SOME of the press folk swooned last week when we visited the Cherry Beach set of Atom Egoyan's movie, Ararat, which, in part, deals with the 1915 genocide of 1.5 million Armenians in what is now Turkey.

Yes, we oohed and aahed over set designer George Barker's faithfully recreated market square and, yes, we sighed over costume designer Beth Pasternak's breathtaking clothes.

Yes, Egoyan was engaging as ever and Robert Lantos, his long-time producer, buoyant as usual.

What had us swooning, though, was the presence of documentary moviemaker legend Albert Maysles.

Gently wrinkled, cherry-faced, white-haired Maysles, holding a lightweight video camera, was shadowing Egoyan who was filming the market scene with extras recruited from the city's Armenian community.

Maysles, now 68, with his brother David made the classic Rolling Stones documentary Gimme Shelter and, among others, Grey Gardens, the penetrating documentary about aged, eccentric, down-at-the-heels female relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Maysles was on Egoyan's set filming for a half-hour documentary for his series about movie directors at work. He had just arrived from Rome doing the first half hour on Martin Scorsese filming scenes of Gangs Of New York.

Maysles next will follow Roman Polanski.

In short: Maysles thinks Egoyan belongs in that stellar company.

His series will air on the U.S. Independent Film Channel and likely also on the Canadian digital movie channel due on the air this fall.

sadilman@thestar.ca