Albert Maysles, the pioneering documentary filmmaker who immortalized The Rolling Stones' infamous 1969 concert at Altamont Speedway, has died, staff at his institute said on Friday. He was 88.
Maysles, nicknamed the "dean of documentaries" for a series of groundbreaking films over a career spanning several decades, passed away late on Thursday, Erika Dilday, executive director at the Maysles Institute told AFP.
The director had been suffering from pancreatic cancer, Dilday said. Maysles and his late brother David were in the vanguard of the 'cinema verite' or direct documentary movement, among the first film-makers to capture their subjects without reference to scripts, sets, interviews or narration.
The result of that trip, "Pyschiatry in Russia", signaled the beginning of a career that saw Maysles and his brother emerge as two of the most important figures in 20th Century American film.
The 1970 film, "Gimme Shelter", captured the tragic events surrounding the concert, when four fans died amid chaotic organization.
The film, criticized by some as exploitative, became the basis for an award-winning musical of the same name as well as an HBO television film version.
"Alfred Hitchcock put it beautifully. He said 'In a feature film the director is god. In a non-fiction feature film, god is the director,'" he said.
"And if it's not the truth then it's not real knowledge."
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