Richard Leacock
Encyclopedia
Richard Leacock was a British
-born documentary film
director and one of the pioneers of Direct Cinema
and Cinéma vérité
.
on 18 July 1921, the younger brother of film director and producer Philip Leacock
. Leacock grew up on his father's banana plantation in the Canary Islands until being sent to boarding schools in England at the age of eight.
He took up photography with a glass plate camera, built a darkroom and developed his pictures, but was not satisfied. At age 11 he was shown a silent film Turk-Sib about the building of the Trans-Siberian Railway
. He was stunned, and said to himself "All I need is a cine-camera and I can make a film that shows you what it is like to be there".
At the age of 14 he wrote, directed, filmed and edited Canary Bananas (10 min. 16mm, silent), a film about growing bananas, but it did not, in his opinion, give you "the feeling of being there".
He was educated at Dartington Hall School
from 1934-38, alongside Robert Flaherty's daughters, and where David Lack
(Life of the Robin) taught biology.
Having filmed in the Canary Islands and then in the Galapagos Islands (1938-9) for ornithologist David Lack's expedition, he moved to the USA and majored in Physics at Harvard in order to master the technology of filmmaking. Meanwhile he worked as cameraman and assistant editor on other peoples films, notably To Hear Your Banjo Play (1941), filming a folk music festival atop a mountain in south Virginia where there was no electricity, with a 35mm studio camera and 35mm optical film sound recorder using batteries in a large truck, a rare achievement at that time. Three years as a combat photographer in Burma and China were followed by 14 months as cameraman on Robert Flaherty's Louisiana Story
.
In the meantime, Leacock had married Eleanor "Happy" Burke in 1941. Daughter of the world-famous literary critic, philosopher, and writer Kenneth Burke
, she had studied at Radcliffe College, but graduated from Barnard in New York City. The Leacocks had four children together. After ethnographic fieldwork with the Innu (Montagnais-Naskapi) of Labrador, Eleanor Leacock
(1922-1987) earned her doctorate in anthropology at Columbia University (1952). Ten years later, after her marriage broke up, she went on to become a pioneering feminist anthropologist.
This film, Toby and the Tall Corn, went on the American cultural TV program, Omnibus, in prime time and brought him into contact with Robert Drew, an editor at LIFE
magazine in search for a less verbal approach to television reportage. Another new contact, Roger Tilton wanted to film an evening of people dancing to Dixieland music spontaneously. Leacock filmed Jazz Dance for him, using hand held camera techniques.
Leacock's search for high quality, mobile, synchronous equipment to facilitate observation was ongoing. By 1960 this had been achieved, and resulted in Robert Drew
's film Primary
, an intimate observation of a primary election with Democratic hopefuls John F. Kennedy
and Hubert Humphrey
in Wisconsin.
A number of films followed made by Drew, DA Pennebaker, Maysles and their associates, but the US networks were not impressed. In France at the Cinémathèque Française
, when Drew and Leacock screened Primary
and On the Pole, Henri Langlois
introduced the films as "perhaps the most important documentaries since the brothers Lumiere". After the screening, a monk in robes came up to them and said, "You have invented a new form. Now you must invent a new grammar!"
When Drew went to work for ABC-TV, Leacock Pennebaker was formed and produced Happy Mother's Day, Dont Look Back
, Monterey Pop
, A Stravinsky Portrait and many others ending with the remnants of Jean-Luc Godard
's One A.M. - One P.M. (1972).
In 1968 he was invited to join Ed Pincus
creating a new, small film school at MIT
. Since 16mm filming was becoming so expensive, his group developed super-8 film sync equipment with modified mass-produced cameras that were much cheaper. Many filmmakers emerged from this program, including Ross McElwee
(Sherman's March), among others.
In 1989 he retired and moved to Paris, where he met Valerie Lalonde and, together, they made Les Oeufs a la Coque de Richard Leacock (84 minutes), the first major film shot with a tiny Video-8 Handycam to be broadcast on prime-time television in France. Leacock and Lalonde continued making films of their own choice without the pressures of TV producers.
Leacock died on 23 March 2011 at age the age of 89 in Paris
. Before his death, he was raising funds for his multi-format memoir, “Richard Leacock: The Feeling of Being There,” a bound paper book and digital video book set to be published by Semeïon Editions.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-born documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
director and one of the pioneers of Direct Cinema
Direct Cinema
Direct Cinema is a documentary genre that originated between 1958 and 1962 in North America, principally in the Canadian province of Quebec and the United States...
and Cinéma vérité
Cinéma vérité
Cinéma vérité is a style of documentary filmmaking, combining naturalistic techniques with stylized cinematic devices of editing and camerawork, staged set-ups, and the use of the camera to provoke subjects. It is also known for taking a provocative stance toward its topics.There are subtle yet...
