SAG HARBOR, N.Y. (AP) — Oscar-winning documentary maker D.A. Pennebaker has died at the age of 94.
Frazer Pennebaker said in an email his father died Thursday at his Long Island, New York, home from natural causes.
He helped popularize the naturistic style known as cinéma vérité and made such influential movies as “Don’t Look Back” and “The War Room.” Subjects of his films included Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, the Kennedys and Jane Fonda.
Pennebaker was an assistant early in his career on the movie “Primary,” a 1960 release about John F. Kennedy’s run for president that helped invent the modern political documentary. “Don’t Look Back,” a chronicle of Dylan made in 1965, is considered the first major rock documentary.
Pennebaker was a longtime resident of Sag Harbor, an oceanside community on the eastern end of Long Island.
