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| Haskell Wexler | |
|---|---|
| Name | Haskell Wexler |
| Birth date | July 6, 1922 |
| Birth place | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Death date | December 27, 2015 |
| Occupation | Cinematographer, director, producer |
| Years active | 1940s–2015 |
Haskell Wexler was an American cinematographer, director, producer, and activist whose work across documentary and narrative film reshaped visual storytelling in cinema. He collaborated with leading figures in film and politics, contributed to landmark productions, and influenced cinematographers and directors internationally through innovative techniques and socially engaged filmmaking.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, he was raised in a milieu connected to radio broadcasting, Theater and Yiddish theater traditions tied to the city's immigrant communities. His formative years coincided with cultural institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago and local programs that paralleled national movements like the Works Progress Administration and the Federal Theatre Project. He moved to Los Angeles, where he became involved with studios in Hollywood and engaged with training that intersected with early practitioners linked to Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and the innovations of Orson Welles and John Ford predecessors.
He began his career photographing industrial and educational films connected to entities such as United States Army, War Production Board-era projects and postwar documentary initiatives akin to productions by Pare Lorentz and Robert J. Flaherty. Influenced by documentarians like Emile de Antonio, D. A. Pennebaker, and Richard Leacock, he developed a cinema vérité approach overlapping with movements led by Jean Rouch, Chris Marker, and Dziga Vertov. His early documentary collaborations connected him to producers and organizations including DuPont, Bell Labs, and The March of Time, as well as festivals like the Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, and Sundance Film Festival-precursor circuits.
Across narrative cinema he photographed films with directors associated with the New Hollywood era and earlier auteurs such as Elia Kazan, John Cassavetes, Mike Nichols, Milton Katselas, and Sidney Lumet. He worked on productions distributed by companies like United Artists, 20th Century Fox, and Columbia Pictures and on projects featuring actors tied to studios including Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and Al Pacino. His collaborations extended to filmmakers in international cinema networks connected to François Truffaut, Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, and Luchino Visconti through festival screenings and professional exchanges. Notable productions on which he served as cinematographer intersected with writers and producers from circles involving Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, and studio-era craftsmen from Samuel Goldwyn to David O. Selznick.
His visual approach reflected influences from pioneers such as Gregg Toland, Karl Freund, and Rouben Mamoulian, combining deep-focus composition, mobile-camera reportage, and naturalistic lighting reminiscent of Italian neorealism practitioners like Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini. He experimented with camera systems and lenses produced by companies such as Panavision, Arriflex, and Leica Camera AG, and adapted technologies related to Technicolor, Eastmancolor, and early high-speed film stocks from Eastman Kodak Company. His techniques informed cinematographers in institutions like the American Society of Cinematographers and intersected with academic programs at University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, New York University Tisch School of the Arts, and American Film Institute.
He received top industry honors analogous to awards presented by institutions such as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Cannes Film Festival, and National Society of Film Critics. His peers in organizations like the International Cinematographers Guild and the American Society of Cinematographers acknowledged his contributions, and his films were cited by critics writing in outlets linked to The New York Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Sight & Sound, and Cahiers du Cinéma. Festivals and academies including the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, National Board of Review, and Tokyo International Film Festival showcased his work.
Active politically, he engaged with issues and causes connected to figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Stokely Carmichael, and movements including the Civil Rights Movement, Anti-Vietnam War movement, and solidarity efforts with international causes involving Nelson Mandela and Salvador Allende. His activism brought him into public debates with institutions like House Un-American Activities Committee analogues, unions like the Screen Actors Guild, and media organizations including CBS and NBC. Controversies arose around editorial decisions and productions that intersected with political disputes involving entities such as The Pentagon Papers, Vietnam War protests, and cultural boycotts during the Cold War.
In later decades he taught, lectured, and influenced students affiliated with programs at Columbia University, Yale University, Stanford University, and international schools such as La Fémis and the National Film and Television School. Retrospectives of his work were organized by institutions like the Museum of Modern Art, British Film Institute, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, and national cinematheques in Berlin, Paris, and Tokyo. His aesthetic and technical imprint persisted in films by cinematographers and directors linked to contemporary movements including Dogme 95, American independent cinema, and global documentary practices championed at festivals like IDFA and Tribeca Film Festival. He is associated with a lineage of practitioners that includes Roger Deakins, Gordon Willis, Vittorio Storaro, Sergio Leone collaborators, and educators who continue to reference his work in curricula across film schools and archives such as the Library of Congress.
Category:American cinematographers Category:1922 births Category:2015 deaths