Exactimundo, doc. It was done by the Maysles Bros., who did other documentaries:
Gimme Shelter (1970)
In December of 1969, four months after Woodstock, the Rolling Stones and Jefferson Airplane gave a free concert in Northern California, east of Oakland at Altamont Speedway. About 300,000 people came, and the organizers put Hell's Angels in charge of security around the stage. Armed with pool cues and knifes, Angels spent the concert beating up spectators, killing at least one. The film intercuts performances, violence, Grace Slick and Mick Jagger's attempts to cool things down, close-ups of young listeners (dancing, drugged, or suffering Angel shock), and a look at the Stones later as they watch concert footage and reflect on what happened.....
Directors. (Albert Maysles-b. Nov. 26, 1926, Brookline, Mass. David Maysles-b. Jan.10, 1932, Boston; d. Jan. 3, 1987.)<06> Often credited with inventing the documentary style known as "direct cinema," the Maysles created a body of work based on the random energy of life and, as Albert noted, "a conviction that it's a noble thing to record reality without controlling it." After teaching psychology at Boston University, Albert went to Russia and made Psychiatry in Russia (1955), a short about mental hospitals there which was later shown on public TV. He and David then collaborated on Youth of Poland (1957) before joining the documentary team of Robert Drew and Richard Leacock, with whom they worked on Primary (1960). This behind-the-scenes look at the 1960 Democratic primary in Wisconsin between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey presaged many technical, aural, and "storytelling" breakthroughs in documentary film.
The Maysles went on to codirect a series of celebrity portraits, including Showman (1962, about producer Joseph Levine), What's Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A (1964; later reedited and released on video as The Beatles! The First U.S. Visit), Meet Marlon Brando (1965), and A Visit With Truman Capote (1966). Then came Salesman (1968), a feature-length study of four door-to-door Bible salesmen, which became a classic in its unblinking depiction of their lives. Gimme Shelter (1970), a spellbinding (and disturbing) record of the Rolling Stones performance at Altamont, eschewed the rules of "direct cinema" with the Maysles themselves appearing on camera as the Stones watched and reacted to footage of the infamous murder which took place at the concert. In doing so, the film raised many serious questions about the nature, validity, and responsibility of the documentary form.
Since then, the Maysles have explored a variety of subjects in Christo's Valley Curtain (1974, Oscar-nominated for Best Documentary Short), Grey Gardens (1976, a bizarre, feature-length "visit" with the eccentric aunt and cousin of Jackie Kennedy), and Mohammed and Larry (1980, about boxers Ali and Holmes). After David's death, Albert continued working with longtime collaborators like Susan Froemke, Deborah Dickson, and Charlotte Zwerin on projects ranging from the Emmy-winning Horowitz Plays Mozart (1987) and Abortion: Desperate Choices (1992) to the ultra-commercial Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit '92 (also 1992). |
