Nov 16, 2025
Please contact us
with corrections
or breaking news
Please contact us
with corrections
or breaking news
Doc Master Albert Maysles Dies, Gets Local Festival
by David Brown
On set at Altamont Speedway, Tracy, California to shoot 'Gimmie Shelter', the closing act of the '60s: (lf-rt) David Maysles, Mick Jagger, Albert Maysles, Charlie Watts. photo: courtesy Maysles Bros A HUGE ADMIRER OF THE DOCUMENT-
aries of Albert and David Maysles, ever since seeing “Salesman” (1968) and “Gimme Shelter” (1970), I was inspired by them to become a maker of and teacher of documentaries myself—and now Maysles Festival producer.
In fact, when I was a graduate film student at SF State in 1978, I had the honor of interviewing David for the university newspaper when he and his brother were in Sonoma County filming “Running Fence” (1978). Among the salient topics we discussed was the ever-present issue in documentaries of exploitation. David passed away in 1987 at 57.
In 2007, in turn, I had the privilege of interviewing and hanging out for three days with his older brother, Albert, at the Ashland Independent Film Festival. Profoundly moving and inspirational, that experience resulted in my article for CineSource, about which Al commented, “the best ever written about me.”
Albert died on March 5th at age 88 at his home in Manhattan. Of his many achievements, in 2014, President Obama presented to him the National Medal of Arts.
The footage of my two-hour interview with Albert also became part of Les Blank’s film on Richard Leacock, who, along with the Maysles brothers, helped found Direct Cinema, a uniquely American school of cinéma vérité documentary. “How to Smell a Rose”, as that film came to be called, was recently completed by Blank’s production partner, Gina Leibrecht, and is now in festival release, including at the SF International Film Festival (until May 7th).
In fact, Al’s last doc, “Iris”, also premiered at this year’s SF International and opens theatrically Friday, May 8th. Released by Magnolia Pictures, it profiles Iris Apfel, the quick-witted and flamboyantly-dressed 93-year-old who was a style maven with an outsized presence on New York's fashion scene for decades.
My interviews with both brothers, although 30 years apart, impressed me deeply. Their filmmaking skill, it seemed, was matched by their humanism, ethics, empathy and kindness. I had seen at least ten of their documentaries, more by any other filmmaker, including several co-directed with D.A. Pennebaker ("Penny") as well as with Leacock.
When I learned that Al has passed away last month, I knew I had to produce a film festival to honor him and the Maysles Brothers’ documentaries.
David, the younger, who did sound, and Albert, who always shot, at their studio in Manhattan in 1968. Illo: courtesy the Maysles BrosThe Albert Maysles Memorial Film Festival, done in association with Maysles Films, will be the-first-of-its-kind retrospective, screening 16 documentaries directed and shot by Albert Maysles, at the Vogue Theater, 3290 Sacramento St. in San Francisco, May 8-14. For more information see Vogue Theater.
Clearly, the Festival needed to have the participation of Al’s colleagues. As it happened, I am friendly with several distinguished filmmaker/cinematographers who had filmed alongside Al on various Maysles’ projects, including Haskell Wexler (“Salesman”), Stephen Lighthill (“Gimme Shelter”, “Running Fence”) and Bill Jersey (“Showman”—in fact, Bill gave Al his first industrial camera job), Joan Churchill (“Gimme Shelter”) and Jon Else (“The Gates” 2005) and was able to contact them.
I also knew Penny, who had been a fellow pioneer with the Maysles and Leacock from in 1959 to 1961 at Robert Drew Associates, the Time-Life documentary group headed by Drew which created Direct Cinema, typically described as “fly on the wall” filmmaking.
Actually, Al and David took issue with that expression for being too passive and ignoring the real key to successful observational documentary-making: trust-building and empathy.
Other keys to the Direct Cinema revolution were smaller, lighter and quieter 16mm cameras (notably the modified Auricon, then called the Éclair), the smaller, lighter Nagra tape recorder, crystal sync and faster B/W film stock. Documentary filmmakers could finally be fully mobile, capturing sync sound with available light in such tight locations as the front seat of cars or back stairwells of meeting halls.
Penny had collaborated with the Maysles brothers and Leacock on another hit concert film, “Monterey Pop” (1967), as well as smaller projects “Primary”, “The Chair”, “Eddie”, “Yanqui No!” and “Jane”. Al’s celebrated overhead tracking shot in “Primary”, of John Kennedy walking up the stairs and onto the stage, is considered an early Direct Cinema masterpiece.
