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Pennebaker described his first film as one with "a certain amount of youthful exuberance", and this sense has carried on through much of his later work. His wife and creative partner Chris Hegedus explains, "The films of ours that have been most successful have been films that have a youthful, hopeful sense to them"
Such an idea has carried this husband/wife duo through such screen successes as Startup.com, Down from the Mountain and The War Room, which was awarded a 1993 Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature.
After a mid-1970s financial disaster and creative hiatus, Pennebaker was inspired again by his personal and professional partnership with Hegedus. A one-time camera operator for the University of Michigan Hospital, she had recently moved to New York and was making avant-garde films herself.
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Norman Mailer and Germaine Greer in Town Bloody Hall
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During their 25-year partnership, the filmmakers have made scores of rock and jazz music films and several political documentaries including The Energy War (1978), Town Bloody Hall (1979) and The War Room (1993).
The directors' warmth and immediacy is evident even in the ruthless, political confines of The War Room. Going behind the scenes of a power-driven political agenda, the election campaign of Clinton, the directing team concentrated on the very full personalities of political advisors James Carville and George Stephanopoulos.
And despite the verbal warfare between Norman Mailer and Germaine Greer at the rowdy round table of Town Bloody Hall, Pennebaker and Hegedus even then ensured their cameras captured the best aspects of their subjects.
Pennebaker explains their approach, "We have to like the people and the work that they do. We like to think that we take a cautious view, but what happens is that you become a fan of the people you are filming."
Hegedus adds, "We are not journalists and we don't try to distance ourselves."
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