On the occasion of his cashing out on some serious equity (3,500 sf, Dakota, all orig. woodwork, bought around the time Gimme Shelter came out), Albert Maysles tells the NYT Magazine the first things that pop into his mind:
Favorite household chore: Washing dishes, because that is what my father did. In his day, he did a lot of work a woman would do then. We were all very proud of him for that because it saved my mother a lot of work. He's gone, but every time I wash dishes, I identify with my father, which is quite a pleasure....
Broken item he can't part with: I have this movie camera that I built to work in a way no other camera at the time could. It allowed me to shoot while moving around with synchronized sound but untethered to a tape recorder. I first used it to shoot the Beatles in 1964. That film was a revolution in documentary film because I could run around after them.
[Is he talking about the Drew Associates synch sound 16 mm? Because he first used that to shoot Robert Drew's 1960 doc, Primary, considered the birth of cinÈma vÈritÈ. Maysles was camera on that, along with Leacock, and Pennebaker.
Whatever, last year he made the switch to DV; now he uses a Sony PD170.]
For a 72nd St. Duplex, It's a Wrap [nytmag]
"Hand-held and from the Heart: The Stories of Albert Maysles" [Doubletake, via Maysles Prod.]
Origins of Documentary Film: Cinema VeritÈ [berkeley.edu]
Buy a Sony DSR-PD170 (MSRP $3940) for around $3,127 at Amazon [amazon]
