Adam Curtis

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Martin Adam John Curtis
Adam curtis.jpg
Curtis at the 2005 San Francisco Film Festival.
Born Martin Adam John Curtis
Dartford, Kent, England
Occupation Documentary filmmaker

Martin Adam John Curtis, better known as Adam Curtis, is an English documentary filmmaker. Curtis says that his favourite theme is "power and how it works in society", and his works explore areas of sociology, philosophy and political history.[1] Curtis describes his work as journalism that happens to be expounded via the medium of film. His films have won three BAFTAs. He has been closely associated with the BBC throughout his career.

Early life[edit]

Curtis was born in Dartford, Kent. His father was Martin Curtis (10 August 1917 – January 2002), a cinematographer from Sevenoaks who worked with Humphrey Jennings.[1] His family had a left wing background.[2] Curtis attended the Sevenoaks School on a county scholarship.[3] He completed a Bachelor of Arts in human sciences at Mansfield College, Oxford, which included courses in genetics, evolutionary biology, psychology, politics, anthropology and statistics. He started a PhD, during which he tutored in politics, but he became disillusioned with academia and decided to leave.[2]

Career[edit]

Example of Curtis's "trademark" title screens.

Early career[edit]

Curtis applied to the BBC and was hired to make a film for one of its training courses, comparing designer clothes in music videos to the design of weapons. He subsequently was given a post on That's Life!, a magazine series that juxtaposed hard-hitting investigations and light-hearted content.

Politics[edit]

Of his general political outlook, Curtis has remarked:

Films[edit]

Curtis cites the USA Trilogy, a series of three novels by John Dos Passos that he first read when he was thirteen, as the greatest influence on his filmmaking:[1]

Other influences include Robert Rauschenberg,[1] Émile Zola[1] and Max Weber.[2]

Curtis makes extensive use of archive footage in his documentaries. He has acknowledged the influence of recordings made by Erik Durschmied and is "constantly using his stuff in my films."[4] According to a profile of Curtis by Tim Adams, published in The Observer,

Adams adds, "If there has been a theme in Curtis's work since, it has been to look at how different elites have tried to impose an ideology on their times, and the tragicomic consequences of those attempts."[5]

In 2005, Curtis received the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival.[6] In 2006, he was given the Alan Clarke Award for Outstanding Contribution to Television at the British Academy Television Awards. In 2009, Sheffield Doc/Fest awarded Curtis the inaugural Sheffield Inspiration Award for his inspiration to other documentary makers and to his audiences.

Blog[edit]

Curtis administers a blog hosted by the BBC. He has tentative plans to expand the project.[1]

Filmography[edit]

