Cinéma Vérité and Direct Cinema

In the late 1950s lighter 16mm cameras and portable synchronous sound let filmmakers leave the studio and the commentary track behind. In France, Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin made Chronicle of a Summer, talking to people and showing the film's own making; this was cinéma vérité. In the United States, Robert Drew's team, with Richard Leacock, D. A. Pennebaker and the Maysles brothers, practised direct cinema, observing without interviews. In Quebec, Michel Brault and Pierre Perrault listened to ordinary speech. Frederick Wiseman, from Titicut Follies in 1967, spent decades making long films about institutions, while Barbara Kopple carried the method into labour struggles.

Where

France, the United States and Quebec

When

About 1958 to 1975, with Wiseman and Kopple continuing for decades

Key figures

Jean Rouch, Edgar Morin, Robert Drew, Albert and David Maysles, Frederick Wiseman, Michel Brault, Pierre Perrault, Barbara Kopple

Landmark films

Chronicle of a Summer (1961), Crisis (1963), Titicut Follies (1967), Salesman (1969), Gimme Shelter (1970), Grey Gardens (1975), Harlan County, USA (1976)

Legacy

Shaped modern documentary, television reportage and the handheld look of much fiction film

What to look for

• Handheld cameras and natural sound, no staged scenes
• Little or no narration; long scenes let events play out
• Ordinary people, institutions and public events filmed over weeks or months