In fact, it was Penny who suggested the shot to Al. I learned from Penny that he and Al had recently collaborated on a documentary, not yet titled, that is currently in post-production, making that Albert’s last film.
Finally, I contacted Susan Froemke, who co-directed “Grey Gardens” (1976) with Al and David in addition to 19 other Maysles films. She was delighted, as were all the other invited participants, to be a part of this festival tribute.
'Grey Gardens' (1975) about the wealthy and reclusive mother and daughter (both named Edith Beale) of East Hampton, New York, was considered a violation of their privacy—until they acclaimed it. Illo: courtesy the Maysles Bros“Al had a warmth and a sparkle in his eye that made him universally loved,” Ms Froemke recalled to me in a recent conversation.
“You could see his kindness shining wherever he went. I think this went a long way in helping us maintain the access we needed with our subjects… What I loved about filming with Al was his patience and confidence in his shooting approach. There was always a deep bond between filmmaker and subject.”
“Al was a natural photographer, if there is such a thing,” Penny told me. “He was one of the best.” Al was truly revered by everyone who knew and worked with him. I believe that admiration and affection really grew from his filmmaking philosophy: his documentaries were truly grounded in love, compassion, empathy and kindness.
I thought the best opening for the Festival would be a Skype conversation with three-time Academy Award-winner, Haskell Wexler, and Penny, who had known and collaborated with Al (and each other) for over 50 years.
Wexler was a cinematographer on “Salesman”, the Direct Cinema classic on four door-to-door Bible salesmen as they walk the line between hype and despair. He and Penny could set the stage for the Direct Cinema revolution that the Drew team helped to engineer. The only other Maysles collaborator who goes back before Pennebaker in 1957 was Al’s brother, David.
The first Festival documentaries would be “Salesman” and “Meet Marlon Brando” (1965). The latter is an unusually candid portrait of the world-famous movie star, showing him to be charming, forthright, passionate about Native Americans and race relations and articulate about the media but also sexist, hypocritical, sarcastic and uncooperative. Indeed, Brando hated the film and tried for years to block its distribution.
On opening day, Friday, May 8th, Wexler will share via Skype some remarkable and seldom-told stories, including how he first got the call from the Rolling Stones to film the band’s 1969 tour. But he and Mick Jagger differed on their filmmaking approach, so he referred them to his friends, Al and David.
After the tragic stabbing at Altamont, which became the climax to “Gimme Shelter”, Wexler actually sheltered the brothers in his Malibu home, after the Hell’s Angels put out a contract on their lives. He will also share some of ways in which he differed with the Maysles strict non-directive, non-interference approach (specifically on scenes in “Salesman”).
“The only thing we asked for was access," Susan Froemke remembers.
"Al and David never told a subject what to do, never asked them to repeat an action or sentence. They never talked to the subject while filming. They wanted to minimize the fact that filming was going on. Wherever the subject took us always produced the strongest footage, the truth that unfolded before our camera.”
I had the significant benefit of curating advice from Jake Perlin, the seasoned distribution executive for Maysles Films, who helped me choose among the 43 Maysles films. For example, picking between the two Horowitz documentaries (our choice was “Horowitz plays Mozart”) and the six films about Christo and Jeanne-Claude (his wife, as the artistic team is known).
David and Albert Maysles shooting 'Muhammad and Larry", about the big fight (1980). Illo: courtesy the Maysles BrosWe chose five of those: “Running Fence” (1978, naturally, as it was shot in Northern California by Stephen Lighthill), “The Gates” (the longest struggle for permission to stage a Christo project—20 years, because it was in Manhattan's Central Park—with Jon Else as cinematographer), “Christo’s Valley Curtain” (1974, nominated for Academy Award), “Islands” (1986) and “Umbrellas” (1995) .
A number of critics have claimed that the Christo-Jeanne-Claude films are the best documentaries ever made about the process of creating art.
Of course, we had to include the two most famous of the Maysles films, “Gimme Shelter”, the landmark documentary about the Rolling Stones U.S. tour of 1969 that ended tragically at the ill-fated free concert at Altamont Speedway on December 6, 1969. (Stephen Lighthill and Joan Churchill, cinematographers in person; cinematographer, George Lucas, is as yet, uncommitted) and “Grey Gardens”, the cult classic screening Thursday, May 14th (with a Skype conversation with Susan Froemke, co-director on this as well as nine other Maysles films, including “Lalee’s Kin”, before the screening Wednesday, May 13th).
