Primary

I remember feeling I could reach out and touch him [JFK]" - David Grubin, filmmaker

“A new kind of reporting, a new form of history,” Robert Drew promised John F. Kennedy. He was proposing that a revolutionary, small camera operated by cameraman Ricky Leacock and sync sound recorder operated by himself, live with Kennedy day and night for nearly a week during the climax of his 1960 Wisconsin presidential primary run against Hubert Humphrey. The resulting film, PRIMARY, turned out to be a cinematic experience unique in the history of film, the first in the development of American cinéma vérité, and a template for ground-breaking films Drew would later shoot in the Kennedy White House.

Unlike the directed, narrated documentaries of the day, Drew’s freewheeling photography moved with its subjects and brought audiences straight into the action. It captured Kennedy’s rock-star- like presence and Jackie’s quiet radiance. It granted audiences unprecedented access into the world of a young politician and his glamorous wife as they campaigned across the Wisconsin landscape and navigated their way through throngs of ardent supporters. And while it is no mystery who ultimately made it to the White House, PRIMARY builds with dramatic tension as the candidates await the returns, capturing the character and flavor of campaign politics as never before seen on film.

Winner of the American Film Festival Blue Ribbon in 1960, PRIMARY was selected as an historic American film for inclusion in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 1990.

DVD Features

Running Commentary from Robert Drew and Photographer Richard Leacock; The Originators: Bob Drew, DA Pennebaker, Albert Maysles, and Richard Leacock Recall Their PRIMARY Breakthrough; 30/15: Thirty Years of Robert Drew Filmmaking; Filmmaker Biography; Interactive Menus; Scene Selection

"Groundbreaking"
- The New York Times

Posted in Docurama, History/Politics, Social Issues | Tagged 1960s, cinema verite, election, jfk, politics, presidency