Angels, stones, hunters: murder, celebrity and direct cinema

Abstract

Direct cinema’s attempt to withhold itself from the world is ethically problematic. The helplessness of documentary subjects and audiences is underscored by this observational style. In Gimme Shelter – a concert film by Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin about the Rolling Stones and the fatal violence at the Altamont Speedway Free Festival – social actors are forced to submit to a representational frame they cannot ‘see’, let alone access. Moreover, the audience’s own distance from the pro-filmic events is doubly assured: the film maker’s policy of non-interference precludes and/or renders moot a viewer’s impossible desire to intercede on the subjects’ behalf.