Robert Lincoln Drew (born February 15, 1924) in Toledo, Ohio) is an American documentary filmmaker known as the father of cinema verite, or direct cinema, in the United States. Many of his films are archived at the Academy of Motion Pictures.
Drew formed Drew Associates in the early 1960s, hiring many people who went on to documentary careers of their own, including Richard Leacock and D.A. Pennebaker. For Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment, Drew convinced President John F. Kennedy to let his crews shoot candidly in the White House, and Drew Associates filmmakers (including Gregory Shuker and Richard Leacock) took cameras into the Oval Office and into the home of Alabama Governor George Wallace. The film includes candid presidential meetings over the crisis precipitated by Wallace when he planned to physically block the entry of two African-American students to the University of Alabama. The program aired in October 1963 on ABC and triggered a storm of criticism over the admission of cameras into the White House.
Drew has made scores of documentaries in the past half century, winning major awards all over the world. His subjects have included civil rights, other social issues, politics, music, dance and more. His most recent was From Two Men and a War, which recounts his experience as a World War II fighter pilot and his encounters with the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Ernie Pyle.
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