Cinema verite pioneer Leacock dies in Paris at 89

[March 24, 2011]  NEW YORK (AP) -- A documentary filmmaker known as a pioneer of the unobtrusive camera technique cinema verite and seen by some as the grandfather of reality television has died. Richard Leacock was 89.

Leacock was the cinematographer on "Primary," the seminal documentary that followed John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign.

New York resident Victoria Leacock Hoffman says her father died in Paris on Wednesday. She says he had been in declining health.

Leacock was born in London. He was among a generation of filmmakers who pioneered using lightweight, handheld cameras to record scenes as naturally as possible. He wrote and directed a 1954 documentary about a traveling tent theater in Missouri called "Toby and the Tall Corn."

A memoir called "Richard Leacock: The Feeling of Being There" will be released this summer as a book and a digital video book.

[Associated Press]

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