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Chris Knipp
04-02-2015, 06:09 PM
Albert Maysles Memorial Film Festival Honors Legendary Documentary Pioneer with Week-Long Documentary Festival at the Vogue Theater in San Francisco, May 8 - 14, 2015

Filmleaf Festival Coverage thread. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015))

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/MBROS.jpg

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/david.png

Albert Maysles is one of the great American documentary filmmakers, with his brother David. David L. Brown has set up a great program in San Francisco to celebrate the man's achievment/ I'll be reviewing some of these, at least the Christo ones. Ever since working on Christo's "Running Fence" I became a convert.


The historic Vogue Theater in San Francisco in association with David L. Brown Productions and Maysles Films present the Albert Maysles Memorial Film Festival at the Vogue Theater, 3290 Sacramento St. in San Francisco, May 8-14. Screening 16 documentaries (shot and directed by Albert Maysles, many with his brother, David – the Maysles Brothers), the Festival honors the legendary documentary filmmaking pioneer who passed away from cancer on March 5th at age 88, with a first-of-its-kind documentary retrospective. Tickets are available at the Vogue Theater box office and at http://www.cinemasf.com/vogue. Tickets are $12.50, $10 for students and seniors.

The Festival (complete schedule on request) opens on Friday, May 8 th with the Direct Cinema classic, Salesman, along with Meet Marlon Brando. The program on Saturday, May 9 th will feature Gimme Shelter, the 1969 Rolling Stones tour that ended tragically at the Stones’ free concert at Altamont, and Running Fence, on the planning and creation of grand-scale-artist Christo’s epic 26-mile white nylon fence in Sonoma County. The Festival features four other documentaries on Christo’s epic-scale art pieces, the Academy Award-nominated Christo’s Valley Curtain , The Gates (the 20-years-in-the-making project in Central Park), screening Sunday, May 10th, and Islands and Umbrellas, screening Tuesday, May 12 th.

D. A. Pennebaker, Maysles’ fellow Direct Cinema pioneer at Drew Associates, (Primary, Dont Look Back) will participate in a conversational remembrance of Maysles via Skype on opening night, May 8th at 6:15 p.m. Pennebaker will discuss collaborating with Maysles over 54 years including shooting a recent documentary that is currently in post-production. The Saturday May 9th screenings of Gimme Shelter and Running Fence will include Questions and Answers with distinguished guest filmmakers who worked with Mr. Maysles: Stephen Lighthill (cinematographer on both Gimme Shelter and Running Fence) and Joan Churchill (cinematographer on Gimme Shelter). The Sunday, May 10th screening of The Gates will include Q and A with Jon Else, acclaimed Bay Area cinematographer and Academy Award nominee (for The Day After Trinity). Long-time co-director with Maysles, Susan Froemke, will also participate via Skype on Wednesday, May 13th. With Maysles, she co-directed Grey Gardens and the Oscar-nominated Lalee’s Kin, along with ten other Maysles Films.

A 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 will screen on Saturday, May 9th and Thursday, May 14th. The Festival will include multiple video messages or Skype Q and A from filmmakers who worked with Albert Maysles (and his brother), including Bill Jersey (cinematographer on Showman, who gave Maysles his first industrial job as cinematographer). Additional invited guest filmmakers include: Maysles’ son, Philip; cinematographer on Gimme Shelter, George Lucas; and Mayles protégé and two-time Oscar winner, Barbara Kopple.

The Festival was conceived, produced and curated by Brisbane documentary filmmaker David L. Brown, who met Maysles in 2007. Brown filmed a two-hour interview with him for a Les Blank film on Direct Cinema pioneer, Richard Leacock, another early close collaborator and long-time friend of Maysles at Drew Associates, the birthplace of Direct Cinema. Brown wrote an article on Albert Maysles, the Maysles Brothers and their films for CineSource Magazine that Maysles described as "the best ever written about me." (available on request) The co-curator of the Festival is Adam Bergeron, programmer-operator of the Vogue Theater and owner-programmer of the Balboa Theater in San Francisco.

David L. Brown is a three-time Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker who has produced, written and directed over 80 productions and 14 broadcast documentaries on a variety of issues and topics. His documentaries have received over 85 international awards and have been broadcast on PBS and in sixteen countries. Surfing for Life, his documentary on older surfers as models for healthy aging, was described by Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle, as "a treasure, perhaps the most intelligent treatment of surfing ever captured on film." His documentary on the long, troubled history of the new east span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, The Bridge So Far: A Suspense Story, won two Northern California Emmys including Best Documentary. Brown has produced three film festivals on nuclear, environmental, peace and justice issues. He teaches Documentary Filmmaking at City College of San Francisco where, for 16 years, he has curated a documentary film series.

