Richard Leiterman | |
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Richard Leiterman
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Born |
South Porcupine, Ontario, Canada |
March 7, 1935
Died | July 14, 2005 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
(aged 70)
Nationality | Canadian |
Richard Leiterman (March 7, 1935 – July 14, 2005) was a well-known Canadian cinematographer, best known for documentary and feature film work in the 1960s and 1970s. His cinéma vérité, or direct camera, style helped define Canadian cinema at the time.
Born in the small town of South Porcupine in northern Ontario in 1935, Leiterman grew up in Vancouver, where he spent his young years working as a waste collector, beachcomber and truck driver. During his mid-20's, he was encouraged by his brother-in-law, Allan King, to take a camera technician course at the University of British Columbia.
Leiterman took to the film camera like a natural. He sold his car to buy a 16mm camera, and proceeded to shoot , which he then sold to Canadian broadcasters like the CBC. Hired by Allan King as a second camera operator on a documentary, Leiterman went to London and, in 1962, co-founded Allan King Associates with him. The company focussed on news-related filmmaking. In 1963, Leiterman went to the Southern U.S. to shoot One More River, a look at racism in America. Over the next few years, his documentary work took him around the world.
In 1969, Leiterman shot the Allan King-produced A Married Couple, which was featured at the Director's Fortnight at Cannes in 1970. Leiterman next began a series of collaborations with famed Canadian director Donald Shebib, starting with the Canadian classic Goin' Down the Road (1970), and followed by Between Friends (1973) and Wedding In White (1972). Leiterman used his documentary experience to provide a cinéma vérité look to his work.