Happy Birthday. Charlotte Zwerin! Born today in 1931 as Charlotte Mitchell, this American editor, producer and documentary film director was known for her work concerning artists and musicians.
However, Zwerin is most known for her editing contributions to the direct cinema and cinéma vérité documentaries.
Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Zwerin, years later, studied at Wayne State University and established a film club there which sparked her interest in documentary filmmaking.
After this, she moved to New York City, New York and found a job with Drew Associates who were pioneers of direct cinema in the United States.
It was there that she met and began to work with the American documentary filmmaking team Albert and David Maysles.
Afterwards, Zwerin went on to edit and co-direct two of the canonical cinéma vérité documentaries with the Maysles brothers.
These were the 1969 American black and white direct cinema/history documentary film 'Salesman' and the 1970 British-American documentary/musical film 'Gimme Shelter'.
The former film is concerned with following door-to-door Bible salesmen as they attempt to sell the greatest "best seller in the world". The latter film is the one of which she is best known for co-editing and co-directing.
The context of the film documentary (or rockumentary) is associated with the Direct Cinema movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
The movement revolves around the philosophy of being a "reactive" filmmaker, recording events as they unfold naturally and spontaneously rather than investigating the subject matter through documentary techniques such as interviews, reconstruction and voiceover.
The Maysles brothers recall the events surrounding a free concert by the Rolling Stones at the Altamont Speedway outside San Francisco, California in 1969.
Worried about the security, the Stones asked the Hell's Angels to keep order for them. Unfortunately, the day ended tragically as violence broke out.
This also included the Angels stabbing and killing eighteen-year-old African-American concertgoer Meredith Hunter when he approached the stage.
The following year, 'Gimme Shelter' was screened out of competition as the opening film of the 24th Cannes Film Festival in May 1971.
Zwerin later independently directed several other documentaries, with subjects such as African-American jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk, "the brilliant and eccentric jazz pianist".
This was in the 1988 American musical documentary film 'Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser'.
Zwerin also made a documentary on Armenian-American abstract painter Arshile Gorky (who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism).
Zwerin had also made a documentary about the legendary African-American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald (sometimes referred to as the First Lady of Song, Queen of Jazz, and Lady Ella), among many others.
Zwerin's last editing project was as story consultant on the critically acclaimed documentary series POV (1988–present).
This was for the 2001 American documentary/drama film 'West 47th Street' (S16E05). This was the last project of cinéma vérité pioneer Zwerin, who served as story editor.
Directed by American documentary film producers Bill Lichtenstein and June Peoples, and airing on August 7 of that year, the film tells the stories of which profile three people struggling with mental illness at Fountain House in New York.
Zwerin passed from lung cancer in Manhattan, New York City, New York on January 22, 2004. She was 72.
According to her personal life, Zwerin had been married to American cool jazz musician and author Mark Zwerin.
Zwerin had been active from 1959–2001.
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