Ricky Leacock, Al Maysles, Robert Gardner, Robert Drew, Les Blank: the generation that invented cinema verité and gave us a plethora of brilliant documentaries is passing away. In HOW TO SMELL A ROSE, directed by Blank and Gina Leibrecht, one legendary figure visits with another. Les Blank’s warm and moving portrait of Leacock and partner Valerie Lalonde in France includes marvelous clips of Leacock’s movies, including his earliest film, CANARY BANANAS, made at age 14 on his father’s Canary Island plantation. Leacock is as charismatic recalling his cinematic triumphs (shooting Flaherty’s LOUISIANA STORY, filming Leonard Bernstein in Israel), as he is explaining why he quit drinking or quoting Escoffier on the making of a perfect bouillon. 

USA • 2014 • 65 MINS. • IN ENGLISH • KINO LORBER

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY

Complemented by the Leacock-Joyce Chopra classic, HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY, on the 1963 birth of the Fischer quintuplets in Aberdeen, South Dakota.

DIRECTED BY RICHARD LEACOCK AND JOYCE CHOPRA

USA • 1963 • 26 MINS. • PENNEBAKER HEGEDUS FILMS

Reviews

“A covert, rigorously structured study of Ricky Leacock’s huge career and import.  A showcase for one filmmaker’s adoration and respect for another…the genial sweetness of their ramble through the history of documentary film takes on an overwhelming poignancy.  Like a parting gift from them to cinema, a vision from beyond the grave.”
– Jeff Reichert, Reverse Shot

“Watching Ricky and Les cook up a fantastic roast lamb dinner almost made me cry, wanting to be there with them.”
– D.A. Pennebaker