May 2025

Bringing a Poetic Vérité Style to Gaucho Gaucho

No coverage, no cutaways, no talking heads. For some documentary filmmakers, those self-imposed rules might seem fruitless, but for cinematographers and co-directors Gregory Kershaw and Michael Dweck, they enable greater narrative possibilities. The pair’s third collaboration, the black-and-white documentary feature Gaucho Gaucho, is a showcase of this philosophy in action. The film — which won the 2025 ASC Award for Best Cinematography in a Documentary — explores the lives of gauchos in the cattle country of Northern Argentina, who fight to preserve their traditions amid growing pressures from the modern world and nature. Gaucho Gaucho’s camerawork adheres closely to the traditions of Cinema Vérité. “We work to present the world as we...more