Film-maker D.A. Pennebaker, who made acclaimed films about Bob Dylan, David Bowie and Depeche Mode, has died of natural causes at the aged of 94.
Pennebaker, who received an honorary Academy Award in 2013, passed away at his home in Long Island, his son Frazer Pennebaker said in an email.
The director made influential movies such as the 1967 Dylan documentary Don't Look Back, which charted the singer’s 1965 tour of England and featured Joan Baez, Donovan, Allen Ginsberg and others.
He also made The War Room, which captured the spin behind Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign.
He helped popularise the naturistic filmmaking style known as cinema verite and as an assistant to pioneer Robert Drew, helped invent the modern political documentary with Primary, a revelatory account of John F Kennedy’s 1960 victory in Wisconsin over fellow Democratic presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey.
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He on went to make or assist on dozens of films, from an early look at Jane Fonda and an Emmy-nominated portrait of Elaine Stritch to a documentary about a contentious debate between Norman Mailer and a panel of feminists.
In 1973 he made the Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars concert film.
But Dylan was reportedly unsatisfied with Pennebaker's cut and reworked the film himself. Some of the footage was released as Eat the Document while other parts were used by Martin Scorsese for No Direction Home, a Dylan documentary released in 2006.
After Dylan, Pennebaker again recorded a musical landmark with Monterey Pop, a documentary of the 1967 California gathering that was rock’s first major festival and featured such current and future stars as Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.
He also made a documentary about a 1969 concert in Toronto with John Lennon and a pickup band featuring Eric Clapton. He made films about performers he admired and some he came to enjoy, like Depeche Mode, whose dedicated fans warmed him to their music during the making of his stark monochrome concert film 101 in 1989.
When reducing vast amounts of raw footage into a finished film, Pennebaker said: "The one barometer I believe in is boredom. The minute people start to lose interest, that’s it."
