Pennebaker & Hegedus Master Class

Pennebaker is one of the foremost figures of the American direct cinema movement who directed over 50 films in a career spanning six decades. Pennebaker is perhaps best known for his 1967 film Don’t Look Back, about a young Bob Dylan on the brink of stardom, and 1993’s The War Room, about Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign — the latter of which earned Pennebaker and Hegedus an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary. The intimate discussion, which covered a range of topics including the filmmakers’ early careers, technological innovations in filmmaking, the ethics of documentary storytelling, collaborative working partnerships, and the influence of music on both filmmakers’ personal life and work, was moderated by Prof. Ben Harbert from the Music Department, and was preceded by a screening the evening prior of The War Room.