Ed Pincus, the remarkable filmmaker/teacher who was a major contributor to the evolution of personal documentary filmmaking passed away this past Tuesday, November 5th.
One of the important early figures in observational documentary (see his BLACK NATCHEZ), Pincus was a founder (along with Ricky Leacock) of MIT's Film Section, where he taught many accomplished filmmakers: Ross McElwee, Robb Moss, Jeff Kreines, Michel Negroponte, to name a few. He was co-author with Steve Ascher of several editions of THE FILMMAKER'S HANDBOOK, a crucial resource for independent filmmakers for a generation. In 1971, feeling the influence of feminism and the civil rights movement and "the personal is the political," he took his camera into his own family life and over the following decade produced DIARIES (1971-1976) (1980), one of the originary masterworks of personal documentary.
Pincus dropped away from filmmaking after 1980, when his family was threatened by the man who killed civil rights lawyer Allard Lowenstein in 1980; he moved to Vermont where he founded and oversaw a successful flower raising business. He returned to filmmaking after Katrina when he and Lucia Small made THE AXE IN THE ATTIC (2007), and during his final months he worked with Small on the forthcoming film, THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM, about his own mortality.
Pincus was a person of talent and intelligence, integrity and courage; there wasn't a bullshit cell in his body. All who were lucky enough to know Ed will feel his passing, and film history will remember his many contributions.
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