When Bill Jersey asked me to help him make a short video to be played at the Albert Maysles Memorial Film Festival at the Vogue Theater in San Francisco, I was more than happy to offer my services. Bill is a pioneer of cinema verite and not only was he there when Albert and David Maysles started their career as filmmakers but he also gave Albert his first industrial cinematographer job. Bill also worked for Al on his first feature film “Showman.” It was a lot of fun for me to hear Bill talk about Albert Maysles. Two pioneers of cinema verite who were the same age and making films with groundbreaking techniques and equipment.
Check out the video and you will see photos of some of Maysles’ earliest rigs that he customized for his unobtrusive filming style. I was shocked and impressed to hear the old stories that Bill told me about the early days and the equipment they both used that would pave the way for cinema verite filmmaking at that time and into the future.
DIY documentary 