D A Pennebaker

Roles: Director

D A (Donn Alan) Pennebaker is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of cinéma vérité filmmaking. In the early sixties, Pennebaker and his colleague Richard Leacock developed one of the first fully portable 16mm synchronized camera and sound recording systems, which revolutionized filmmaking and introduced the immediate style of shooting so popular today.  Pennebaker’s many professional honors include the IFP’s Gotham Award and a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award.

Pennebaker first film was the 1953 expressionistic short Daybreak Express. In 1967, Pennebaker released his seminal classic Don’t Look Back, which followed Bob Dylan’s last acoustic concert tour in England. The film was one of the first feature-length documentaries to be released in theaters. In 1976, Pennebaker began his collaboration with his partner and future wife, Chris Hegedus, co-directing such acclaimed films as 1998’s Moon Over Broadway and 1993’s The War Room, which received an Academy Award® nomination and won the National Board of Review’s D.W. Griffith Award for Best Documentary. The team’s early films include the three-part special The Energy War; Town Bloody Hall, and DeLorean, and Depeche Mode 101. Their last feature release, Kings of Pastry, played theatrically in the US and was broadcast around the world.