90 years of documentary film

“The Feeling of Being There” is a riveting autobiographical epic spanning almost the entire history of cinema, seen through the eyes of one of its leading players.
From Canary Bananas, his first film in 1935, to A Musical Adventure in Siberia, the memoir traces Richard Leacock’s personal life as a filmmaker and observer of key moments in the 20th century, filming with Robert Flaherty, Drew Associates, D.A. Pennebaker, and many others.
Richly illustrated, the exclusive book contains more than 290 drawings, photos and film stills.
Always at the forefront of new technologies, Leacock’s memoir is published as a book and a DVB (DigitalVideoBook) containing more than 100 film excerpts, richly intertwined with the gripping storyline.

- A book of 360 pages and 294 illustrations, and a DVD containing the memoir in ditigal format, all the illustrations and more than 100 fim excerpts.
Hardcover binding. Comes with the DVD.

--------------------------------------

Excerpt from the Introduction:

“I am writing about my experiences as a filmmaker with the hope that I am talking to a new generation. A generation that works with the superb little digital cameras that you can buy at any airport and operates as one-person production units unencumbered by directors, tripods, cameramen, assistant-cameramen, soundmen, microphone booms, electricians et al. A generation of creators or observers who go home and look at their rushes and then edit their own material the way they want it. The kind of people that my long-time friend, D.A. Pennebaker, spelled as “Filmakers” with one “M”.

I made my first film, aged 14, in 1935 and I have been at it ever since, striving to give my viewers a sense of “being there”.
There have been years of frustration on one level and the joys of achievement on another.

Writing about film has much in common with writing about wine: you can’t taste the wine by reading. Well, I think you have a similar problem when you write about films: you can’t see the movies on the printed page. So it occurred to me that if I embed excerpts, and often entire films, within the book, then you, the reader, could actually experience what I am talking about. And, since I have always loved to cook, I am including some of my favorite recipes as we go along.
Further, I hope to convey the changes in my views, not only of filmmaking but also of politics and the world around me as it changed and I changed. The friendships, the loves, the disasters... My life! So, when I make rules about what you can and can’t do, take it with a large pinch of salt.”

Richard Leacock