Biography
Richard Leacock (1921–2011) was a British-born documentary filmmaker and cinematographer, a pioneer of the direct cinema and cinéma vérité movements. He was born in London and grew up partly in the Canary Islands. After studying physics at Harvard University and serving as a combat photographer in the Second World War, he worked as cinematographer on Robert Flaherty's Louisiana Story (1948).
In the 1960s Leacock collaborated with Robert Drew and D. A. Pennebaker on landmark observational documentaries, including Primary (1960), which followed the Democratic presidential primary campaign. He later partnered with Pennebaker on films such as Dont Look Back (1967) and Monterey Pop (1968). He headed the film department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from the late 1960s and continued working into later decades, including a narration credit on Sherman's March (1986).
