The films of Albert Maysles, ’49, a pioneering documentary filmmaker who graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences, will be featured during a special tribute co-hosted by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Maysles family. Maysles, who died in March, is known for the iconic documentaries that he made with his brother David, including “Gimme Shelter” and “Grey Gardens,” which was later adapted into a Broadway musical and a made-for-TV movie.
The Maysles brothers (Al on the left)
The Maysles brothers are remembered as pioneers in direct cinema—a documentary style without scripts, sets, interviews or narration, but rather allowing the story to unfold as it happens.
The tribute will take place at Alice Tully Hall in New York City on Oct. 4 and will include special appearances along with a selection of clips from Maysles’s films. Tickets for the event, which coincides with the New York Film Festival, will be free to the public. The event will also highlight Albert Maysles’ work with the Maysles Documentary Center, the nonprofit organization he started in Harlem in 2005.
During the past decade, Maysles gave multiple lectures at the University’s Joseph I. Lubin House in New York, which presented various exhibitions of his films, photographs and equipment. In 2006, he was awarded the George Arents Pioneer Medal (now known as the Arents Award), the University’s highest honor bestowed on alumni.
