Direct Cinema: Then and Now

This series brings together two works of Direct Cinema, a method of documentary filmmaking where filmmakers aimed to discover Truth through Cinema, using new technologies just developed in the late 1950s. D. A. Pennebaker’s pioneering 1967 documentary Dont Look Back is a canonical example of Direct Cinema and has influenced decades of behind-the-scenes documentary filmmaking. Robert Kolodny’s The Featherweight (produced and edited by Robert Greene) is a modern-day reinvention of Direct Cinema where the techniques and methodology of that documentary style are brought back to life with a fictional narrative film. This series brings these two films together to reflect upon the impact of Direct Cinema and the meaning of truth and authenticity in filmmaking.