Richard Leacock dies at 89; documentary filmmaker pioneered cinema verite technique1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteRichard Leacock, a documentary filmmaker and pioneer of the unobtrusive cinema verite camera technique, has died. He was 89.
Leacock died Wednesday in Paris, said his daughter Victoria Leacock Hoffman. He had been in declining health and had taken several recent falls, she said in an email.
Leacock’s technical acumen supplied the likes of Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut with the tools of their trade. His insightful direction laid the groundwork for generations of filmmakers seeking to use their cameras to capture real life as it happened, colleagues said.
“Richard Leacock was one of the true pioneers of documentary filmmaking,” director Martin Scorsese said in a statement. “He was instrumental in the development and use of lightweight, portable equipment, which opened the way for genuinely independent filmmaking. And he had a remarkably sensitive, quick camera eye. He paved the way for all of us.”
