
Richard Leacock died in Paris yesterday. He was 89. Ricky was one of the founders of the cinema vérité movement, and a constant innovator in documentary filmmaking. Ricky's last great work is an upcoming multi-media memoir that will also serve as a personal history of documentary.
Ricky was also my mentor and my friend. This is for him:

Hey Ricky
Thanks for showing me how to look
not to watch, but to really look
with a camera
Thanks for your panning zooms,
your wonderful focusing zooms
and the swish pans
Thank you for all the hard cuts
Thanks for the sync sound and the MOS
Thanks for those bemused cut-aways
Thanks for all the brief shots of beautiful sound women
without headsets
Thank you for creating sequences
Thanks for composing in 1.33
Thanks for inviting serendipity into your frame
Thank you for Jazz Dance,
Primary, Company, Happy Mother's Day,
Monterey Pop, The Chair, Stravinsky,
Thanks for being so contagiously dazzled
by women, music, technology, science, cooking and
all the laughing ironies
of being there with a camera
Thanks for inventing the future of documentary
time and again in 16 millimeter, Super 8, Hi 8 and mini DV,
with Auricons, Nizos, Aatons, and Sonys
and for re-inventing the history of documentary
with your upcoming book.
You never ever ceased
to be amazed
Thank you for being my teacher
God bless your soul
Benjamin
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You order Ricky's multimedia memoir, The Feeling of Being There
here
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Some obituaries:
All These Wonderful Things A J Schnack
indiewire Eric Kohn
New York Times William Grimes
New Yorker Richard Brody
Boston Globe Mark Feeny
The Guardian Ronald Bergan
Screen Rush: Pennebaker on Leacock Eric Kohn
Visible Evidence Brian Winston
indieWIRE Hope for Film David van Taylor
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Cinéma du réel is currently running a tribute to Leacock at the Pompidou Center in Paris.
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