Direct Cinema

Direct cinema is a form of mainly documentary-style filmmaking developed in the United States in the 1960s. It combines naturalistic techniques with stylized cinematic devices of editing and cinematography.

The direct cinema filmmakers made use of newly-developed, unobtrusive lightweight equipment for filming on location. A similar movement arose in France at approximately the same time under the label of cinéma vérité (French for “truthful cinema”). However, direct cinema aimed to be more observational and to avoid influencing the recorded event. Aspects of direct cinema and cinéma vérité later also influenced the work of fictional filmmakers.