Froemke recalls how “Big and Little Edie” Beale in “Grey Gardens” referred to the brothers as “gentlemen callers” and welcomed them warmly each visit. “I think what made the bond so strong between the Beales and Al and David was that they were completely nonjudgmental and great listeners,” she said.
In response to criticism that the Maysles were exploiting the two eccentric women, David noted in 1978, “That criticism doesn’t hold up when the subjects love the film.”
"The Maysles have produced a classic!” Little Edie proclaimed enthusiastically after the New York world premiere.
“Al believed the act of filming someone created a contract between cinematographer/ filmmaker and subject,” recalled Stephen Lighthill. “The essence of the implied contract: the filmmaker would treat the subject fairly by representing the truth as accurately as humanly possible.”
In addition, Lighthill tells the chilling story about being one of three cinematographers on or near the stage at Altamont during the tragic and climatic Stones concert of “Gimme Shelter”.
When changing film magazines under the stage, he witnessed dozens of cowering people having terrifying bad trips. He described it as “one of the lower levels of Dante’s ‘Inferno’.” There is still debate about which stage-based cameraperson, Stephen, Al or Joan Churchill, captured the infamous stabbing of the gun-wielding spectator, Hunter.
Albert with Iris Apfel, the wild fashionista and 93-year-old who stars in his last film, out now, 'Iris'. Illo: courtesy the Maysles BrosA special addition to the Festival is “Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!”, the seldom-seen Maysles documentary on the 1969 Rolling Stones performance at Madison Square Garden. The rousing half-hour film (including golden outtakes from “Gimme Shelter”) will screen on Saturday, May 9th at 10:30 p.m. and Thursday, May 14 at 9:30 p.m.. “27 minutes of pure pleasure. An intoxicating snapshot” noted the New York Times in 2009.
The Festival will also include multiple video messages or Skype Q and A from filmmakers who worked with the Maysles including Bill Jersey as well as Penny and Froemke.
Al summed up the humanism at the heart of his filmmaking philosophy, when he accepted his Lifetime Achievement Award at the Ashland Festival in 2007 I attended with him : “Empathy is seen in the eyes, and offers the filmmaker power to reach hidden truths.”
“As a documentarian, I happily place my 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," he continued.
"After all, the knowledge of the real world is exactly what we need to better understand and therefore possibly to love one another. It is my way of making the world a better place.”
David L. Brown is a three-time Emmy Award winner who has produced and directed 14 documentaries which have aired on PBS and in sixteen countries. His work has addressed a range of issues from nuclear power and older surfers to the troubled east span of the Bay Bridge. He can be reached or at his Website.
Posted on May 06, 2015 - 03:25 PM
by David Brown
On set at Altamont Speedway, Tracy, California to shoot 'Gimmie Shelter', the closing act of the '60s: (lf-rt) David Maysles, Mick Jagger, Albert Maysles, Charlie Watts. photo: courtesy Maysles Brosaries of Albert and David Maysles, ever since seeing “Salesman” (1968) and “Gimme Shelter” (1970), I was inspired by them to become a maker of and teacher of documentaries myself—and now Maysles Festival producer.
In fact, when I was a graduate film student at SF State in 1978, I had the honor of interviewing David for the university newspaper when he and his brother were in Sonoma County filming “Running Fence” (1978). Among the salient topics we discussed was the ever-present issue in documentaries of exploitation. David passed away in 1987 at 57.
In 2007, in turn, I had the privilege of interviewing and hanging out for three days with his older brother, Albert, at the Ashland Independent Film Festival. Profoundly moving and inspirational, that experience resulted in my article for CineSource, about which Al commented, “the best ever written about me.”
Albert died on March 5th at age 88 at his home in Manhattan. Of his many achievements, in 2014, President Obama presented to him the National Medal of Arts.
The footage of my two-hour interview with Albert also became part of Les Blank’s film on Richard Leacock, who, along with the Maysles brothers, helped found Direct Cinema, a uniquely American school of cinéma vérité documentary. “How to Smell a Rose”, as that film came to be called, was recently completed by Blank’s production partner, Gina Leibrecht, and is now in festival release, including at the SF International Film Festival (until May 7th).
