American documentary filmmaker; half of the duo Albert and David Maysles
Brother and collaborator of David Maysles
Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 654-659 (under "Albert and David Maysles"). New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.
Semi-underground documentary film maker, usually in conjunction with his brother David. Held a degree in psychology from Boston University and taught the subject there for three years.
Served in the U.S. Army Tank Corps during WWII.
His first film was a 16-mm documentary made in 1955 while visiting mental hospitals in the Soviet Union.
He started out as an assistant to Robert Drew , a pioneer of cinema verite.
He died in the night of March 5, 2015 of pancreatic cancer, at his home in Manhattan, NYC.
He had 3 children with wife, Gillian: daughter, Rebekah; daughter, Sara; and son, Philip. He also had a stepdaughter, Auralice Graft.
We get crushes and we get crushed from almost all the subjects that we,film.
There are daily acts of generosity and kindness and love that should be,represented on film.
The natural disposition of the camera is to seek out reality.
I think my training taught me above all to be unprejudiced. Psychology,was social science and so in a way my work has always combined a kind,of scientific approach with art.
