Michael Wadleigh

Michael Wadleigh (born September 24, 1941 in Akron , Ohio ) is an American cameraman and film director , who became known through the documentary Woodstock about the music festival of the same name .

life and work

Michael Wadleigh earned his first spurs in the film business as cameraman for the 1967 independent films David Holzman's Diary and Who's Knocking on My Door? and My Girlfriend's Wedding (1969), in which he was involved under the name Michael Wadley.

His real name and his first directorial work were to become known worldwide a year later. Wadleigh and his crew had come to the Woodstock Festival in August 1969 with more than a thousand film roles , and Woodstock's documentary film about this major musical event hit theaters the following year . More than twenty cameramen had exposed a total of more than 200 kilometers of film material. This then resulted in the first film version with a length of 184 minutes. Martin Scorsese , who is said to have previously handed over directing to Wadleigh, was also involved in the editing .

Produced with an estimated budget of $ 600,000, this film turned into a huge financial success in its first few weeks. So far, revenues of US $ 50 million from cinema sales and more than US $ 16 million from the video business have been proven for the US market alone. Although he was also involved as co-owner of the production company, Wadleigh benefited only to a relatively modest extent from a contract with the distributor Warner Bros., which was not very lucrative for him . At least he was able to “comfort” himself with the fact that the film was awarded the Oscar for best documentary in 1971 and was included in the National Film Registry in 1996 as a particularly well-worthy film production .

Wadley himself later assessed the historical significance of the festival or film with the following words: “Woodstock is pretty timeless. The general human condition - war, peace, the generation gap, human rights, our relationship with the Earth - can all be looked at within a kind of metaphorical construct called Woodstock. I think more and more people are describing the film Woodstock as an epic. You know, as the sort of left-wing version of Triumph of the Will. (Woodstock is a timeless term. Human issues such as war and peace, intergenerational conflict, human rights and our relationship with the earth can be highlighted using the metaphorical structure called Woodstock. I also think that more and more people understand this film as an epic as a kind of left counterpart to the film Triumph of Will .) "

After the success of his first directorial work, it would be a few years before something of Wadleigh was back on screen. Initially, his name was to be read in the credits of Janis , a documentary about Janis Joplin from 1974, because he had shot material a few years earlier. He then reappeared as director of Wolfen in 1981 . This horror film with an ecological message initially failed in the cinemas, but later developed in the course of video and television exploitation beyond the relevant fan scene into a respected representative of its genre.

In the film business since then, Wadleigh has only appeared in connection with the exploitation of Woodstock material from 1969. With Woodstock - The Lost Performances (1990), the Director's Cut for Woodstock (1994), and the documentary Jimi Hendrix: Live at Woodstock (1999).

In the following years he mainly worked on projects for database-supported music documentation, from 2000 to 2003 as operator of a radio station based in New Hampshire and then as head of a company for learning programs. He was also involved in the non-profit Gritty Organization and the Physicians for Human Rights organization , which he supported in the production of a photo book about the Darfur conflict that appeared in November 2005 .

Filmography

• 1967: David Holzman's Diary - camera
• 1967: Who is knocking on my door? (I Call First) - camera
• 1969: My Girlfriend's Wedding - camera
• 1970: Woodstock - director, camera and editor
• 1974: Janis - camera
• 1981: Wolfen - director, screenplay and supporting role
• 1990: Woodstock - The Lost Performances - director, camera and editor
• 1994: Woodstock - Director's Cut - director, camera and editor
• 1999: Jimi Hendrix: Live at Woodstock - Director and Cinematography

Awards

In 1982, Wadleigh received the Special Jury Award of the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival for directing Wolfen . He was also nominated for the Saturn Award that same year for directing and writing this film .

Web links

• Michael Wadleigh in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Michael Wadleigh in an interview with New Hampshire Public Radio (30 min., Windows Media Player / MP3 file)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Article on filmzentrale.com
2. ↑ Article ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on arte.tv 
3. ^ Wadleigh's assessment of the importance of the Woodstock festival or film on britannica.com