Ep# 78 - Documentaries in 1969

Here at Cinema60 we’ve embraced the endless task of putting a pin in the entirety of Sixties cinema. However, one area where we have been remiss in our duties is documentaries – a genre that truly came into its own during this decade. Films like Robert Drew’s Primary and Jean Rouch & Edgar Morin’s Chronicle of a Summer began to break from the popular “voice of God” expository mode, giving way to a greater variety of non-fiction documentary filmmaking techniques. By the end of the decade, the narrated newsreel style was relegated primarily to television, and movie theaters were home to the newer forms.

In this episode, Cinema60 looks at documentaries in 1969 – examining just how far the genre had progressed in ten years. Using Bill Nichols landmark text Representing Reality (1991) as a guide for describing what documentary looked like at the time, Bart and Jenna delve into the wealth of styles the genre had splintered into and take a look at some of the most exceptional documentaries ever made.

The following films are discussed:

• A Married Couple (1969)
Directed by Allan King
Starring Billy Edwards, Antoinette Edwards, Bogart Edwards

• Salesman (1969)
Directed by Albert Maysles, David Maysles & Charlotte Zwerin
Starring Paul Brennan, Charles McDevitt, James Baker

• In The Year of the Pig (1969)
Directed by Emile de Antonio
Starring Lyndon B. Johnson, Ho Chí Minh, Robert McNamara

• The Sorrow and the Pity (1969)
Le chagrin et la pitié
Directed by Marcel Ophüls
Starring Helmut Tausend, Marcel Verdier, Alexis Grave

• The Olympics in Mexico (1969)
Olimpiada en México
Directed by Alberto Isaac
Starring Enrique Lizalde, Tommie Smith, John Carlos

• Diaries, Notes and Sketches (also known as Walden) (1969)
Directed by Jonas Mekas
Starring Timothy Leary, Edie Sedgwick, Norman Mailer