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A President to Remember: In the Company of John F. Kennedy

In this election year, two films by award-winning cinéma-vérité  pioneer Robert Drew will be presented at the CCA Zamek Ujazdowski in October, announced the Counselor for Press and Culture, Andrew Schilling. These documentaries will be shown for the first time in Europe during the week-long program “ALL THE PRESIDENT’S FILMS,” which is being jointly organized by the Embassy and Kino Lab.

In 1960, Robert Drew revolutionized the art of the documentary with Primary. Drew and his associates developed the first sync-sound motion picture cameras small enough to film intimately almost anywhere, effectively compiling a record that Kennedy himself admired as a “new form of history.”  Using this new technique made it possible for Mr. Drew and his team to present “a view closer to John F. Kennedy than any President before him, or, it turns out, any President since….”

Kennedy’s decision to permit cameras to candidly record the action taking place within the White House and the Oval Office for the first time raised a storm of protest, but resulted in a journalistic breakthrough of historic proportions.

Primary a close and intimate look at Senator John F. Kennedy as he campaigns for the Presidency against Hubert Humphrey in the Wisconsin primary. With no interviews and little narration, the film allows audiences to see for themselves what it would be like to travel in the company of John. F. Kennedy.  Unlike the directed documentaries of the day, Primary’s freewheeling photography moved with its subjects and brought audiences straight into the action, capturing Kennedy’s rock star-like presence along with Jackie’s quiet radiance.  A first in politics, it was also revolutionary in filmmaking.  The film received the Robert Flaherty Award and the American Film Festival Blue Ribbon in 1960.  In 1990, Primary was selected as an historic American film for inclusion in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry.

A President to Remember: In the Company of John F. Kennedy The thought-provoking documentary represents different phases of Kennedy’s political life viewed through footage from four of the award-winning American cinéma-vérité pioneer’s films thoughtfully edited together with other important footage from the time.  Together, these inspirational films provide a history of Kennedy’s years from young Senator to President to fallen icon.  A President to Remember: In the Company of John F. Kennedy  produced and directed by Robert Drew.  Photographers Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker and Al Maysles along with Associates James Lipscomb, Gregory Shuker, Hope Ryden and Abbot Mills made important contributions to Drew’s Kennedy films.

For more information, please visit www.drewassociates.net

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