In fact, Al’s last doc, “Iris”, also premiered at this year’s SF International and opens theatrically Friday, May 8th. Released by Magnolia Pictures, it profiles Iris Apfel, the quick-witted and flamboyantly-dressed 93-year-old who was a style maven with an outsized presence on New York's fashion scene for decades.
My interviews with both brothers, although 30 years apart, impressed me deeply. Their filmmaking skill, it seemed, was matched by their humanism, ethics, empathy and kindness. I had seen at least ten of their documentaries, more by any other filmmaker, including several co-directed with D.A. Pennebaker ("Penny") as well as with Leacock.
When I learned that Al has passed away last month, I knew I had to produce a film festival to honor him and the Maysles Brothers’ documentaries.
David, the younger, who did sound, and Albert, who always shot, at their studio in Manhattan in 1968. Illo: courtesy the Maysles BrosClearly, the Festival needed to have the participation of Al’s colleagues. As it happened, I am friendly with several distinguished filmmaker/cinematographers who had filmed alongside Al on various Maysles’ projects, including Haskell Wexler (“Salesman”), Stephen Lighthill (“Gimme Shelter”, “Running Fence”) and Bill Jersey (“Showman”—in fact, Bill gave Al his first industrial camera job), Joan Churchill (“Gimme Shelter”) and Jon Else (“The Gates” 2005) and was able to contact them.
I also knew Penny, who had been a fellow pioneer with the Maysles and Leacock from in 1959 to 1961 at Robert Drew Associates, the Time-Life documentary group headed by Drew which created Direct Cinema, typically described as “fly on the wall” filmmaking.
Actually, Al and David took issue with that expression for being too passive and ignoring the real key to successful observational documentary-making: trust-building and empathy.
Other keys to the Direct Cinema revolution were smaller, lighter and quieter 16mm cameras (notably the modified Auricon, then called the Éclair), the smaller, lighter Nagra tape recorder, crystal sync and faster B/W film stock. Documentary filmmakers could finally be fully mobile, capturing sync sound with available light in such tight locations as the front seat of cars or back stairwells of meeting halls.
Penny had collaborated with the Maysles brothers and Leacock on another hit concert film, “Monterey Pop” (1967), as well as smaller projects “Primary”, “The Chair”, “Eddie”, “Yanqui No!” and “Jane”. Al’s celebrated overhead tracking shot in “Primary”, of John Kennedy walking up the stairs and onto the stage, is considered an early Direct Cinema masterpiece.
In fact, it was Penny who suggested the shot to Al. I learned from Penny that he and Al had recently collaborated on a documentary, not yet titled, that is currently in post-production, making that Albert’s last film.
Finally, I contacted Susan Froemke, who co-directed “Grey Gardens” (1976) with Al and David in addition to 19 other Maysles films. She was delighted, as were all the other invited participants, to be a part of this festival tribute.
'Grey Gardens' (1975) about the wealthy and reclusive mother and daughter (both named Edith Beale) of East Hampton, New York, was considered a violation of their privacy—until they acclaimed it. Illo: courtesy the Maysles Bros“You could see his kindness shining wherever he went. I think this went a long way in helping us maintain the access we needed with our subjects… What I loved about filming with Al was his patience and confidence in his shooting approach. There was always a deep bond between filmmaker and subject.”
“Al was a natural photographer, if there is such a thing,” Penny told me. “He was one of the best.” Al was truly revered by everyone who knew and worked with him. I believe that admiration and affection really grew from his filmmaking philosophy: his documentaries were truly grounded in love, compassion, empathy and kindness.
I thought the best opening for the Festival would be a Skype conversation with three-time Academy Award-winner, Haskell Wexler, and Penny, who had known and collaborated with Al (and each other) for over 50 years.
Wexler was a cinematographer on “Salesman”, the Direct Cinema classic on four door-to-door Bible salesmen as they walk the line between hype and despair. He and Penny could set the stage for the Direct Cinema revolution that the Drew team helped to engineer. The only other Maysles collaborator who goes back before Pennebaker in 1957 was Al’s brother, David.
The first Festival documentaries would be “Salesman” and “Meet Marlon Brando” (1965). The latter is an unusually candid portrait of the world-famous movie star, showing him to be charming, forthright, passionate about Native Americans and race relations and articulate about the media but also sexist, hypocritical, sarcastic and uncooperative. Indeed, Brando hated the film and tried for years to block its distribution.