.
Early life and career
Leacock was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
on 18 July 1921, the younger brother of film director and producer Philip Leacock
Philip Leacock
Philip David Charles Leacock was an English television and film director and producer. His brother was documentary filmmaker Richard Leacock.-Career:...
. Leacock grew up on his father's banana plantation in the Canary Islands until being sent to boarding schools in England at the age of eight.
He took up photography with a glass plate camera, built a darkroom and developed his pictures, but was not satisfied. At age 11 he was shown a silent film Turk-Sib about the building of the Trans-Siberian Railway
Trans-Siberian Railway
The Trans-Siberian Railway is a network of railways connecting Moscow with the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan. It is the longest railway in the world...
. He was stunned, and said to himself "All I need is a cine-camera and I can make a film that shows you what it is like to be there".
At the age of 14 he wrote, directed, filmed and edited Canary Bananas (10 min. 16mm, silent), a film about growing bananas, but it did not, in his opinion, give you "the feeling of being there".
He was educated at Dartington Hall School
Dartington Hall
The Dartington Hall Trust, near Totnes, Devon, United Kingdom is a charity specialising in the arts, social justice and sustainability.The Trust currently runs 16 charitable programmes, including The Dartington International Summer School and Schumacher Environmental College...
from 1934-38, alongside Robert Flaherty's daughters, and where David Lack
David Lack
David Lambert Lack FRS, was a British evolutionary biologist who made contributions to ornithology, ecology and ethology. His book on the finches of the Galapagos Islands was a landmark work.- Early life :...
(Life of the Robin) taught biology.
Having filmed in the Canary Islands and then in the Galapagos Islands (1938-9) for ornithologist David Lack's expedition, he moved to the USA and majored in Physics at Harvard in order to master the technology of filmmaking. Meanwhile he worked as cameraman and assistant editor on other peoples films, notably To Hear Your Banjo Play (1941), filming a folk music festival atop a mountain in south Virginia where there was no electricity, with a 35mm studio camera and 35mm optical film sound recorder using batteries in a large truck, a rare achievement at that time. Three years as a combat photographer in Burma and China were followed by 14 months as cameraman on Robert Flaherty's Louisiana Story
Louisiana Story
Louisiana Story is a 78-minute black-and-white American film. Although the events and characters depicted are fictional, it is often misidentified as a documentary film. In fact, it is a docufiction. The script was written by Frances H. Flaherty and Robert J. Flaherty, and also directed by Robert...
.
In the meantime, Leacock had married Eleanor "Happy" Burke in 1941. Daughter of the world-famous literary critic, philosopher, and writer Kenneth Burke
Kenneth Burke
Kenneth Duva Burke was a major American literary theorist and philosopher. Burke's primary interests were in rhetoric and aesthetics.-Personal history:...
, she had studied at Radcliffe College, but graduated from Barnard in New York City. The Leacocks had four children together. After ethnographic fieldwork with the Innu (Montagnais-Naskapi) of Labrador, Eleanor Leacock
Eleanor Leacock
Eleanor "Happy" Leacock was a theorist of anthropology, focusing on the issue of gender during the feminist movement.Leacock was born in 1922 in New Jersey. Her mother Lily was a mathematician and her father was world-famous literary critic, philosopher, and writer Kenneth Burke...
(1922-1987) earned her doctorate in anthropology at Columbia University (1952). Ten years later, after her marriage broke up, she went on to become a pioneering feminist anthropologist.
Documentaries
Many relatively conventional jobs followed, until 1954. He was then asked to make a reportage on a traveling tent theater in Missouri: the first film that he wrote, directed, photographed and edited himself, since Canary Bananas.This film, Toby and the Tall Corn, went on the American cultural TV program, Omnibus, in prime time and brought him into contact with Robert Drew, an editor at LIFE
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
magazine in search for a less verbal approach to television reportage. Another new contact, Roger Tilton wanted to film an evening of people dancing to Dixieland music spontaneously. Leacock filmed Jazz Dance for him, using hand held camera techniques.