Here is the festival schedule:


Friday May 8
6:00 Skype conversation with three-time Academy Award-winner, Haskell Wexler,
and legendary Direct Cinema pioneer, D.A. Pennebaker.

Salesman 7:00, 9:30 (91)
Salesman follows four door-to-door Bible salesmen as they walk the line between
hype and despair, revealing the operating costs of the American Dream. Today
Salesman is considered 'the Direct Cinema classic'. 1968, directed by Albert Maysles,
David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin

Meet Marlon Brando 8:45, 11:15 (29).
Meet Marlon Brando is a delightful, unusually candid portrait of the world-famous
movie star: A tongue-in-cheek confrontation with the press. 1965, directed by
Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, with Rembrance videos

Saturday, May 9

Gimme Shelter 12:30, 3:30, 7:00 (90)
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.

Running Fence 2:00, 5:45, 9:15 (58)
A celebration of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's vision; rst a four-year struggle, then
24 1/2 miles of white nylon fabric, rising from the Pacic and stretching like a white
sail across California. Stephen Lighthill, cinematographer on both lms and
Joan Churchill, cinematographer on Gimme Shelter, in person after the 3:30 & 7:00
and before the 10:00.

Get Yer Ya-Yas Out! 10:30 (27)
Get Yer Ya-Yas Out! is a rarely-seen chronicle of The Rolling Stones’ epic performance
at Madison Square Garden in November 1969. Albert Maysles has put together
never-before seen archive footage that shows the band at its height, wowing New York
audiences. “27 minutes of pure pleasure. An intoxicating snapshot..” NY Times. 2009,
directed by Albert Maysles, Bradley Kaplan and Ian Marciewicz

Sunday, May 10
The Gates 2:00, 5:00, 8:00 (87),
The last of six Maysles documentaries on Christo’s grand-scale art projects, 20 years
in the making, in Central Park . 2007, a film by Antonio Ferrera, Albert Maysles, David
Maysles and Matthew Prinzing, Stephen Lighthill introduces the 2:00. Jon Else
conducts Q and A after the 2:00 (at 3:40) and introduces the 5:00 and conducts
Q and A after the 5:00 (at 6:30)

Christo’s Valley Curtain 4:00, 6:45, 9:30 (28)
Nominated for an Academy Award, Valley Curtain celebrates the Bulgarian-born artist's
dramatic hanging of a huge orange curtain between two Colorado mountains. 1973,
directed by Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Ellen Hovde,

Monday, May 11

The Love We Make 7:00, 9:15 (91)
Directed by Albert Maysles and Bradley Kaplan, The Love We Make follows
Paul McCartney through the streets of New York City in the immediate aftermath
of the 9/11 attacks as he organizes an all-star benet concert, The Concert for
New York City. The lm features performances from the concert itself, with unparalleled
access backstage to McCartney and such luminaries as David Bowie, Eric Clapton,
President Bill Clinton, Sheryl Crow, Leonardo DiCaprio, Harrison Ford, Mick Jagger,
Jay Z, Billy Joel, Elton John, Stella McCartney, Keith Richards, James Taylor,
Pete Townshend, and many more.

Orson Welles - Spain 8:40 (10)
Orson Welles pitches to potential investors his vision of a largely improvised bullghter
movie about an existential, James Dean-type, troubadour who sets himself apart from
other matadors. In front of an audience of wealthy arts patrons, Welles ponticates on
the state of cinema, the filmmaking process and the art of bullghting. 1966, directed
by Albert and David Maysles.

Anastasia 8:50 (8)
An early Maysles Bros. “work for hire” for the NBC network news program Update.
Produced at the height of the Cold War by acclaimed screenwriter Bo Goldman,
the subject is one Anastasia Stevens, an American dancer in the Bolshoi Ballet.
1962, directed by Albert and David Maysles.

Tuesday, May 12

Islands 6:30, 9:00 (57)
For two brief weeks in May of 1983, Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Surrounded Islands
blossomed on the waters of Biscayne Bay, Florida. Eleven scrub-pine islands were
surrounded by 6.5 million square feet of bright pink fabric. A three-year struggle,
a work of art; a political drama interwoven with two other projects-in-progress;
the wrapping of the Pont Neuf in Paris and the Reichstag in Berlin. 1986, a film by
Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin.

