Albert Maysles Rocks Guild Hall

At 85, legendary documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles still has "IT." This week to commemorate The Rolling Stones' fiftieth anniversary, he was on hand at Guild Hall for a screening of his early film of the iconic band, Gimme Shelter (1970). The next night, he spoke at a screening of The Love We Make (2011), a post-9/11 tribute concert film starring Paul McCartney with appearances by the Stones, The Who, Bill Clinton, Stella McCartney, James Taylor, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Billy Joel, Buddy Guy, Billy Crystal, Ozzy Osborne, Howard Stern, Sheryl Crow, to name a few, who performed for the many firefighters and their families. Maysles told the rapt Guild Hall audience the secret of his direct cinema style was just turning the camera on his subjects as they are experiencing something.

Famous for classic films, like Salesman and Grey Gardens with his brother David, Albert Maysles had a 2008 photography show at the Steven Kasher Gallery where I caught up with him. Andy Plesser filmed our conversation for Beet.tv.

A version of this post also appears on Gossip Central.