Director · Cinematographer

Albert Maysles

4: briefs
13:00: average
52 min: in total

On film.briefs4

Gimme Shelter

Charlotte Zwerin, Albert Maysles, David Maysles · 1970

Gimme Shelter is a 1970 Direct Cinema documentary following the Rolling Stones’ 1969 US tour to its violent end at the Altamont Free Concert. Shot by Albert and David Maysles with Charlotte Zwerin’s editing, it records studio sessions, concerts, negotiations and the fatal stabbing of Meredith Hunter — without voiceover, interviews or moral framing. Its power lies in its unblinking chronology and refusal to resolve what it witnesses.

13:00

Grey Gardens

Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Horde · 1975

A 1975 direct-cinema documentary by Albert and David Maysles, Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer, Grey Gardens observes Edith ‘Big Edie’ Beale and her daughter ‘Little Edie’ Bouvier Beale in their decaying East Hampton home. Filmed over several months in 1974, it offers no narration, no external context, and no judgment — only sustained, intimate observation of two women performing dignity amid squalor, memory amid decay, and selfhood amid erasure.

13:00

Salesman

Albert Maysles, David Maysles · 1969

Salesman (1969) is a direct cinema documentary by Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, following four door-to-door Bible salesmen across the US. It focuses on Paul Brennan, a middle-aged Catholic struggling to meet quotas, capturing pitch meetings, motel stays, and customer encounters with minimal intervention. Shot on location with visible equipment and unscripted sound, it avoids narration, exposition, or moral framing. Its power lies in sustained observation, physical detail, and ethical restraint — not in argument, but in accumulation.

13:00

The Beales of Grey Gardens

Albert Maysles, David Maysles · 2006

Assembled from footage shot for the 1975 documentary Grey Gardens but left unused for over thirty years, The Beales of Grey Gardens (2006) offers a slower, denser immersion in the East Hampton home of ‘Big’ and ‘Little’ Edie Beale. Directed by Albert and David Maysles and edited by Ian Markiewicz, it deepens rather than reinterprets the original — showing more of the mother-daughter dynamic, their caretaker Jerry, friend Lois Wright, and the ever-present cats, including the origin of the famous hallway fire. With no narration or context, it trusts observation over exposition.