Emile de Antonio
| Emile de Antonio | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Emile Francisco de Antonio May 14, 1919 Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | December 15, 1989 (aged 70) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Occupation | Director, producer |
| Spouse(s) | Nancy de Antonio |
Emile Francisco de Antonio (May 14, 1919 – December 15, 1989) was an American director and producer of documentary films, usually detailing political, social, and counterculture events circa 1960s–1980s. He has been referred to by scholars and critics alike, and arguably remains, “…the most important political filmmaker in the United States during the Cold War.”
De Antonio was born in 1919 in the coal-mining town of Scranton, Pennsylvania. His father, Emilio de Antonio, an Italian immigrant, fostered the lifelong interests of Antonio by passing on his own love for philosophy, classical literature, history and the arts. Although his intelligence allowed him the privilege of attending Harvard University alongside future president John F. Kennedy, he was also familiar with the working class experience, making his living at various points in his life as a peddler, a book editor, and the captain of a river barge (among other duties). He would later go on to make a film about Kennedy's assassination called Rush to Judgment (1966), an early rebuttal of the Warren Report.
After serving in the military during World War II as a bomber pilot, de Antonio returned to the United States where he frequented the art crowd, often associating with such Pop artists as Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol, in whose film Drink de Antonio appears. Warhol was famously quoted praising de Antonio with the words, “Everything I learned about painting, I learned from De.”
In 1959, de Antonio developed G-String Productions in order to distribute the Beat Generation film Pull My Daisy, and it was at this time that de Antonio discovered filmmaking. His first film, Point of Order! (1964), was a compilation film covering Joseph McCarthy and the Army-McCarthy hearings. In 1968, de Antonio signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.
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