Directing
Richard Leacock
Born July 18, 1921 · London, UK
Died March 23, 2011 · aged 89
Richard Leacock (July 18, 1921 – March 15, 2011) was a pioneering American-born filmmaker, widely regarded as one of the founding figures of the cinéma vérité movement. He was a key influence on the development of observational documentary filmmaking, known for his innovative use of handheld cameras and his emphasis on capturing spontaneous, real-time events. Leacock's most notable works include P…
Known For
Working Girls · 1987Working Girls
★ 6.21987
MovieDrama
A lesbian college graduate, trying to bankroll her own photography business, works as a high-priced New York City escort.
Louisiana Story · 1948Louisiana Story
★ 6.31948
MovieAdventureDrama
The idyllic life of a young Cajun boy and his pet raccoon is disrupted when the tranquility of the bayou is broken by an oil well drilling near his home.
Monterey Pop · 1968Monterey Pop
★ 7.31968
MovieMusicDocumentary
Featuring performances by popular artists of the 1960s, this concert film highlights the music of the 1967 California festival. Although not all musicians who performed at the Monterey Pop Festival are on film, some of the notable acts include the Mamas and the Papas, Simon & Garfunkel, Jefferson Airplane, the Who, Otis Redding, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Hendrix's post-performance antics -- lighting a guitar on fire, breaking it and tossing a part into the audience -- are captured.
Maidstone · 1971Maidstone
★ 4.21971
MovieDrama
Over a booze-fueled, increasingly hectic five-day shoot in East Hampton, Norman Mailer and his cast and crew spontaneously unloaded onto film the lurid and loony chronicle of U.S. presidential candidate and filmmaker Norman T. Kingsley debating and attacking his hangers-on and enemies. This gonzo narrative, “an inkblot test of Mailer’s own subconscious” (Time), becomes something like a documentary on its own making when costar Rip Torn breaks the fourth wall in one of cinema’s most alarming on-screen outbursts.
Jimi Plays Monterey · 1987Jimi Plays Monterey
★ 7.51987
MovieDocumentaryMusic
Jimi Hendrix's debut American set at 1967's Monterey Pop Festival is generally considered one of the most radical and legendary live shows ever. Virtually unknown to American audiences at the time, even though he was already an established entity in the UK, Hendrix and his two-piece Experience explode on stage, ripping through blues classics "Rock Me Baby" and Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor," interpreting and electrifying Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone," debuting songs from his yet-to-be-released first album and closing with the now historic sacrificing/burning of his guitar during an unhinged version of "Wild Thing" that even its writer Chip Taylor would never have imagined. Hendrix uses feedback and distortion to enhance the songs in whisper-to-scream intensity, blazing territory that had not been previously explored with as much soul-frazzled power.
A Happy Mother's Day · 1963A Happy Mother's Day
★ 5.91963
MovieDocumentary
A cinéma vérité documentary observing the Fischer family of Aberdeen, South Dakota, following the 1963 birth of the first surviving American quintuplets. Filmed shortly after the event, the film contrasts civic promotion, media attention, and commercial interest with the private fatigue and quiet suffering of Mrs. Fischer, revealing the tensions between spectacle and family life.
Centerbeam · 1977Centerbeam
1977
MovieDocumentary
Film produced and directed by Ricky Leacock, Edward Pincus, and MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies documenting the Centerbeam kinetic sculpture project and its first installation at documenta 6 in Kassel, Germany in 1977
Jazz Dance · 1954Jazz Dance
★ 5.81954
MovieDocumentaryMusic
Few films wield the awesome spiritual power of Jazz Dance, on which Leacock was one of two cameramen charting the slow, smoldering build of a Manhattan dance club from idle space to explosive, carnal bacchanal. Employing handheld cameras, limited light and sheer proximity, the film achieved an intimacy never before witnessed in a documentary.
Filmography
Sort
French Lunch · 1968French Lunch
★ 9.01968
MovieDocumentary
Documentary look behind the scenes of La Caravelle, an acclaimed French restaurant in New York City.
Director of Photography

