Leacock's search for high quality, mobile, synchronous equipment to facilitate observation was ongoing. By 1960 this had been achieved, and resulted in Robert Drew
Robert Drew
Robert Lincoln Drew is an American documentary filmmaker known as a pioneer of cinéma vérité, or direct cinema, in the United States....
's film Primary
Primary (film)
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....
, an intimate observation of a primary election with Democratic hopefuls John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
and Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. , served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...
in Wisconsin.
A number of films followed made by Drew, DA Pennebaker, Maysles and their associates, but the US networks were not impressed. In France at the Cinémathèque Française
Cinémathèque Française
The Cinémathèque Française holds one of the largest archives of films, movie documents and film-related objects in the world. Located in Paris, the Cinémathèque holds daily screenings of films from around the world.-History:...
, when Drew and Leacock screened Primary
Primary (film)
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....
and On the Pole, Henri Langlois
Henri Langlois
Henri Langlois was a French film archivist and cinephile. A pioneer of film preservation, Langlois was an influential figure in the history of cinema...
introduced the films as "perhaps the most important documentaries since the brothers Lumiere". After the screening, a monk in robes came up to them and said, "You have invented a new form. Now you must invent a new grammar!"
When Drew went to work for ABC-TV, Leacock Pennebaker was formed and produced Happy Mother's Day, Dont Look Back
Dont Look Back
Dont Look Back is a 1967 documentary film by D.A. Pennebaker that covers Bob Dylan's 1965 concert tour in the United Kingdom.In 1998, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically...
, Monterey Pop
Monterey Pop
Monterey Pop is a 1968 concert film by D. A. Pennebaker that documents the Monterey Pop Festival of 1967. Among Pennebaker's several camera operators were fellow documentarians Richard Leacock and Albert Maysles...
, A Stravinsky Portrait and many others ending with the remnants of Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
's One A.M. - One P.M. (1972).
In 1968 he was invited to join Ed Pincus
Ed Pincus
Ed Pincus began filmmaking in 1964, developing a direct cinema approach to social and political problems. He has producer-director-DP credits on eight of his films and has been cinematographer on more than a dozen additional films.-Films:...
creating a new, small film school at MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. Since 16mm filming was becoming so expensive, his group developed super-8 film sync equipment with modified mass-produced cameras that were much cheaper. Many filmmakers emerged from this program, including Ross McElwee
Ross McElwee
Ross McElwee is an American documentary filmmaker and cinematographer, and Harvard professor, known for his autobiographical films about his family and personal life, usually interwoven with an episodic journey of some sort. Many cultural aspects of his southern upbringing are present in his...
(Sherman's March), among others.
In 1989 he retired and moved to Paris, where he met Valerie Lalonde and, together, they made Les Oeufs a la Coque de Richard Leacock (84 minutes), the first major film shot with a tiny Video-8 Handycam to be broadcast on prime-time television in France. Leacock and Lalonde continued making films of their own choice without the pressures of TV producers.
Leacock died on 23 March 2011 at age the age of 89 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Before his death, he was raising funds for his multi-format memoir, “Richard Leacock: The Feeling of Being There,” a bound paper book and digital video book set to be published by Semeïon Editions.
Selected filmography
- 1935 Canary Bananas (8 min.)
- 1941 To Hear Your Banjo Play (20m, dir. Charles Korvin (Geza Karpathy))
- 1946 Louisiana StoryLouisiana StoryLouisiana Story is a 78-minute black-and-white American film. Although the events and characters depicted are fictional, it is often misidentified as a documentary film. In fact, it is a docufiction. The script was written by Frances H. Flaherty and Robert J. Flaherty, and also directed by Robert...
(cameraman) - 1948 Mount Vernon and The New Frontier (cameraman)
- 1949 Earthquake in Ecuador (director cameraman)
- 1950 Head of the House (writer-director-editor)
- 1952 The Lonely Night (dir. Irving Jacoby, filmed by Leacock)
- 1954 Jazz Dance (20min., cameraman)
- 1954 Toby and the Tall Corn (30 min., writer-director-camera-editor for Omnibus)
- 1956 A Conversation with Marcel DuchampMarcel DuchampMarcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
- 1957 How the F-100 Got Its Tail (20 min., for Omnibus)
- 1957-9 Frames of Reference, Coulomb's Law, A Magnet Laboratory, Crystals
- 1958 Bernstein in Israel (30 min., Omnibus)
- 1959 Bernstein in Moscow (55 min.)
- 1959 Bull Fight at Malaga (20 min.)
- 1960 Primary (30 min.)
