2013 (Production)

2013-10-04 (Production)

English (Original)

Interviewee: Albert Maysles
Interviewer: Sienna McLean LoGreco

Professional production

United States

Documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles is interviewed by Sienna McLean LoGreco at his home in Harlem, New York City in 2013. Beginning with childhood memories, Maysles describes his initial interest in documentaries, collaborating with his brother David, and their role in the development of the Direct Cinema movement. He details his work as a camera operator and director beginning with PSYCHIATRY IN RUSSIA (1955) and ending with IN TRANSIT (2015).

Documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles is interviewed by Sienna McLean LoGreco at his home in Harlem, New York on October 4, 2013. Maysles recounts being raised in greater Boston, Massachusetts, where he cultivated a love for people and a desire to bring out their innate humanity, which he credits in large part to lessons learned from his parents. Maysles explains how empathy and personal connection became a helpful tool in gaining the trust of his subjects throughout his career. He discusses taking advantage of lighter cameras, faster film stocks and more portable sound recording technology, which helped he and his brother David establish the form of documentary filmmaking known as Direct Cinema. He recounts stories surrounding their involvement in PRIMARY (1960), including what went into his famous close-up shot of Jackie Kennedy’s hands. Maysles discusses how this mode of filmmaking allowed documentarians to unobtrusively capture their subjects in their day-to-day lives. He explains that he and David believed that while they are the authors of their films, they are not the creators of the events they capture. After David’s death in 1987, Albert continued to make films, recalling here collaborating with Susan Fromke on ABORTION: DESPERATE CHOICES (1992), LETTING GO: A HOSPICE JOURNEY (1996), CONCERT OF THE WILLS: MAKING THE GETTY CENTER (1997) and LALEE’S KIN: THE LEGACY OF COTTON (2001). Throughout the interview, he discusses his efforts with his wife, Gillian Maysles, to support the art form through the Maysles Documentary Center in New York. In closing, he describes his ideas for future film projects, including what would become IRIS (2014) and IN TRANSIT (2015), offering pointed insights into the documentary process and why it continues to be the pursuit that gives him the most artistic and personal fulfillment.

Albert Maysles (1926-2015) was a pioneering documentary filmmaker known for his role helping to create the Direct Cinema movement, as well as collaboration with his brother David Maysles on over thirty films, including SALESMAN (1969), GIMME SHELTER (1970), and GREY GARDENS (1975). Skilled in photography, Maysles began as a camera operator working with influential nonfiction filmmakers Robert Drew, Richard Leacock, and D.A. Pennebaker, contributing to Drew’s impactful films PRIMARY (1960) and YANKI, NO! (1960). In 1974, the Maysles Brothers, as they are often known, were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short for CHRISTO’S VALLEY CURTAIN. Albert Maysles received a Career Achievement Award in 1994 from the International Documentary Association, as well as the American Society of Cinematographers’ Presidents Award in 1998.

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