Primary is a documentary film about the primary elections between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey in 1960. Primary is the first documentary to use light equipment in order to follow their subjects in a more intimate filmmaking style. This unconventional way of filming created a new look for documentary films where the camera’s lens was right in the middle of what ever drama was occuring.
Primárias (Primary) - Kennedy e a Campanha Presidencial de 1960, Предварительные выборы, Vorwahlkampf, 예비선거, Primárias, 初选
Denmark
CPH:DOX
Czechia
One World Film Festival
France
Cinema du Reel Film Festival
Italy
Biografilm Festival
USANR
Canada
Canada
Czechia
Denmark
France
Italy
USA
There is a shot where JFK and Jackie are just shaking hands with people, and both are in full on robot mode, just keeping their hands extended so that people can shake them. The camera lingers on close ups of their hands, and it is such a perfect shot. It's this film's ability to see past the facade though, that makes it interesting. The shots of JFK just sitting on a couch and smoking are perfectly humanizing, with the humanity disappearing when someone of some note walks into the room, and JFK springs up and provides a greeting and a handshake in full JFK mode. To be able to get a glimpse behind the curtain of such a mythological figure, even for just a moment, is a testament to the power of film.
”This is the best voice that America can have, when the people participate in their government and their politics”
It’s Kennedy versus Humphrey in the 1960 Wisconsin primary election.
From what I’ve read this film ushered in a new style of documentary by using smaller cameras and better sound equipment, which allowed for a much more on-the-fly style that follows the action as it happens. Just like other breakthrough films it can be a challenge for my modern eye to fully appreciate the innovation, especially when it’s become so common place in our current world. However, I still enjoyed watching this “real life” document of a very specific moment in time.
”When I first ran for Mayor I was ahead till 6 o’clock in the morning... then I ended up losing”
Tracking the race between JFK and Hubert Humphrey, Primary was game-changing when it came out, filmmaker Robert Drew’s coverage taking a new fly-on-the-wall approach that really gets into the fray of the Wisconsin primary trail.
Like the best documentaries this captures events as they happen, but also naturally builds a compelling story of its own, profiling each hopeful candidate in the tight lead up to the election. The film is a real snapshot; it’s filled with great little details that stack up into a vivid full picture, capturing just the sort of on-the-ground campaigning needed to win people over.
This done in a way that’s often just fascinating to sit back and watch outside of context, all the big speeches,…
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Jackie's white-gloved hands lacing and interlacing behind her back as she haltingly speaks her one sentence of Polish
vs
The Accordion Orchestra heralding Hubert Humphrey, soon to be full of ham and potatoes.
(Early Spring Wisconsin beautiful and strange, rolling/gnarled, humid/damp/cold as always but colder then)
Robert Drew’s Primary is one of those films that is not just a must-watch for history lovers, but all cinephiles. As one of the defining films of the Direct Cinema (Edit: correction) documentary style partially ushered in by Drew, Primary is an intimate look at the Wisconsin Primary between Democratic candidates John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey. As a film from 1960, Primary is obviously not aware of what would follow, making it somehow all the more compelling as Drew’s mobile camera spins around the room, zooms in on the nervous hands of Jacqueline Kennedy fidgeting before a campaign event, or floats between a mic and the mouth of Hubert Humphrey answering a question at a local news station before…
Jackie is smart for wearing gloves when shaking hands with all these random people
very cool that 60 years before pete buttigieg brought panic! at the disco to the democratic primary, jfk also used a song called “high hopes” to bring the nation together. a powerful tradition to think on tonight
not sure what it says about me that I find documentary footage of the campaign for the 1960 Democratic primary to be a borderline comfort film
50/100
A.V. Club review (as part of Criterion's Robert Drew set). This is the Becky Sharp or The Robe of documentary filmmaking—historically important, for technical reasons, but otherwise largely uninteresting.
My favorite thing about campaign docs is that they’re basically studies on narcissism, and the brands of it that we choose to elevate.
