WHAT ABOUT BOB? TAKE A LOOK BACK AND 'DON'T LOOK BACK'.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

The 23-year-old Bob Dylan we meet in director D.A. Pennebaker's 1967 documentary ``Don't Look Back'' is a strange, enigmatic creature, by turns arrogant, insightful, playful and moody. As much time as we spend with him during the course of Pennebaker's 96-minute film, the real Bob Dylan seems hidden beneath those dark sunglasses he's constantly wearing.

``He's a strange bird,'' admits Pennebaker, who collected more than 20 hours of footage trailing Dylan around England for three weeks in 1965. ``I would hesitate to become any kind of explainer of Bob. He's not the same person three hours in a row. He changes all the time in the most incredible ways.''

Pennebaker, who lives in New York, will receive the International Documentary Association's third IDA Mentor Award on Friday at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. The event will include a screening of ``Don't Look Back'' as well as a musical tribute to Dylan by such bands as Eddie Baytos and the Nervis Brothers, King Cotton, Ron Taylor, the Tremolocos and Claire Muldaur. Dylan, whose U.S. tour begins Aug. 10 in Iowa, is not expected to attend. IDA administrators contacted his current manager/agent Jeffrey Rosen, who respectfully declined the invitation for the singer to perform or appear.

`Pretty reclusive'

``He is in town that weekend and we always keep our fingers crossed,'' said IDA managing director Melissa Disharoon. ``He's pretty reclusive from what I gather, and I don't think he really lets you know if he's going to be there or not.''

He'll be there on celluloid. Considered one of the most significant music documentaries, ``Don't Look Back'' - its director says - is as much Dylan's film as Pennebaker's. Albert Grossman, Dylan's manager, came up with the idea of giving a documentarian complete, behind-the-scenes access to the tour.

Dylan, who knew Pennebaker's work from his period directing for Time-Life, seemed OK with Grossman's plan. After a single meeting, once Pennebaker had green-lighted Dylan's concept for the card sequence accompanying the song ``Subterranean Homesick Blues'' at the film's opening, the singer and the man behind the camera knew they could co-exist.

``Nobody had to sit down and lay out a strategy, what we could do or couldn't do,'' says Pennebaker. ``We didn't even have a written agreement, just kind of a handshake, which is kind of what we usually would go for.''

In the course of a nearly 50-year career in filmmaking, Pennebaker has tracked more than his share of musicians, from Dylan to Depeche Mode, from David Bowie to Jerry Lee Lewis. His most recent project was ``Down From the Mountain,'' a portrait of the bluegrass musicians who scored the Coen Brothers' film ``O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' He also produced this year's ``Startup.com,'' directed by his wife and film partner Chris Hegedus, and his next film, the r&b-themed ``Only the Strong Survive'' is due in the fall.

When the project - like ``Don't Look Back'' - is an intimate portrait, the musician always becomes a part owner of the finished product, says Pennebaker. That means the singer or band members have to be trusting enough to let the camera do its work and have confidence that the man working the lens isn't trying to dig up dirt.

Getting access

``They know we're not trying to make a killing for the 6 p.m. news broadcast. I think they understand and most people give us access,'' says Pennebaker, 76. ``They feel it's not a push piece and we're not trying to promote them. They know you have to be truthful to what you find.''

``Musicians are interesting in our culture because they don't take much,'' he added. ``They just give, and that kind of makes it interesting to find out why they do that.''

Born in Evanston, Ill., in 1925, Pennebaker grew up in Chicago, which he calls ``a city just bristling with music.'' Unfortunately, a preteen with a passion for music of the day couldn't get into clubs and couldn't hear artists who were banned from the radio airwaves, like Louis Armstrong.

``The harder it was to do, the more you were determined to hear it,'' says Pennebaker. ``You could buy used RCA Bluebird records for a dime, and that's how you heard Louis Armstrong.''

By his late teens, Pennebaker's collection of 78 rpm albums was growing. It currently numbers nearly 4,000 and Pennebaker says he still listens to his favorites. ``That turned out to be my education, not my engineering degree from Yale,'' he says. ``I feel useful when I'm doing something with a musician.''

Pennebaker compares Dylan, who spends portions of ``Don't Look Back'' performing, arguing with journalists and pretty much ignoring Joan Baez, to Beat author Jack Kerouac.

``He has to be that voice that doesn't come to you from the comfortable side of the microphone,'' said Pennebaker. ``It was a remarkable piece of fortune that I was able to make this film and release it, and he looked at it and said 'sure' and never quailed.''

A respected mentor

IDA's Disharoon, who calls Pennebaker ``one of the auteurs of cinema verite'' noted that the director has been a mentor for several documentarians and filmmakers, including Spike Lee. As a professor at Yale and New York University, Pennebaker ``has really made filmmaking and documentaries an integral part of film education,'' said Disharoon.

``For the Ford events, we do look at music documentaries, because the venue is so great to bring the two mediums together,'' she added. ``That's part of the reason we're attracted to Penny.''

For the live music portion of Friday's celebration, Baytos was originally told to gather a bunch of headlining names, but the big name artists wanted too much money, he says.

Instead, Baytos - the event's musical director - called on bands who were familiar to the L.A. scene, assembling a group that could break down and reimagine Dylan's songs set to zydeco, New Orleans, blues, reggae, country, jump-swing and Tex-Mex beats.

Baytos and the Nervis Brothers will do a New Orleans version of ``Country Pie'' and, time permitting, ``Peggy Day.'' King Cotton will perform ``Everyday Woman,'' Ron Taylor sings ``Fur Slippers'' (a song originally written for B.B. King) James Intveld does ``Don't Think Twice, It's All Right'' and Claire Muldaur will take on ``It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry.''

``(Dylan) likes doing his own songs in different styles,'' says Baytos, who has recorded with Dylan. ``He likes it when people mix it up.''

INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY ASSOCIATION PRESENTS IDA MENTOR AWARD TO D.A. PENNEBAKER

What: Screening of Pennebaker's ``Don't Look Back'' and musical tribute to its subject, Bob Dylan.

Who: Eddie Baytos & the Nervis Brothers, King Cotton, John ``Juke'' Logan, Claire Muldaur, the Tremolocos, Ron Taylor, James Intveld and Tony Zamora.

Where: John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, 2580 Cahuga Blvd., Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Friday.

Tickets: $12 to $20. Call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2) D.A. Pennebaker, right, focuses on his subject during the making of his 1967 documentary on Bob Dylan, ``Don't Look Back,'' which will be shown Friday night at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre.

Documentarian Pennebaker, as he looks today.

(3) Bob Dylan