Primary (film)

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Primary

Directed by	Robert Drew
Written by	Robert Drew
Starring	John F. Kennedy, Hubert H. Humphrey
Running time	60 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Primary is a 1960 cinéma vérité documentary film. It covers the 1960 primary election between John F. Kennedy and Hubert H. Humphrey for the United States Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States. Primary (1960) was a breakthrough documentary. Produced by Robert Drew and shot by Richard Leacock, the film featured the contest between Senators John Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey in the 1960 Wisconsin primary. For the first time, viewers of Time-Life's four television stations followed candidates through crowds and into hotel rooms, where they awaited polling results. Through the mobile-camera technique Primary achieved an intimacy technique never before seen, and established the basic electronic news gathering shooting style. In Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment, Drew Associates producer Gregory Shuker took cameras into the Oval Office to observe presidential meetings over the crisis precipitated by Alabama Governor George Wallace, who physically blocked the entry of two African-American students to the University of Alabama. The program aired in October 1963 on ABC and triggered a storm of protest over the admission of cameras into the White House.

It was directed by Robert Drew, Richard Leacock, Albert Maysles Terrence McCartney Filgate and D.A. Pennebaker. Primary, along with Chronicle of a Summer, was largely responsible for the start of the cinema verite movement in documentary filmmaking. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.