Program 10 Reel Happenings
YIDFF 2025 Opening Film
Breaking it Up at the Museum
- 1960 / B&W / Digital File (Original: 16mm) / 8 min
Director, Editor: D.A. Pennebaker
Filmmakers: Bob Breer, Ken Tynan, Shirley Clarke, Albert Maysles, Tony Schwartz, Marie Winn, Nick Proferes
Source: Pennebaker Hegedus Films
Direct Cinema’s partnership with the fine arts goes back to the beginning. Pennebaker gave cameras to his friends for this record of sculptor Jean Tinguely’s self-destroying machine at the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art, New York City) courtyard.
YIDFF 2025 Opening Film
You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You
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1964 / B&W / Digital File (Original: 16mm) / 12 min
Director, Editor: D.A. Pennebaker
Photography: Michael Blackwood, Jim Desmond, D.A. Pennebaker, Nick Proferes
Source: Pennebaker Hegedus Films
After leaving Harvard, Timothy Leary decamped to a country estate to continue his experiments with LSD. Pennebaker records his wedding to model Nena von Schlebrügge amidst a menagerie of curious attendees.
YIDFF 2025 Opening Film
Cut Piece, 1964/1965
- 1965 / B&W / Digital File (Original: 16mm) / 9 min
Filmmakers, Producers: Albert Maysles, David Maysles
Source: Yoko Ono
The Maysles Brothers documented Yoko Ono’s third staging of Cut Piece, a foundational work in feminist performance art. Like many films in Direct Cinema, the film may seem simple and “direct” at first, but is in fact exceedingly complex.
Monterey Pop
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1968 / Color / Digital File (Original: 16mm) / 78 min
Director: D.A. Pennebaker
Photographers: James Desmond, Barry Feinstein, Richard Leacock, Nick Proferes
Editing: Nina Shulman
Musical Director: Bob Neuwirth
Stage Sound: John Cooke
Local Sound: Tim Cunningham, Baird Hersey, Robert Leacock, John Maddox, Nina Shulman
Concert Recording: Wally Heider, Robert Van Dyke
Unit Manager: Peter Hansen
Production Assistants: Pauline Baez, Peyton Fong, Brice Marden
Source: Only Hearts Co., Ltd.
Monterey Pop was an epic music festival featuring one historic performance after another. The interplay between backstage and onstage—with Pennebaker shooting right under the performers—set the template for rock documentaries.
YIDFF 2025 Opening Film
The House at Pooneil Corners (excerpt from 1 P.M.)
- 1971 / Color / Digital File (Original: 16mm) / 8 min
Film by: D.A. Pennebaker, with Jean-Luc Godard and Richard Leacock
Photographers: Jean-Luc Godard, Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker
Music: Jefferson Airplane
Source: adansonia
Godard’s 1 PM mashed together Cinéma Verité and Leacock and Pennebaker’s Direct Cinema. This mixing climaxes with this impromptu performance of “The House at Pooneil Corners” by Jefferson Airplane on a hotel rooftop (two months before the Beatles’ famous rooftop concert).