Primary (film)
Primary | |
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![]() Cover of DVD release | |
Written by | Robert Drew |
Produced by | Robert Drew |
Starring | John F. Kennedy Hubert Humphrey |
Cinematography | Richard Leacock Albert Maysles |
Edited by | D. A. Pennebaker |
Release date |
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Running time | 60 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Primary is a 1960 direct cinema documentary film about the 1960 Wisconsin primary election between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey for the United States Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States.
Produced by Robert Drew, shot by Richard Leacock and Albert Maysles and edited by D. A. Pennebaker, the film was a breakthrough in documentary film style. Most importantly, through the use of mobile cameras and lighter sound equipment, the filmmakers were able to follow the candidates as they wound their way through cheering crowds, cram with them into crowded hotel rooms and hover around their faces as they awaited polling results. This resulted in a greater intimacy than was possible with the older, more classical techniques of documentary filmmaking, and it established what has since become the standard style of video reporting.
In 1990, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The Academy Film Archive preserved Primary in 1998.[1] The film's importance in the evolution of documentary filmmaking was explored in the film Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment.[2]
See also
References
- ^ "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.
- ^ Crow, Jonathan. "Cinema Verite: Defining the Moment (1999)". New York Times. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
External links
- 1960 films
- Documentary films about elections in the United States
- Documentary films about John F. Kennedy
- United States National Film Registry films
- Hubert Humphrey
- 1960 documentary films
- Black-and-white documentary films
- American documentary films
- American films
- English-language films
- Politics of Wisconsin
- Films shot in Wisconsin
- 1960 United States Democratic presidential primaries
- 1960 in Wisconsin
- Films directed by Robert Drew
- American black-and-white films
- Documentary films about Wisconsin
- Political documentary film stubs