Film Love’s Primary” flashes back to Kennedy-era politics”

Film Love screens the influential 1960s documentary “Primary,” which pits Kennedy vs. Humphrey.

Image Screening tonight at the Plaza Theatre, Robert Drew’s influential documentary “Primary,” uses Wisconsin’s 1960 presidential primary campaign to contrast the political tactics of two different eras. Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey comes across as a retail politician, eager to glad-hand prospective voters on the sidewalk and hand out flyers at a grocery store.

Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy, however, more closely resembles a modern media celebrity. We frequently see him addressing large groups and surrounded by adoring throngs. At one point we see a group of young woman rushing up from a distance, as if they’ve just spotted The Beatles. Presented by Andy Ditzler’s Film Love series at 7:30 p.m. tonight, “Primary” shows Kennedy sitting through a make-up session for a photographic portrait and, later, reveals a group of prospective voters watching him give a speech on TV. Compared to Kennedy, Humphrey seems merely life-sized.

“Primary” offers an early example of the kind of campaign journalism that would define the coverage of the 24 hour news cycle. Director Robert Drew and cameramen Richard Leacock and Andrew Mayles used newly-invented mobile cameras and lighter sound equipment that allow them to follow the candidates through crowds and listen in on conversations in automobiles. That fly-on-the-wall perspective on campaigns would become the standard technique, and “Primary’s” editor, D.A. Pennebaker, won an Oscar for his Clinton campaign film The War Room. If “Primary” looks old-fashioned today, it’s partly because it pioneers a cinema verite approach that technological changes would greatly improve.