Primary

Primary was released in 1960 and followed the campaign trail of the 1960 Wisconsin Primary election between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey for the United States Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States. Primary was produced by Robert Drew and shot by Richard Leacock and Albert Maysles. Primary was purely an observational documentary and was groundbreaking because for the first time, filmmakers were able to follow the candidates around much easier because of mobile cameras and lighter sound equipment. Leacock and Maysles observed both men and never interfered with them or participated in the film in any sort of way. However, the way that the producer and editor chose to depict the men in the final film were very different observational styles. When the camera was on Kennedy, he was always smiling, shaking hands, and/or just showing connections to his followers. Kennedy basically seemed like a very open and trustworthy person. He was portrayed to be very personable. On the other hand, Humphrey was observed more at a distance, always wore a hat, and rarely interacted with his followers to the point of Kennedy. Also, in many shots of Kennedy, his wife, Jackie was present. She was even given notoriety for her style and became somewhat of a fashion icon to the American public. I believe that the editing process of this film was definitely essential to the film's message. What the editor chose to show and not to show seems a bit bias at times because of how personable Kennedy seems and how standoff-ish Humphrey seems.