Albert and David Maysles: Interviews

In Albert and David Maysles: Interviews, editor Keith Beattie has compiled a wide-ranging collection in which the brothers, together and separately, discuss all aspects of their filmmaking–the nature of collaboration, technical matters, contextual considerations, and more. They recount a personal history of cinema verite and modern documentary filmmaking. The prolific joint career of the brothers has defined documentary filmmaking in the United States. From their first films in the late 1950s until the recent films of Albert Maysles (b. 1926), the brothers’ pioneering development of the
direct cinema,
or cinema verite, style of documentary filmmaking has significantly altered the ways in which the world appears in nonfiction representations. Their influential movies–including the early feature Salesman, the renowned foundational rock concert film Gimme Shelter, and the dual biography Grey Gardens–have affected the aesthetics of fiction filmmaking as well. Since the death of David Maysles (1931-1987), Albert Maysles has continued to make films and has further contributed to the development of the documentary form.