Documentarian Maysles Celebrated With A Festival

Albert Maysles and D.A. Pennebaker would go on to become pioneers in Direct Cinema, working with Robert Drew of Life magazine, and going on to illustrious documentary careers, but in 1959, they were just two young filmmakers with a keen interest in what lay beyond the Iron Curtain. Pennebaker planned to travel to the Soviet Union to document the American National Exhibition trade show that was coming to Moscow that summer. When he discovered that Maysles had already been to Russia, on a motorcycle, with his brother David and had even shot a film in a mental health hospital there, something thought to be nearly impossible for a Westerner in that closed society, Pennebaker was intrigued. To him, that curiosity about people you run into, not heavy hitters or important people, just people that you’d run into on a train, particularly a train that’s going to take days to get to where it’s going, that was interesting to him. On Friday, May 8, Maysles penultimate documentary, “Iris,” a warm-hearted portrait of 93-year-old fashion maven Iris Apfel opens in local theaters. The program includes well-known works, such as “Salesman” (1968) about a Florida Bible salesman; “Gimme Shelter” (1970), Albert and David Maysles’ Rolling Stones documentary climaxed by the chilling violence and bad vibes of the band’s 1969 Altamont Speedway concert; “Grey Gardens” (1976), the brothers’ acclaimed chronicle of Jacqueline Kennedy’s eccentric aunt and cousin, Edith and Edie Beale; and “Running Fence” (1977), about the artist Christo’s 24-mile art installation. There are plenty of less well-known films in the mix as well, including “Meet Marlon Brando” (1965), in which the actor meets the press; “Orson Welles in Spain” (1966), a portrait of the artist in the middle of a pitch as he tries to raise money for a film; and “Anastasia” (1962), a news program feature about an American dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet. “I think the Maysles Brothers influenced my generation of documentary filmmakers and every generation of documentary filmmakers since,” says Brown. After David Maysles died at 55 in 1987, Albert Maysles continued to work in collaboration with other filmmakers and he also brought his family — his wife, Gillian Walker, and their children, Rebekah, Sara, and Philip — into the business. With “Iris,” she came on board as a producer, enjoying an intimate look at her dad at work. [...] I think that because both he and Iris are good, generous people, they didn’t do anything crazy, but they were able to get away with whatever they wanted. “Al had the patience to be a good cameraman, which is he could watch something for a good period of time and not grow impatient with it, as long as it was interesting,” he says. [...] if Iris Apfel is any indication, even Maysles’ subjects recognized his gift for capturing life and truth on film. Iris (PG-13) opens Friday, May 8, at Bay Area theaters. Albert Maysles Memorial Film Festival runs Friday, May 8, through May 14 at the Vogue Theatre, 3290 Sacramento St., San Francisco.