Screening Room: Ricky Leacock

From his first film depicting his boyhood life in the Canary Islands, Ricky Leacock has been obsessed with capturing on film the feeling of “being there.” This curiosity led him to technological innovations and breakthrough films that fueled the emerging “direct cinema” movement. In 1948, he shot Louisiana Story with Robert and Frances Flaherty and he has worked with other cinéma vérité pioneers like Robert Drew and D. A. Pennebaker on films like Primary, Happy Mother's Day, and Monterey Pop. 

In the late 1960s, Leacock headed the film department at MIT, and with Ed Pincus, trained many talented direct cinema filmmakers. He later moved to France, where he continued to teach and make films such as Les Oeufs a La Coque de Richard Leacock.

Ricky Leacock visited Screening Room on June 15, 1973, with Al Mecklenburg and Jon Rosenfeld. He demonstrates super-8 sync technology and screens excerpts from his films Republicans: The New Breed and Queen of Apollo, as well as rare footage of Indira Ghandi.