D.A. Pennebaker

Biography

D.A. Pennebaker was an American documentary filmmaker and one of the pioneers of Direct Cinema, a style of documentary filmmaking that emphasizes realism and naturalism. Pennebaker was born in Evanston, Illinois, in 1925 and began his career in the 1950s making short films and commercials. He made his feature film debut in 1967 with "Monterey Pop," a documentary about the Monterey Pop Festival. Pennebaker has directed several other documentaries, including "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" (1973), "The War Room" (1993), and "Original Cast Album: Company" (1970). He won several awards throughout his career, including an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for "The War Room."