- 1960 Adventures on the New Frontier (possibly a longer version of Primary, Close-Up, ABC)
- 1960 Yank! No! (55 min., Close-Up, ABC)
- 1960 Kenya: Land of the White Ghost (Close-Up, ABC)
- 1961 The Children Were Watching (dir. Leacock, Close-Up, ABC)
- 1960 On the Pole (aka, Eddie, 55 min, co-produced and directed, The Living Camera)
- 1961 Peter and Johnny (55 min., produced by Leacock, The Living Camera)
- 1961 The Chair (55 min., co-produced, directed, and photographed, The Living Camera)
- 1962 Nehru (55 min, co-produced, directed, and shot with Gregory Shuker, The Living Camera)
- 1962 Susan Starr (54 min., filmed by a number of cinematographers, including Leacock, The Living Camera)
- 1963 Crisis (55 min.)
- 1963 Happy Mother's Day (30 min.)
- 1964 Republicans - The New Breed (30 min., with Noel E. Parmentel Jr.)
- 1965 A StravinskyIgor StravinskyIgor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
Portrait (55 min., made with Rolf LiebermannRolf LiebermannRolf Liebermann , was a Swiss composer and music administrator born in Zurich, and associated with several different musical genres. His output included chansons, classical, and light music. His classical music often combines myriad styles and techniques, including those drawn from baroque,...
) - 1965 Geza Anda (30 min, with Rolf Liebermann)
- 1965 Ku Klux Klan - Invisible Empire (50 min., produced and written by David Lowe for CBS Reports)
- 1966 Oh Mein Pa-Pa! (made with Rolf Liebermann)
- 1966 The Anatomy of Cindy Fine (20 min.)
- 1966 Old Age, The Wasted Years (30 min. x 2 for WNET)
- 1966 Monterey PopMonterey PopMonterey Pop is a 1968 concert film by D. A. Pennebaker that documents the Monterey Pop Festival of 1967. Among Pennebaker's several camera operators were fellow documentarians Richard Leacock and Albert Maysles...
(assisted D.A. Pennebaker) - 1968 1-AM - 1-PM (90 min., with Pennebaker and Jean-Luc Godard)
- 1968 French Lunch (cameraman)
- 1968 Hickory Hill (18 min., with George Plimpton)
- 1969 Chiefs (18 min., with Noel E. Parmentel Jr.)
- 1969 Maidstone (cameraman with others)
- 1970 Company (60 min., one of three cameramen)
- 1970 Queen of Apollo (20 min., with Elspeth Leacock)
- 1972 Thread (20 min.)
- 1977 Isabella Stewart Gardner (30 min.)
- 1978 Centerbeam (20 min.)
- 1980 Light Coming Through (20 min.)
- 1981 Community of Praise (55 min.)
- 1984 Lulu in Berlin (50 min.)
- 1991 Les Oeufs a la Coque de Richard Leacock (84 min.) video
- 1992 Rehearsal: The Killings of Cariola (35 min.)
- 1992 Les Vacances de Monsieur Leacock (20 min.)
- 1992 Kren: Parking (3 min.)
- 1993 "Gott sei Dank" eine Besuch bei Helga Feddersen (30 min.)
- 1993 Felix et Josephine (33 min.)
- 1993 Hooray! We're Fifty! 1943-1993 (30 min.)
- 1993 A Celebration of Saint Silas (30 min.)
- 1994 A Hole in the Sea
- 1996 A Musical Adventure in Siberia
Films about Leacock
- Ein Film für Bossak und Leacock (1984) – German documentarist Klaus Wildenhahn's homage to Richard Leacock and Jerzy Bossak
- On Being There with Richard Leacock by Jane Weiner, a JDB Films and Striana co-production. (work-in-progress)
Further reading
- Leacock (1988), Interview in: Mo Beyerle, Christine N. Brinckmann (editors), Der amerikanische Dokumentarfilm der 60er Jahre. Direct Cinema und Radical Cinema, Frankfurt am Main, New York: Campus, 1991, p. 124–133
- Mamber, Stephen (1974), Cinéma Vérité in America. Studies in Uncontrolled Documentary, Cambridge, Mass.
- Dave Saunders, Direct Cinema: Observational Documentary and the Politics of the Sixties, London, Wallflower Press 2007
External links
- RichardLeacock.com
- Richard Leacock – Actor, Camera, Cinematographer – Variety Profiles
- Richard Leacock publishes his memoir
- Innovator of Journalism, Film Dies. NPR -- Remembrances, 25 March 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2011.