On opening day, Friday, May 8th, Wexler will share via Skype some remarkable and seldom-told stories, including how he first got the call from the Rolling Stones to film the band’s 1969 tour. But he and Mick Jagger differed on their filmmaking approach, so he referred them to his friends, Al and David.
After the tragic stabbing at Altamont, which became the climax to “Gimme Shelter”, Wexler actually sheltered the brothers in his Malibu home, after the Hell’s Angels put out a contract on their lives. He will also share some of ways in which he differed with the Maysles strict non-directive, non-interference approach (specifically on scenes in “Salesman”).
“The only thing we asked for was access," Susan Froemke remembers.
"Al and David never told a subject what to do, never asked them to repeat an action or sentence. They never talked to the subject while filming. They wanted to minimize the fact that filming was going on. Wherever the subject took us always produced the strongest footage, the truth that unfolded before our camera.”
I had the significant benefit of curating advice from Jake Perlin, the seasoned distribution executive for Maysles Films, who helped me choose among the 43 Maysles films. For example, picking between the two Horowitz documentaries (our choice was “Horowitz plays Mozart”) and the six films about Christo and Jeanne-Claude (his wife, as the artistic team is known).
David and Albert Maysles shooting 'Muhammad and Larry", about the big fight (1980). Illo: courtesy the Maysles BrosA number of critics have claimed that the Christo-Jeanne-Claude films are the best documentaries ever made about the process of creating art.
Of course, we had to include the two most famous of the Maysles films, “Gimme Shelter”, the landmark documentary about the Rolling Stones U.S. tour of 1969 that ended tragically at the ill-fated free concert at Altamont Speedway on December 6, 1969. (Stephen Lighthill and Joan Churchill, cinematographers in person; cinematographer, George Lucas, is as yet, uncommitted) and “Grey Gardens”, the cult classic screening Thursday, May 14th (with a Skype conversation with Susan Froemke, co-director on this as well as nine other Maysles films, including “Lalee’s Kin”, before the screening Wednesday, May 13th).
Froemke recalls how “Big and Little Edie” Beale in “Grey Gardens” referred to the brothers as “gentlemen callers” and welcomed them warmly each visit. “I think what made the bond so strong between the Beales and Al and David was that they were completely nonjudgmental and great listeners,” she said.
In response to criticism that the Maysles were exploiting the two eccentric women, David noted in 1978, “That criticism doesn’t hold up when the subjects love the film.”
"The Maysles have produced a classic!” Little Edie proclaimed enthusiastically after the New York world premiere.
“Al believed the act of filming someone created a contract between cinematographer/ filmmaker and subject,” recalled Stephen Lighthill. “The essence of the implied contract: the filmmaker would treat the subject fairly by representing the truth as accurately as humanly possible.”
In addition, Lighthill tells the chilling story about being one of three cinematographers on or near the stage at Altamont during the tragic and climatic Stones concert of “Gimme Shelter”.
When changing film magazines under the stage, he witnessed dozens of cowering people having terrifying bad trips. He described it as “one of the lower levels of Dante’s ‘Inferno’.” There is still debate about which stage-based cameraperson, Stephen, Al or Joan Churchill, captured the infamous stabbing of the gun-wielding spectator, Hunter.
Albert with Iris Apfel, the wild fashionista and 93-year-old who stars in his last film, out now, 'Iris'. Illo: courtesy the Maysles BrosThe Festival will also include multiple video messages or Skype Q and A from filmmakers who worked with the Maysles including Bill Jersey as well as Penny and Froemke.
Al summed up the humanism at the heart of his filmmaking philosophy, when he accepted his Lifetime Achievement Award at the Ashland Festival in 2007 I attended with him : “Empathy is seen in the eyes, and offers the filmmaker power to reach hidden truths.”
“As a documentarian, I happily place my 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," he continued.
"After all, the knowledge of the real world is exactly what we need to better understand and therefore possibly to love one another. It is my way of making the world a better place.”
David L. Brown is a three-time Emmy Award winner who has produced and directed 14 documentaries which have aired on PBS and in sixteen countries. His work has addressed a range of issues from nuclear power and older surfers to the troubled east span of the Bay Bridge. He can be reached or at his Website.
Posted on May 06, 2015 - 03:25 PM
