Haskell Wexler

Haskell Wexler (February 6, 1922 – December 27, 2015) was an American filmmaker, cinematographer, and documentarian. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography twice, in 1966 for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and 1976 for Bound for Glory, out of five total nominations. As a director, he was known for his socio-politically provocative documentary and docufiction works, emerging from the civil rights movement and counterculture of the 1960s. His 1969 film, Medium Cool, fused scripted scenes with cinéma vérité-style documentary footage of the 1968 Democratic National Convention. He also directed, co-directed and/or shot conventional documentaries like Introduction to the Enemy (1974), on opposition to the Vietnam War; and Underground (1976), on the Weather Underground. Wexler was judged to be one of film history's ten most influential cinematographers in a survey of the members of the International Cinematographers Guild in 2003. In his obituary in The New York Times, he was described as being "renowned as one of the most inventive cinematographers in Hollywood."