An early classic of North American cinéma vérité produced by the National Film Board of Canada, Lonely Boy focuses on the teen hysteria generated by the young pop singer Paul Anka at the beginning of the 1960s. Combining performance footage with behind-the-scenes documentation, this short film prefigured the feature-length rock documentaries that would be made later in the decade.

One of the key figures in the evolution of the modern American documentary film, Ricky Leacock began his career as a cameraman for the pioneer documentarian Robert Flaherty and went on to help launch the vérité revolution. His Happy Mother’s Day takes an amused look at the media circus created by the birth of quintuplets to the Fisher family in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Realizing that he (and partner Joyce Chopra) are part of the problem, Leacock shifts attention from the babies themselves to the mix of happi-ness and hypocrisy emanating from the family’s entrepreneurial neighbors.