need to better understand and therefore possibly to love one another. It’s my way of making the world a better place.”

 

-  Albert Maysles

 

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Documentarian Albert Maysles has passed away at the age of 88, realscreen has confirmed.

 
The filmmaker’s daughter Rebekah confirmed the news of Maysles’ death to realscreen, adding that he passed at home, surrounded by family.
 
The director, along with his brother David, was among the first to pioneer direct cinema – or cinéma vérité – in which subjects are filmed without sets, narration or scripts.
 
Born in Boston to Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, Maysles studied at both Syracuse and Boston University and later taught psychology, before entering film in 1955 by taking a 16mm camera to Russia, where he filmed patients at mental hospitals for his first film, Psychiatry in Russia. Later on, Albert and David Maysles traveled by motorcycle from Munich to Moscow for their first collaboration on the Polish student revolution.
 
In 1960, Maysles co-directed the iconic vérité entry Primary, about the Democratic primary election campaigns of Kennedy and Humphrey, and later the documentary Salesman (1968), a portrait of four Boston door-to-door Bible salesmen. Maysles was made a Guggenheim Fellow in 1965 and went on to make such films as Rolling Stones doc Gimme Shelter (1970) and Grey Gardens (1976), a portrait of a mother and daughter living in a dilapidated East Hampton mansion. Maysles Films – the director’s production company – has produced many films on art and artists, with Grey Gardens cited by many doc-makers as a huge influence. A restored version of the classic film was slated to hit selected theaters today (March 6).
 
In 1994, the International Documentary Association presented Maysles with their Career Achievement Award, while other awards include the 1997 John Grierson Award for Documentary, the American Society of Cinematographers’ 1998 President’s Award, Hot Docs’ 1999 Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Sundance Film Festival’s 2001 Cinematography Award for Documentaries. The director most recently received a lifetime achievement award from the DOC NYC film festival in November.
 
Maysles’ latest doc, In Transit, which he co-directed with Nelson Walker, Lynn True, David Usui and Ben Wu, was this week selected as part of the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival’s world documentary feature competition. His previous effort, the fashion documentary Iris, debuted at the New York Film Festival last fall and was picked up by Magnolia Pictures, which is to release the film in theaters later this year.
 
:: from realscreen by Manori Ravindran
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Beyond his contributions to documentary film, and besides his involvent with the birth of crystal sync, Albert was a truly special human being - one full of talent and joy and life.

On day one of my first project with him, he insisted I record field audio without using my headphones.... From that moment on he opened my eyes and ears to the wonderful and spontaneous moments that create the story of life.

With Love,

Evan Meszaros

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On day one of my first project with him, he insisted I record field audio without using my headphones.... From that moment on he opened my eyes and ears to the wonderful and spontaneous moments that create the story of life.

With Love,

Evan Meszaros

This sounds like something you say to the producers when you show up to location and realized you remembered everthing BUT your headsets. "Hey, all the cool kids are doing it! Don't be a square."

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First worked with Al on the Gates documentary in central park.  He wanted to fire me because the headphones plugged into his pd-150 weren't working.  I fixed them and told him he couldn't because I was working pro bono.  I got a few jobs from Maysles over the years. Mainly new musical artists that wanted to live the same experience the beatles and the stones had.

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Way, way back, in the land of Nagras & 16mm film, the landline rang in the middle of the night in my home in Sydney, Aus.

A thick NY accent asked if I would be interested in working on part of a documentary on Lizard Island off the Great barrier Reef in Queensland with Australian super model Elle Macpherson. I was about to say "pull the other one mate, it plays jingle bells", when the accent mentioned the name of the editor who had recommended me. Instead I said "no worries, love to".

I flew to Lizard Island, boarded a boat and met the mob.

It was not an especially major social comment film - but no problem - it was part of a docco about Sports Illustrated magazine - "The making of the swimsuit edition". Where they shot around the stills shoot of the girls in their native countries. It was Dec 1988. A 6 day shoot, in the cinéma vérité  style.

So Albert Maysles directed with Susan Froemke, although she seemed to be more the producer.

Albert also did 2nd camera, sometimes. Main camera was the lovely Dyanna Tayler. Within 10 minutes of shooting with them, I was right at home. They were my kind of people.

In the big picture of life, this was but a blip on the radar.

However it was a coming together of like minded people and I hope they left with as much respect for me as I did for them.

My condolences to  all the family, friends and colleagues of Albert.

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I just heard from a friend that cinematographer/ director Albert Maysles

died last week. He and his brother David Maysles were legendary documentary film-makers. David Maysles was the sound recordist of this pioneering documentary team- David Maysles died in 1985 of a stroke.

I'm wondering if anyone on this board

ever worked with the Maysles brothers , either David or Al and if you have any recollections to share . I did exchange emails with Al, he was very generous to write me back. I asked him what kind of preparations he took to film Vladimir Horowitz for The Last Romantic. I've been trying to figure out how on earth they shot that film. His reply , "...as for preparations , we took none at all ."

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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