Umbrellas 7:30, 10:00 (81)
Umbrellas takes a poignant, in-depth look at the concept and realization of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's project, Umbrellas: a Joint Project for Japan and the U.S.A.
It presents the artist at his most triumphant and most vulnerable moments - from the
exaltation of the project's opening day through unexpected tragedies at the end. 1994,
a film by Henry Corra, Grahame Weinbren, Albert Maysles.

Wednesday, May 13

6:15 Skype conversation with Susan Froemke, long-time co-director with Albert Maysles.

Lalee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton 7:00, 9:15 (88)
a film by Susan Froemke, Deborah Dickson and Albert Maysles, LaLee's Kin takes us deep
into the Mississippi Delta and the intertwined lives of LaLee Wallace, a great-grandmother
struggling to hold her world together in the face of dire poverty, and Reggie Barnes,
superintendent of the embattled West Tallahatchie School System. The lm explores
the painful legacy of slavery and sharecropping in the Delta. 88 mins. HBO
Nominated for an Academy Award.

The Met in Japan 8:30 (21)
A visit to Japan by the New York Metropolitan Opera. Kathleen Battle and Placido
Domingo sing Mozart, Oenbach and Verdi, conucted by Maestros Levine and Rudel.
1989, a film by Susan Froemke and Albert Maysles.

Thursday, May 14

Grey Gardens 7:00 (94),
Grey Gardens is the unbelievable but true story of Mrs. Edith Bouvier Beale and her
daughter Edie, the aunt and rst cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Mother and
daughter live in a world of their own in a decaying 28-room East Hampton mansion
known as "Grey Gardens," a place so far gone that the local authorities once threatened
to evict them for violating building and sanitation codes. The incident made national
headlines -- American royalty, living in squalor! A cult classic, made into a Broadway
musical and an HBO movie. 1976, a film by David and Albert Maysles, Elen Hovde,
Mue Meyer, Susan Froemke,

Horowitz Plays Mozart 8:40 (50)
In March 1987, pianist Vladimir Horowitz embarked on an extraordinary project.
For the rst time in 35 years, he agreed to record with a symphony orchestra in a
studio. The lm includes a complete performance of Mozart's Concerto No. 23 in
A Major as well as cinema verité scenes of Horowitz preparing for recording,
reviewing the tapes with the conductor, talking with his wife, Wanda Toscanini
Horowitz, and giving an impromptu press conference for a group of visiting
European critics. 1987, a film by Albert and David Maysles, Susan Froemke,
Charlotte Zwerin,

Get Yer Ya-Yas Out! 9:30
Get Yer Ya-Yas Out! is a rarely-seen chronicle of The Rolling Stones’ epic
performance at Madison Square Garden in November 1969. Albert Maysles has put
together never-before-seen archive footage that shows the band at its height,
wowing New York audiences. “27 minutes of pure pleasure. An intoxicating snapshot.”
New York Times. 2009, directed by Albert Maysles, Bradley Kaplan and Ian Marciewicz.

Tickets $12.50, $10 seniors and students.

Chris Knipp
04-11-2015, 08:36 PM
http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/ALMAY.jpg

Filmleaf Festival Coverage thread. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33482#post33482)

Wikipedia listing of Maysles works, SF Festival list highlighted. Gray Gardens is on Netflix as are Rufus Wainwright - Milwaukee at Last and Muhammad and Larry.

Filmography of Albert and David Maysles
Orson Welles In Spain (1963)
What's Happening! The Beatles In The USA (1964) – featuring The Beatles
IBM: A Self-Portrait (1964)
Meet Marlon Brando (1965)
Cut Piece (1965)
Six in Paris (1965) (with Godard, as cinematographer)
With Love from Truman (1966, with Charlotte Zwerin) – featuring Truman Capote
Salesman (1968) (with Charlotte Zwerin)
Journey to Jerusalem (1968)
Gimme Shelter (1970, with Charlotte Zwerin) – featuring The Rolling Stones
Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! (1970)
Christo's Valley Curtain (1974, with Ellen Hovde)
Grey Gardens (1976, with Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer, Susan Froemke)
The Burks of Georgia (1976, with Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer)
Running Fence (1978, with Charlotte Zwerin)
Muhammad and Larry (1980)
Vladimir Horowitz: The Last Romantic (1985, with Susan Froemke, Deborah Dickson, Pat Jaffe)
Ozawa (1986, with Susan Froemke, Deborah Dickson)
Islands (1986, with Charlotte Zwerin)
Christo in Paris (1990, with Deborah Dickson and Susan Froemke)

