Michael Wadleigh

Filmmaker Michael Wadleigh dropped out of Columbia Medical School in the late 1960s to become a documentary filmmaker, claiming that it was hard for him to continue staring into the lens of a microscope with so much social upheaval and political turbulence going on around him. He was making short political films (one about American Communist icon Gus Hall) when he interviewed for the job to direct a documentary on a little-known music festival in Upstate New York, called Woodstock. When he asked what the job paid, he was told that he could have it if he fronted the money to get the crew and supplies together. Undaunted, he sank what he had into the project. It involved four days of continuous filming, with a crew (including Martin Scorsese, and Richard Pearce) high on speed so as not to miss a beat, and it resulted in over 120 miles of footage. It's a seminal film, a visual record of a unique moment in American history, and, despite rumors to the contrary, a lucrative endeavor for all the filmmakers involved. Wadleigh served as cinematographer for other projects as well, shooting Jim McBride's comedy"David Holzman's Diary" and documentary "My Girlfriend's Wedding," Martin Scorsese's drama "Who's That Knocking at My Door?," and three more documentaries--one on jazz bassist Charlie Mingus, one on Janis Joplin, and the other on the antiwar march from Harlem to the United Nations in 1967. He also wrote the screenplay adaptation and directed the supernatural thriller "Wolfen" in 1981.