D. A. Pennebaker
Director · 1925 – 2019 · Evanston, Illinois, USA
Donn Alan Pennebaker (/ˈpɛniːbeɪkər/; July 15, 1925 – August 1, 2019) was an American documentary filmmaker and one of the pioneers of direct cinema. Performing arts and politics were his primary subjects. In 2013, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award. Pennebaker was called by The Independent as "arguably the pre-eminent chronicler of Sixties counterculture."
Movies16
Movie7.3DocumentaryMusicJanis Joplin is one of the most respected and iconic rock & roll singers of all time, a tragic and misunderstood figure who captivated millions of listeners and blazed new creative trails before her death in 1970 at age 27. Director Amy Berg explored Joplin's story in depth. A portrait of a complicated, driven and often beleaguered artist. Joplin's own words recount a series of letters she wrote to her family over the years. Janis was a vessel of energy when she sang. Her rapid rise and untimely death changed music forever.
Janis: Little Girl Blue
2015 · 167 votes
Movie7.8DocumentaryMusicA chronicle of Bob Dylan's strange evolution between 1961 and 1966 from folk singer to protest singer to "voice of a generation" to rock star.
No Direction Home: Bob Dylan
2005 · 148 votes
Movie7.4MusicDocumentaryWith the help of her mother, family, friends, and fellow musicians, Aiyana Elliott reaches for her father, legendary cowboy troubadour, Ramblin' Jack Elliott. She explores who he is and how he got there, working back and forth between archival and contemporary footage. Born in 1932 in Brooklyn, busking through the South and West in the early 50s, a year with Woody Guthrie, six years flatpicking in Europe, a triumphant return to Greenwich Village in the early 60s, mentoring Bob Dylan, then life on the road, from gig to gig, singing and telling stories. A Grammy and the National Medal of Arts await Jack near the end of a long trail. What will Aiyana find for herself?
The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack
2000 · 5 votes
MovieDocumentaryDocumentary by Luc Lagier exploring Godard's career as a filmmaker, the production of Breathless and his influence and his relationship with American cinema.
Movie6.1AnimationDocumentaryThe story of Tiny Tim’s improbable rise to stardom is the ultimate fairytale - and so is that of his downfall. For a brief time, the shy and truly unusual outsider artist was the biggest star in the world.
Tiny Tim: King for a Day
2020 · 12 votes
MovieMusicDocumentaryWith a set of drums and an 8mm color home movie camera, Mickey Jones toured the world in 1966 with Bob Dylan and The Band. He captured on film what became known as "The tour that changed Rock and Roll forever." The booing crowds, the scathing reviews, the stomping feet, the infamous catcall of "Judas!" ... all of this in response to Dylan trading in his acoustic folk guitar for an electric sound. Now, for the first time, drummer-turned-actor Mickey Jones (Sling Blade, Home Improvement), with the help of Director Joel Gilbert, chronicles the legendary 1966 Bob Dylan World Tour through his recently discovered home movies. The updated release includes new, exclusive full-length interviews with Charlie Daniels, Johnny Rivers, 1966 World Tour and Gaslight tapes sound man Richard Alderson, and new insights and revelations by Mickey Jones.
Movie8.0The film consists of continuous panning shots up a series of 367 human legs.
Up Your Legs Forever
1971 · 2 votes
Movie6.0DocumentaryHaunted by uncanny similarities between Nazi stage techniques and the showmanship employed by modern entertainers, a filmmaker investigates the dangers of audience manipulation and leader worship.
A Venue For The End Of The World
2014 · 2 votes
Movie6.1DocumentaryA documentary overview of the career of silent cinema pioneer Edwin S. Porter.
Before the Nickelodeon: The Cinema of Edwin S. Porter
1982 · 8 votes
Movie6.2DocumentaryLighter and livelier than the films Jean-Luc Godard had made in France, his U.S. collaboration with Direct Cinema documentarian D. A. Pennebaker was meant to be One A.M., as in “one American movie”; but Godard quit the project and the U.S., where to his dismay he discovered that revolution wasn’t imminent, and Pennebaker edited Godard’s material, to which he and Richard Leacock even added a bit more, releasing the result as One P.M., as in “one parallel movie.” It’s a stunning mixture of cinéma-vérité, political theater, and interviews of key sixties figures.
1 P.M.
1971 · 9 votes
Movie5.7DramaCrimeNorman Mailer’s first feature filmmaking effort stars the director and his two longtime collaborators Buzz Farbar and Mickey Knox as a trio of gangsters holed up in a ramshackle New York apartment, drinking, braying, and fighting.
Wild 90
1968 · 5 votes
MovieDocumentaryColleagues, friends and specialists pay tribute to the filmmaker Mario Ruspoli in a portrait that mixes encounters, archive images and film excerpts. With testimonies from Richard Leacock, Albert Maysles, Edgar Morin, D.A. Pennebaker and others.
MovieDocumentaryShort documentary on the life and work of photographer and filmmaker Morris Engel
- Movie8.0Documentary
In 1998, documentary filmmaker Robert Drew and his associates attend the Museum of Tolerance.
Robert Drew & Associates at the Museum of Tolerance
2016 · 1 votes
- Movie9.0Documentary
A conversation between Jill Drew and D.A. Pennebaker.
Jill Drew and D.A. Pennebaker
2016 · 1 votes
- MovieDocumentary
A 38-year journey that the director began in 1972 as a young filmmaker and, shooting off and throughout many years, the director filmed many and various encounters between Ricky, his friends and contemporaries including Henri Langlois, Jean Rouch, Jean-Luc Godard, DA Pennebaker, Robert Drew, and others. Mixing her own footage with film clips and rare images from Leacock's personal film archives, this film pays homage to the director's mentor and, most importantly, allows him to tell us the story of his long film making career in his own words.
Ricky on Leacock
2012