Q & A with Robert Drew
DIRECTOR'S BIO
Robert Drew was born in Toledo, Ohio February 15, 1924. His home town was Fort Thomas, Kentucky. On his 19th birthday he became the youngest pilot in the Army Air Corps. He flew 31 missions in Italy, was shot down and for three months evaded German troops. He escaped, returned to the US to fly the first American jets.
As a LIFE editor, Drew was drawn to the candid still picture essay. As a Nieman Fellow at Harvard he worked out theories for a filmmaking based on candid photography. He assembled a group of journalists and filmmakers – among them Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker, Albert Maysles, James Lipscomb, Hope Ryden. Drew managed the engineering of lightweight cameras and developed editing techniques to allow stories to tell themselves through characters in action.
His first success was PRIMARY, on JFK campaigning for the Presidency, which launched American cinema verite, some sixty Drew films and his special films on JFK in the Oval Office and beyond.
