Pioneer filmmakers display revolutionary techniques

Published: Friday, October 30, 1998

Friday, October 30, 1998

SPEAKERS: Robert Drew, Richard Leacock credited with changing industry

By Marisa Yamane

Daily Bruin Contributor

Pioneer filmmakers Richard Leacock and Robert Drew will be visiting UCLA from Saturday through Monday, where they will showcase their most prized films and give a series of accompanying lectures.

"This is a historical event to bring people here to see these films that will never be shown on television anymore," said Marina Goldovskaya, event coordinator.

Leacock and Drew's filmmaking techniques revolutionized American history, said Goldovskaya.

Their groundbreaking films during the 1960's created an entirely new film genre, called cinéma vérité, that greatly impacted the world of film. Cinéma vérité is the art of documenting real life as it happens.

"They took the camera from the tripod, helped make special equipment and made the camera move," Goldovskaya said.

A new breed of lightweight 16mm cameras allowed filmmakers in the '60s, like Leacock and Drew, to be more discreet as they filmed. The result - a more realistic view of real life.

"The smaller the camera, the better it is ... you don't have to have actors who don't know how to act," Leacock said.

Though this change took place nearly 40 years ago, contemporary filmmakers still use this method.

"Today, television and documentary and fiction film use what they had found," Goldovskaya said.

Leacock, who now resides in France, and Drew, who lives in New York, will come to Los Angeles for the International Documentary Congress, a film festival held sporadically every few years.

"I felt that I had to bring them to the students because the students have to know what their history was if they want to know how to move forward," Goldovskaya said.

"(Leacock and Drew) are of the same caliber as Einstein in physics," she added.

Saturday, Leacock will give a presentation discussing his experiences filming for Robert Flaherty, who is considered the father of documentary film. Leacock was one of the last people to work with Flaherty,

Flaherty, who passed away in 1951, directed documentaries such as "Man of Aran" and "Industrial Britain" and was nominated for an Oscar in 1949 for his film "Louisiana Story."

Sunday, Drew will be joining Leacock to show a series of films they made about President John F. Kennedy.

On Monday, Leacock will discuss the future of documentary filmmaking and its association with digital technology.

"This (technology) makes it possible to make films with less people and much less money, and much better quality," Leacock said.

All the lectures, which are free of charge and open to the public, will be held from from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. and will be located in the James Bridges Theater on Saturday and Sunday and in Melnitz 2534 on Monday.

On Monday evening at 7, there will be a special documentary salon series screening of three documentaries, including "Jane," which focuses on the early career of actress Jane Fonda.

Goldovskaya said this film festival will be an educational experience.

"Students will learn and hear from them how and why and with what means they did achieve what they achieved," Goldovskaya said.

"This will inspire them for the rest of their lives."

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