Robert Drew Taught Everyone Else How to Catch Life on Camera

Robert Drew (left), president and founder of Drew Associates, an independent documentary film producer, explains to an interviewer, Alfred Norrins, the new concept of journalistic filmmaking he pioneered in the late 1950s, which came to be known as American cinema verite. (Source: Jill Drew)

Drew’s 2005 film “From Two Men and A War” recalls his time as a fighter pilot in WWII. There he met and became friends with Ernie Pyle, the most well-known journalist in the United States at that time. Pyle’s writing style put his reader “there,” right on the scene. After the war, during which Pyle was shot and killed, Drew took a job at Time’s LIFE magazine. Inspired by Pyle’s work, he began editing candid still picture essays for the magazine, aiming to put his viewer “there” as Pyle did. Drew soon turned his attention to motion picture cameras and, after much work and research, began to produce engaging documentary films – cinéma vérité. No voiceovers. No scripting or set up shots. Life as it unfolds in front of the camera.