article_snippet: Albert Maysles, the revolutionary documentary filmmaker who helped pioneer nonfiction movies by turning a keenly observant eye on both the famous and the ordinary in films like Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens, has died.
article_snippet: Maysles' is best known for directing the classic documentary Grey Gardens .
article_snippet: Maysles' was best known for a handful of documentary classics Maysles' made with Maysles' brother, David, in the 1960s and 1970s.
article_snippet: The Maysles Brothers - as many referred to them - chose subjects as ordinary as the struggles of Bible salesmen and as glamorous as Marlon Brando, Orson Welles and the Beatles, whom the pair followed in 1964 during the pair first trip to the United States.
article_snippet: Born in Boston to Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, Maysles served in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1946, studied at Syracuse and Boston University and taught psychology for three years before turning to film.
article_snippet: Maysles first foray into motion pictures was a 16-mm documentary Maysles made in 1955 while visiting mental hospitals in the Soviet Union.
article_snippet: Maysles started out as an assistant to Robert Drew, a pioneer of cinema verite, and Maysles peers included such acclaimed documentary makers as D.A Pennebaker and Frederick Wiseman.
article_snippet: Maysles and D.A Pennebaker were among those who worked with Drew on the groundbreaking 1960 documentary Primary, about rival Democratic presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey.
article_snippet: Maysles also served as a camera operator for D.A Pennebaker's 1968 concert film Monterey Pop. '
article_snippet: Maysles also continued a longtime working relationship with artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, whose process for creating monumental environmental art the Maysles Brothers documented in several films beginning in the 1970s.
highlights_snippet: Albert Maysles, the revolutionary documentary filmmaker directed films including Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens .
  