Drew Associates

As an editor at LIFE, Robert Drew specialized in the candid still picture essay. As a Nieman Fellow at Harvard he worked out theories for a film making based on candid photography in motion pictures. He assembled a group of journalists and film makers -- among them Richard Leacock, Gregory Shuker, D.A. Pennebaker, James Lipscomb, Hope Ryden, Mike Jackson, Tom Bywaters, Anne Drew. Robert Drew managed the engineering of lightweight cameras and recorders and developed editing techniques to allow stories to tell themselves through characters in action.

In 1960 Robert Drew planned, produced and managed the editing of "Primary", the first film in which the sync-sound motion picture camera was able to move freely with characters throughout a breaking story (John F. Kennedy in Wisconsin). "Primary" was recognized as a breakthrough in documentary film making (Robert Flaherty Award, American Film Festival Blue Ribbon).

Robert Drew expanded on his ideas by forming Drew Associates and producing films that have become known, along with "Primary", as the foundation of cinema verite' in America --"On the Pole", "Yanki No!", "Crisis: Behind A Presidential Commitment", "The Chair" (1st Prize Cannes), "Faces of November" (1st Prize Venice).

With producer Anne Drew, Robert Drew extended his candid film making into the ARTS: "On The Road With Duke Ellington"; "Man Who Dances: Edward Villella" (Emmy Award).

Anne Drew produced many Drew films, most notably "Kathy's Dance" (New York Film Festival Blue Ribbon), "Herself, Indira Gandhi", "Life and Death of a Dynasty" (co-produced with the BBC). In the field of the SCIENCES, the Drews produced "Men Encounter Mars"; "Who's Out There?" (NASA); NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS: "Nehru", "Men of The Tall Ships", "London to Peking", "My War, Mother and Ernie Pyle"; NATURE: "River Of Hawks" (Geographic Explorer); "Messages From The Birds"; "Black Market Birds" (Audubon - Turner).

For this body of work The International Documentary Association named Robert Drew the recipient of the IDA Career Achievement Award. Film making by Robert Drew on PBS has included --"Fire Season", "Warnings From Gangland", "Marshall High Fights Back", "Your Flight is Cancelled", "For Auction: An American Hero" (duPont/Columbia Award), "Life and Death of a Dynasty" ( BBC co-production), "LA Champions" (CPB). The Drews most recent programs are "The Militia Man" , "From Two Men And A War "