He was born Donn Alan Pennebaker on 15 July 1925, in the Chicago suburb Evanston. Known as “Penny”,
he served in the navy and attended Yale University, graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering.
His first film was a five-minute short titled Daybreak Express (1953), which transformed the run-down trains
that ran over the streets of New York, along with the people who travelled on them.
Pennebaker often chose musicians as his subjects, once commenting that the “very nature of film is
musical”. Portraits of artists included Duke Ellington, David Bowie, John Lennon, Little Richard, Janis
Joplin and Depeche Mode during pivotal moments in their careers, with the Dylan documentary being his
most celebrated.
Oscars recognition (from left): George Stevens
Jr, DA Pennebaker, Hal Needham and Jeffrey
Katzenberg receive Governors Awards from the
Academy in 2012 (Getty)Dont Look Back (Pennebaker left out the apostrophe on purpose), followed Dylan as the musician was
making his widely scrutinised transition from an acoustic folk singer to an electric rock act. It was filmed
during the artist’s final acoustic tour of England.
Pennebaker told Time magazine in 2007: “He [Dylan] saw it out in Hollywood at a dreadful screening.
Afterward, he said, ‘We’ll have another screening and I’ll write down all of the things we have to change.’
Of course, that made me a little gloomy. The next night, we assembled again and he sat in the front with
this yellow pad. At the end of the film, he held up the pad and there was nothing on it. He said, ‘That’s it.’”
He was the first documentary-maker to receive a lifetime achievement Oscar in 2012, which he dedicated to
his wife at the Governors Awards.
“The person that I have to thank the hardest is the love of my life, Chris,” he began. “She and I have made a
lot of films together. When we make films, when shooting them, you’re great friends, because there’s
nothing but problems to be solved, so you’re pals ... And then you sit down at the editing machine, and it all
begins – you get divorced about four times a week.
“But you know it’s a process. Even though you’re practically choking each other to death over each editing
decision, there’s nothing in the world I love better than doing that with her.”