Michael Wadleigh

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Michael Wadleigh born September 24 1942 is an American movie director and cinematographer renowned for his groundbreaking documentary of the 1969 Woodstock Festival Woodstock A native of Akron Ohio Wadleigh entered films in his early twenties as a cinematographer on independentlyproduced lowbudget films David Holtzmans Diary and I Call First both 1967 and My Girlfriends Wedding 1969 Billed as Michael Wadley he gained notice for his work from critics who followed independent and underground films but the films primarily aimed at a specialized and counterculture audience brought him no financial success In AprilMay 1969 Wadleigh undertook the monumental task of documenting the rock music festival scheduled in the vicinity of Woodstock New York on August 1518 He arrived on the site in Bethel with over a thousand reels of film and a crew of several camera operators The finished product was said to have consisted of about 120 miles of footage which over the next months was edited down to 184 minutes Warner Brothers the films primary financial backer released it on March 26 1970 The film which reportedly cost 600000 to produce earned over 50 million in the United States and more millions from foreign rentals but due to a complicated arrangement with Warner Brothers Wadleigh received only a small percentage of the profits Woodstock stands as a milestone in the documentary film field receiving an Academy Award for Documentary Feature at the 1971 ceremony Janis a 1974 documentary about Janis Joplin gave Wadleigh credit as cinematographer for his archive footage but it would be eleven years after the release of Woodstock before he received his next and last to date directorial credit Wolfen a unique 1981 horror phantasmagoria based on the novel by Whitley Strieber was praised for its dreamlike nature and striking visual quality but despite a topnotch star turn from Albert Finney turned out to have been too offbeat for the general public to achieve financial success Wadleigh also wrote the Wolfen screenplay and has a bit part as Terrorist Informer In August 1994 twentyfour years after its original showing a 228minute directors cut of Woodstock was released and in 1999 another Woodstockbased documentary Jimi Hendrix Live at Woodstock gave Wadleigh another archive footage credit for cinematography Description above from the Wikipedia article Michael Wadleigh licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia