Lawrence Pitkethly, who produced and directed multiple documentary series shown on PBS and other broadcasters, died Feb. 24 at Albany Medical Center near his home in Hudson, N.Y., of cardiopulmonary arrest linked to complications from Parkinson’s. He was 79.
Pitkethly is best known for “American Cinema” (1995), a 10-part, $7 million series for PBS, BBC and Canal Plus covering U.S. filmmaking that he produced, co-wrote and co-directed. It examined film genres, the rise and fall of the studio system, the creation of stars and other aspects of American movies through interviews with Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Sydney Pollack, George Lucas, Quentin Tarantino, Spike Lee, Joel Coen and other major players. John Lithgow served as host; Matthew Modine, Kathleen Turner and Cliff Robertson narrated.
Earlier, Pitkethly co-wrote and co-directed “Voices and Visions” (1988), a 13-part series on American poets, which profiled artists like Hart Crane, T.S. Eliot and Sylvia Plath.
Much of Pitkethly’s work was produced via the Center for Visual History, his New York-based documentary shop that generated and distributed programs from 1979 to 1997. Shows spawned through the organization include “Ezra Pound: American Odyssey” (1985), as well as docs on the WPA and “The Talking Cure,” a study of psychoanalysis.
Pitkethly started his career in London in the 1960s. He worked as a writer, on-camera correspondent and presenter at the BBC from 1969 to 1974. Most notably, he reported from Belfast, his hometown, during the beginning of The Troubles – the 30-year bloody conflict in Northern Ireland between Irish Republicans and Ulster Loyalists.
In 1975, Pitkethly moved to the U.S., where he taught film at Hampshire College in Massachusetts while also writing and directing an array of documentaries, including “The New South,” four films for the BBC examining the pivotal role of the region in American society and politics.
Pitkethly transferred to Paris in the 1990s, where he helped establish the Film Department at the American University of Paris. While in France, he wrote, co-directed and appeared in “Belfast My Love,” a 90-minute documentary on the Northern Ireland Peace Accord for ARTE and RTE. He returned to New York in 2015.
He is survived by his daughter, Camille Pitkethly, and his stepdaughter, Chloe Schulberg.