Selected filmography by Albert Maysles
Psychiatry in Russia (1955)
Horowitz Plays Mozart (1987, with Susan Froemke, Charlotte Zwerin)
Jessye Norman Sings Carmen (1989, with Susan Froemke)
They Met in Japan (1989, with Susan Froemke)
Soldiers of Music: Rostropovich Returns to Russia (1991, with Susan Froemke, Peter Gelb and Bob Eisenhardt)
Abortion: Desperate Choices (1992, with Susan Froemke and Deborah Dickson)
Baroque Duet (1992, with Susan Froemke, Peter Gelb, Pat Jaffe)
Accent on the Offbeat (1994, with Susan Froemke, Deborah Dickson)
Umbrellas (1995, with Henry Corra, Grahame Weinbren)
Letting Go: A Hospice Journey (1996, with Susan Froemke, Deborah Dickson)
Concert of Wills: Making the Getty Center (1997, with Susan Froemke, Bob Eisenhardt)
LaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton (2000, with Susan Froemke, Deborah Dickson)
The Gates (2005, with Antonio Ferrera)
Sally Gross: The Pleasure of Stillness (2007)
Close Up: Portraits (2008)
Rufus Wainwright – Milwaukee At Last (2009)
Hollywood Renegade: The Life of Budd Schulberg (2009) (Cinematographer)
The Love We Make (2011, with Bradley Kaplan, Ian Markiewicz)
Iris (2014)

Johann
04-13-2015, 02:51 PM
Wish I could be there. It ends on my birthday. :(

Goodbye Albert Maysles...

Chris Knipp
04-23-2015, 02:45 PM
http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/ALMAY.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33482#post33482)

Albert Maysles Festival: Filmleaf reviews thread. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33482#post33482)

See the Festival Coverage thread. (Oh, yes. I heard something about the Colombia movie at Cannes.) I have added more about the Maysles and their filmography. Quite a few are available on Netflix, and more on DVD. I will write about these from the San Francisco memorial festival, listed below in chronological order

LINKS TO REVIEWS


ORSON WELLES IN SPAIN 1963 10 MINS. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33513#post33513)
MEET MARLON BRANDO 1965 28 MINS (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33514#post33514)
SALESMAN 1968 85 MINS. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33515#post33515)
GET YER YA-YA'S OUT 1970
GIMME SHELTER 1970 91 MINS. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33518#post33518)
CHRISTO'S VALLEY CURTAIN 1974 28 MINS. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33519#post33519)
GRAY GARDENS 1975 100 MINS. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33520#post33520)
RUNNING FENCE 1977 58 MINS. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33521#post33521)
ISLANDS 1986/87 58 mins. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33522#post33522)
CHRISTO IN PARIS 1990 57 MINS. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33523#post33523) (not in the festival)
UMBRELLAS 1994 81 mins. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33524#post33524)
THE GATES 2005/07 98 MINS. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33525#post33525)
IRIS 2014 73 MINS. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33525#post33525)

Chris Knipp
04-23-2015, 11:12 PM
http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/ALMAY.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33482#post33482)

SALESMAN (David and Albert Maysles 1968) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33515#post33515)

The Maysles' first feature film, about four Boston Irish Bible salesmen in winter in Boston and in a town in Florida when one of their number, Paul Brennan, the film's main focus, is miserably failing. A devastating picture of the cruelty and falsity of the "American dream," but this film, you must understand, was made with nothing but sympathy and love. The Jewish Maysles had grown up side by side in the poor working class neibhgorhoods of Boston alongside these Irish boys and felt they were doing what their postal clerk father might have done. Searing, diamond-bright and pure, this is the cornerstone classic of "Direct Cinema." Personally this is the fist time I have found the courage and maturity to watch it. It's funny and elegant for some, but it contains, in 24 frames a second, 16 mm., and black and white, the same uniquely American tragedy that Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller saw, and it can make you weep, maybe much later.

