VIDEO: The Life Lessons of Doc Legend Richard Leacock, Dead at 89

A dark cultural day darkens still with the news that Richard Leacock, the prolific filmmaker who, with fellow directors D.A. Pennebaker, Robert Drew and the Maysles Brothers helped pioneer the nonfiction format known as "direct cinema," has died at 89. A sampling of his influential work -- and a few valuable life lessons for the up-and-comers out there -- after the jump.

Few films I've ever seen -- fiction, nonfiction, hybrid or otherwise -- wield the awesome spiritual power of the 1954 short Jazz Dance, on which Leacock was one of two cameramen charting the slow, smoldering build of a Manhattan dance club from idle space to explosive, carnal bacchanal. Employing handheld cameras, limited light and sheer proximity, the film achieved an intimacy never before witnessed on the documentary scene. For better or worse, this is the seed of modern reality programming. (Also in the video below, Robert Drew discusses how these techniques applied to his own staggering 1960 breakthrough Primary -- to which Leacock also contributed.)

Bonus: 30 years later, Leacock and Susan Woll traveled to Germany for a riveting, rarer-than-rare sit-down with America's expat silent-film icon Louise Brooks. Their 50-minute film, Lulu in Berlin is viewable in its entirety on YouTube; the first segment is below. You can read all about Leacock's other seven-plus decades of work at his Web site. RIP, Ricky.

· Richard 'Ricky' Leacock Was 89 [Movie City Indie]