Pennebaker Hegedus Films

D A Pennebaker

D A (Donn Alan) Pennebaker is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of cinema verite filmmaking.  The style revolutionized the documentary genre by discarding narration, reenactments and other staged techniques in favor of direct and uninterrupted observation, creating a fly-on-the-wall sense of immediacy.

Since 1977 Pennebaker has partnered with Chris Hegedus on a host of acclaimed films.  Most recently they co-directed with Nick Doob ELAINE STRITCH AT LIBERTY whch earned three Primetime Emmy nominations including Outstanding Direction of a Music, Comedy, or Variety Program.  In 2003 they completed ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE about some of the legendary rhythm and blues performers, including Rufus and Carla Thomas, Mary Wilson, Jery Butler, Isaac Hayes, Wilson Pickett and the Chi Lites.  The team received the D.W. Griffith Award for Best Documentary of the Year and an Academy Award nomination for their 1994 film THE WAR ROOM, which followed Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign. 

D A Pennebaker made his filmmaking debut with the 1953 short DAYBREAK EXPRESS.  In 1959 Pennebaker joined Drew Associates, a group of filmmakers dedicated to furthering the use of film in journalism.  Drew Associates developed the first fully portable 16mm synchronized camera and sound system.  This technical development helped Pennebaker and his colleagues establish what became known as “cinema verite,” a new style of filmmaking that rejected voiceover narration in favor of recording real people and events as they happened, with as little direction from the filmmaker as possible.  Together, they produced such landmark films as PRIMARY, CRISIS, and JANE.

In the 60s, Pennebaker’s portrait of Bob Dylan, DONT LOOK BACK, and MONTEREY POP, starring Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, were two of the earliest films using real-life drama to have a successful theatrical distribution.  1972 saw the release of KEEP ON ROCKIN’, with Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis, among others, and it was Pennebaker who filmed David Bowie’s final concert appearance as his most famous persona in ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS.  Pennebaker detoured to Broadway for the television documentary COMPANY - THE ORIGINAL CAST ALBUM about the recording of the Stephen Sondheim musical starring Elaine Stritch.

In 1977, the filmmaker met and began collaborating with his partner Chris Hegedus.  Their early films included the five-hour, three-part documentary THE ENERGY WAR, co-directed with Pat Powell, which followed the congressional fight over President Carter’s 1977 proposal to deregulate natural gas, and TOWN BLOODY HALL, filmed in 1971 and edited by Hegedus, which chronicled the fractious “Dialogue on Women’s Liberation” at New York City’s Town Hall.  Among the additional films that Pennebaker co-directed with Hegedus are ELLIOT CARTER AT BUFFALO, about the American composer; DELOREAN, a profile of the automobile entrepreneur John DeLorean; ROCKABY, a document of the staging and performance of Samuel Beckett’s play of the same name, and DANCE BLACK AMERICA, a record of a four-day festival celebrating African-American dance.  Their 1998 film MOON OVER BROADWAY, about Carol Burnett’s return to Broadway, was cited by the New York Times as the Best Documentary of the Year. 

The partners have devoted much of their creative energies to short and feature-length films about music.  Their film of Randy Newman’s song Baltimore predated MTV and was one of the templates for the music video format; their subsequent music video credits include clips for John Hiatt, Soul Asylum, Suzanne Vega, Victoria Williams and Marti Jones.  Their other music-related films include the 30-minute profile of singer Victoria Williams, HAPPY COME HOME, THE MUSIC TELLS YOU, with Branford Marsalis and his trio; and OPEN HAND, a chronicle of singer Suzanne Vega’s tour.  In 1989, Hegedus and Pennebaker released the theatrical feature DEPECHE MODE 101, about the popular British synth-pop band.  Recent credits include KEINE ZEIT, about German rock star Marius Muller-Westernhagen, and the contemporary performance film SEARCHING FOR JIMI HENDRIX.