2013 (Production)

2013-06-13 (Production)

English (Original)

Interviewee: Robert Drew
Interviewer: Sienna McLean LoGreco

Professional production

United States

Documentary filmmaker Bob Drew is interviewed by Sienna McLean LoGreco at his home in Connecticut in 2013. Drew begins the interview discussing his childhood, his Air Force service in World War II, and his entry into documentary filmmaking. He reveals how Drew Associates pioneered the Direct Cinema movement. Over the course of the interview, Drew details his film and television work, from PRIMARY in 1960 to L.A. CHAMPIONS in 1994.

Documentary filmmaker Bob Drew is interviewed by Sienna McLean LoGreco at his home in Connecticut on June 16, 2013. Bob Drew speaks on his early life in Kentucky where he gained an appreciation for art and music from his parents. He learned to fly planes from his father and would later serve as a pilot in World War II. Using archival footage, Drew describes how he was able to recreate the experience of flight, placing viewers in the pilot’s seat. After the war, he became a journalist for LIFE magazine and attended Harvard University to study documentary filmmaking. There he formed his theory of the documentary, determining that films should be less like lectures and instead aim to capture real life as it happens. Drew recollects how he obtained permission to film John F. Kennedy during the 1960 presidential campaign and again during the desegregation of Alabama schools for his documentaries, PRIMARY (1960) and CRISIS (1963). He explains some of the technical modifications to cameras and film equipment that made the early CINÉMA VÉRITÉ films possible. Drew goes on to discuss a few of his other well-known documentaries and the circumstances that led to their creation such as YANKI, NO! (1960), THE CHILDREN WERE WATCHING (1961), and LETTERS FROM VIETNAM (1965). He recounts working with his wife Anne on MAN WHO DANCES: EDWARD VILLELLA (1968), and HERSELF, INDIRA GANDHI (1982). Drew explains how they worked with the Academy to ensure the preservation of their films. The interview ends with his reflections on what it takes to be a successful filmmaker.

Robert Lincoln Drew (1924-2014) was a documentary filmmaker best known for his leadership in the American CINÉMA VÉRITÉ or DIRECT CINEMA movement. While working as a journalist at LIFE magazine, he developed a unit to design lighter, more adaptive film equipment suited to the needs of nonfiction film production. Drew Associates, the production company he founded in 1960, served as laboratory and testing ground that employed filmmakers and journalists who would be instrumental in the creation of DIRECT CINEMA, including D.A. Pennebaker, Richard Leacock, Albert & David Maysles, and his future wife and producer, Anne Drew. Many of his most influential works emerged from this collaborative period, such as PRIMARY (1960), YANKI, NO! (1960), and CRISIS: BEHIND A PRESIDENTIAL COMMITMENT (1963). Drew won a Robert Flaherty Award for Best Documentary for PRIMARY, widely seen as the blueprint for later Direct Cinema films; first prize at the Cannes Film Festival for THE CHAIR (1962); and an Emmy Award for MAN WHO DANCES (1968). In 1993 he was recognized by the International Documentary Association with a Career Achievement Award. He was a longtime member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and his film collection is held at the Academy Film Archive. The Archive has preserved many films from the Robert and Anne Drew Collection, including PRIMARY, CRISIS, THE CHAIR, ADVENTURES ON THE NEW FRONTIER (1961), and ON THE ROAD WITH DUKE ELLINGTON (1974).

W117973