Chris Knipp
04-24-2015, 10:37 PM
http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/ALMAY.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33482#post33482)

CHRISTO'S VALLEY CURTAIN (David and Albert Maysles 1974 (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33520#post33520))

The Maysles' first of five documentaries about Christo and Jeanne-Claude artworks, the fabric slung between two Colorado slopes at Rifle Gap, depicts only the final stages of the putting up of the project, which was threatened by winds from the first, but was up for 28 hours. We see the tension and excitement and nervousness of the men up on the high cable, where the camera follows them, and their joy when it's done, and the artists rejoice. The 28-minute film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Documentary.

RUNNING FENCE (David and Albert Maysles 1977) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33521#post33521)

This 58-minute film is edited to show almost all aspects of the project from conception through persuading the ranchers and dealing with local bureaucracy and an injunction, and the final hanging and unfurling of the fabric. I describe my personal involvement with the project and what happened with Runner's World Magazine.

Chris Knipp
04-28-2015, 02:17 PM
http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/ALMAY.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33482#post33482)

ISLANDS (David and Albert Maysles 1987) (http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/ALMAY.jpg"

[URL="http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33522#post33522)

Christo and Jeanne-Claude pursue "Surrounding Islands," a temporary artwork ringing small manmade islands in Biscayne Bay near Miami with bands of bright pink floating cloth. It's an idea of Jeanne-Claude's, they later revealed. Meanwhile they are going back and forth pursuing the difficult Reischstag and Paris Pont Neuf projects. Shows how complicated and busy the artists' lives are. This was David Maysles' last film before his death.

CHRISTO IN PARIS (Albert Mysles 1990) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33523#post33523)

Focus on the beautiful wrapping of the oldest bridge in Paris, the Pont Neuf, leads to learning a lot about Chrissto & Jeanne-Claude's romantic early life together when the Bulgarian refugee from the Iron Curtain and the well-off French general's daughter met and fell in love and a keen sense of what you see in all the Maysles Christo films -- that this is not only a great working partnership but a very loving one. One of the most enjoyable Christo films, this made me like them even better.

Chris Knipp
05-02-2015, 07:51 PM
http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/ALMAY.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33482#post33482)

UMBRELLAS (Abert Maysles 1994) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33524#post33524)

Taking place simultaneiously in California and Japan, large parasols scattered over 19+ miles of valley and hill landscape, yellow in California and blue in Japan, the project aimed to show differences and similarities of the two cultures. It was the most hectic and fraught major Christo and Jeanne-Claude project.

THE GATES (Albert and David Maysles 2007) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33525#post33525)

Occupying miles of pathways in New York's Centnral Park, it took the artists more than half of their 40 years of residence in the city to get permission, finally, from Mayor Bloomberg, who turned out to be fan. The film shows a lot of negativity and a lot of positivity, negativity early on in the Seventies, positivity when the project happened. This film is spectacular and has the most footage of the public experience of the work. The last of the six Maysles Christo films, the only one not included in the Plexifilm set.

Chris Knipp
05-02-2015, 07:58 PM
http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/ALMAY.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33482#post33482)

GREY GARDENS (David and Albert Maysles 1975) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33520#post33520)

A cult film, rated 9th along with DON'T LOOK BACK in a Sight and Sound poll of the best docs in history, also source of an HBO dramatization with Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange and of a Broadway musical. It depicts the impoverished Edith Beales, mother and daughter (80 and 56), living a cloistered, eccentric, and oddly sprightly life in a rotting cat- and raccoon-filled beach front mansion in East Hampton in 1973. The ladies perform for the brothers, for each other, and for themselves as they sing, dance, squabble, and reminisce. A few people come by, including"the Marble Faun," young, long-haired Jerry Torre. Available in a new print with commentary and a supplement on a Criterion disc. This, along with GIMME SHELTER and SALESMAN, is required viewing for any cinephile.

Chris Knipp
05-08-2015, 02:23 AM
http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/ALMAY.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33482#post33482)

GIMMME SHELTER (Maysles brothers 1970) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3944-ALBERT-MAYSLES-Memorial-Film-Festival-(May-8-14-2015)&p=33518#post33518)

A grim, classic film of the Rolling Stones concert of Dec. 6, 1969 at Altamont Speedway north of San Francisco, which turned violent and ugly. An estimated 300,000 people with no adequate parking, toilets, or medical tents, audience members crowding the lowered stage beaten back by Hells Angels, one of whom stabbed and killed a black youth. The Maysles use a cunning conceit of having us watch the concert footage as the Stones watch it, and react. One of the Maysles' three most famous documentaries, along with Salesman and Grey Gardens. All are essential viewing.