Or How I Got To Wear Albert Maysles Glasses And How Lots of Other People Did Too: By Jess Search You can call him Al.. I met Albert Maysles at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam or IDFA in November. The god-daddy of American documentary (Salesman, Grey Gardens, Gimme Shelter) - was at the pitching forum looking for funding for his latest project and when it was his turn at the table I was the moderator whose job it is to try to squeeze a commitment out of those commitment-phobic commissioning editors (takes one to know one. I used to do that for Channel 4 in the UK). Albert has such a nice way about him. For those that haven't seen him, he's a little guy with soft white hair and trademark black frame glasses. Anyway he was sauntering around waving and smiling at everyone, making everyone sigh, taking little snoozes at the forum but always waking up with a smile on his face and encouraging word for the young filmmakers in particular. Anyway so he's pitching his project, which is a personal film about career and his philosophy as a filmmaker. He has a promo reel, which is fascinating not least because you get to see Albert at different stages in his life. He changes quite a bit but the glasses don't. He finishes and it's a piece of cake to get him the money because the commissioners are queuing up to give him the big love. I'm sad I'm leaving Channel 4 and won't be able to join the commissioning party on this one but I do offer to put in a very good word to Peter Dale the Documentaries boss if Albert tells me where he gets those glasses. He quips right back that if I do that, I can have his spare pair. Two weeks later I'm back in London and I get an email from his office - Albert has located his spare pair and what's my address. I panic. I didn't think he really, really meant it and I want them really badly but I can hear my mother's voice in my ear telling me that it's too generous and I should tell the nice gentleman to keep his glasses. I email back but Al is quite sure and I get sent them. I can see clearly now! SEEING THE WORLD THROUGH ALBERT MAYSLES EYES And when I went to Sundance this year with a documentary called Unknown White Male, we decided to drive there from San Francisco in a convertible and we took Al's glasses with us and took photos of people along the route wearing them - Gary, who brought us our breakfast in a Reno casino, Chuck at the truck stop. When we finally got to Sundance we took photos of lovely Diane Weyermann from the Sundance Institute, the Cactus Three girls from New York, Mette Hoffman from Denmark TV2 and now that Sundance has finished I haven't stopped taking the portraits you can see on this site. If you come to London and want your picture taken, email me: jess@shootingpeople.org. THE TRANSFORMATIONAL POWER OF ALBERT MAYSLES GLASSES Having been the proud owner of Al Maysles glasses for a few weeks, I can tell you that there is something realyl really unusual about these frames. Everyone who puts them on is totally transformed. It's blinding, NO ONE LOOKS LIKE THEMSELVES WHEN THEY WEAR THEM (hmm unless they only look truly themselves when they wear them?). But the point is that anyone could rob a bank in Al's glasses and their own mother couldn't finger them from the cctv evidence. Maybe that's why people like wearing them so much. Albert Maysles. We salute you!