Docs that Rock

The late 60s and early 70s gave birth to the glory days of the rockumentary with a chorus of seminal works from D.A. Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back to Gimme Shelter by the Maysles brothers, and Mel Stuart’s Wattstax. The success of the rockumentary was rooted in the cinema verité style and the advent of lightweight cameras that made the fly-on-the-wall approach a reality. With the groundwork set, a number of memorable and inspirational films have been produced exploring the lives of musicians and bands, musical genres, movements defining eras, and the role music plays in societies and cultures across the world. Film directors Albert Maysles (Gimme Shelter); Mel Stuart (Wattstax), Doug Pray (Hype, Scratch); Mark Moorman (Tom Dowd & the Language of Music); and others discuss the genesis of their films and their relationships to the music and the subjects they portray with Adam Pincus of the Sundance Channel.