Year Title Subject Parts Channel/Venue Awards
1983 Just Another Day: The Seaside A typical day in Walton-on-the-Naze. BBC Two, 19 April 1983[7]
1983 Trumpets and Typewriters: A History of War Reporting The history of war correspondents. BBC One, 19 July 1983[8]
1984 Inquiry: The Great British Housing Disaster.[9] The system-built housing of the 1960s. Narrated by David Jones. BBC Two, 4 September 1984[10]
1984 Italians: The Mayor of Montemilone The politics of a small Italian town and its communist mayor, Dino Labriola. BBC One, 2 July 1985[11]
1984 The Cost of Treachery The Albanian Subversion, in which the CIA and MI6 attempted to overthrow the Albanian government and to weaken the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War in 1949, and the role of double agent Kim Philby. BBC One, 30 October 1984[12]
1987 40 Minutes: Bombay Hotel The luxurious Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, contrasted with the poverty of the city's slums. BBC Two, 30 April 1987[13]
1988 An Ocean Apart: Hats Off to Mr Wilson The process by which the United States became involved in the First World War. BBC One, 20 April 1988[14]
1989 40 Minutes: The Kingdom of Fun Documentary about the Metro Centre in Gateshead, developed by entrepreneur John Hall. It compares Hall's plans to regenerate North East England with those of Labour politician T. Dan Smith. BBC Two, 19 January 1989[15]
1989 Inside Story: The Road To Terror How the Iranian Revolution turned from idealism to terror, drawing parallels with the French Revolution two hundred years earlier. BBC One, 14 June 1989[16]
1992 Pandora's Box The dangers of technocratic and political rationality. 6 BBC Two, 11 June 1992[17] BAFTA: Best Factual Series [1][dead link]
1995 The Living Dead The ways in which history and memory (both national and individual) have been used and manipulated by politicians and others. 3 BBC Two, 30 May 1995[18]
1996 Inside Story Special: £830,000,000 - Nick Leeson and the Fall of the House of Barings Nick Leeson and the collapse of Barings Bank. BBC One, 12 June 1996[19]
1997 Modern Times: The Way of All Flesh The story, dating back to the 1950s, of the search for a cure to cancer, and the impact of Henrietta Lacks, the "woman who will never die" because her cells never stopped reproducing. BBC Two, 19 March 1997[20]
1999 The Mayfair Set Looks at the birth of the global arms trade, the invention of asset stripping, and how buccaneer capitalists shaped the Thatcher years, focusing on the rise of Colonel David Stirling, Jim Slater, Sir James Goldsmith and Tiny Rowland — members of the elite Clermont Club in the 1960s. 4 BBC Two, 18 July 1999[21] BAFTA, 2000: Best Factual Series or Strand[22]
2002 The Century of the Self How Freud's theories on the unconscious led to the development of public relations by his nephew Edward Bernays; the use of desire over need; and self-actualisation as a means of achieving economic growth and the political control of populations. 4 BBC Two, 17 March 2002;[23] art-house cinemas in the US Broadcast Award: Best Documentary Series[citation needed]; Longman/History Today Awards: Historical Film of the Year;[24] Entertainment Weekly, 2005: fourth best movie[citation needed]
2004 The Power of Nightmares Suggests a parallel between the rise of Islamism in the Arab world and neoconservatism in the United States, and their mutual need, argues Curtis, to create the myth of a dangerous enemy to gain support. 3 BBC Two, 20 October 2004[25] BAFTA, 2004: Best Factual Series[26]
2007 The Trap – What Happened to our Dream of Freedom Explores the modern concept of freedom, specifically, "how a simplistic model of human beings as self-seeking, almost robotic, creatures led to today's idea of freedom." 3 BBC Two, 7 March 2007[27]
2007 — Television news reporters. Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, third episode of the fourth series
2009 — The rise of "Oh Dear"-ism. Charlie Brooker's Newswipe, third episode of the first series
2009 It Felt Like a Kiss[28] Collaboration between Curtis, theatre company Punchdrunk and Damon Albarn.[29] Manchester International Festival
2010 — Paranoia and moral panics. Charlie Brooker's Newswipe, fourth episode of the second series
2011 All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace Argues that computers have failed to liberate humanity, and instead have "distorted and simplified our view of the world around us." The title is taken from a 1967 poem of the same name by Richard Brautigan. 3 BBC Two, 23 May 2011[30][31]
2011 Every Day is Like Sunday The rise and fall of press baron Cecil King, and the changing relationship between the public, politics and the media. His personal blog. (This is not an officially released documentary, but "a rough cut.")[32]
2013 Everything is Going According to Plan (Massive Attack v Adam Curtis)[33] Collaboration with Massive Attack. Based on technocrats and global corporations establishing an ultraconservative norm, with the internet providing a "fake, enchanting world, which has become a kind of prison."[34] Manchester International Festival
2014 — "Oh Dear"-ism II - non-linear war. Charlie Brooker's 2014 Wipe, 30 December 2014
2015 Bitter Lake[35] How Western leaders' simplistic "good" vs. "evil" narrative has failed in the complex post-war era, and how many Islamic terrorist groups have their origins in the US's long-standing alliance with Saudi Arabia. BBC iPlayer, 25 January 2015 (137 mins)[36]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Interview: Adam Curtis by Chris Darke on 15 September 2011, Film Society of Lincoln Center, published 17 July 2012
  2. ^ a b c In Conversation with Adam Curtis, Part I by Hans Ulrich Obrist, published February 2012
  3. ^ Adam Curtis: The Perils of Binary Thinking, Interview by Andrew Pettie, published 20 May 2011
  4. ^ BBC - Adam Curtis Blog: GOODIES AND BADDIES
  5. ^ a b Adams, Tim (24 October 2004). "The Exorcist". London: The Observer. Retrieved 17 February 2010. 
  6. ^ "SF Int'l Film Festival - Awards & Tributes - Adam Curtis". Archived from the original on 17 January 2006. 
  7. ^ "Just Another Day: The Seaside". BBC Genome. Retrieved 19 October 2015. 
  8. ^ "Trumpets and Typewriters". BBC Genome. Retrieved 19 October 2015. 
  9. ^ "The Great British Housing Disaster (1984)". British Film Institute. Retrieved 6 July 2009. 
  10. ^ "Inquiry: The Great British Housing Disaster". BBC Genome. Retrieved 19 October 2015. 
  11. ^ "Italians". BBC Genome. Retrieved 19 October 2015. 
  12. ^ "The Cost of Treachery". BBC Genome. Retrieved 19 October 2015. 
  13. ^ "40 Minutes". BBC Genome. Retrieved 19 October 2015. 
  14. ^ "An Ocean Apart". BBC Genome. Retrieved 19 October 2015. 
  15. ^ "40 Minutes". BBC Genome. Retrieved 19 October 2015. 
  16. ^ "Inside Story". BBC Genome. Retrieved 19 October 2015. 
  17. ^ "Pandora's Box". BBC Genome. Retrieved 19 October 2015. 
  18. ^ "The Living Dead". BBC Genome. Retrieved 19 October 2015. 
  19. ^ "Inside Story Special". BBC Genome. Retrieved 19 October 2015. 
  20. ^ "Modern Times: The Way of All Flesh". BBC Genome. Retrieved 19 October 2015. 
  21. ^ "The Mayfair Set". BBC Genome. Retrieved 19 October 2015. 
  22. ^ "BAFTA: Winners 2000". Archived from the original on 19 October 2004. Retrieved 6 July 2009. 
  23. ^ "The Century of the Self". BBC Genome. Retrieved 19 October 2015. 
  24. ^ "Back to Narrative at the History Today Awards". Retrieved 19 October 2015. 
  25. ^ "The Power of Nightmares". BBC Genome. Retrieved 19 October 2015. 
  26. ^ "Past Winners and Nominees (2004)". BAFTA. Retrieved 6 July 2009. 
  27. ^ "The Trap - What Happened to Our Dreams of Freedom". BBC Genome. Retrieved 19 October 2015. 
  28. ^ "BBC Blogs - Adam Curtis - It Felt Like A Kiss: The Film". BBC. Retrieved 19 October 2015. 
  29. ^ "The Culture Show". BBC Genome. Retrieved 19 October 2015. 
  30. ^ "BBC - Adam Curtis Blog: ALL WATCHED OVER BY MACHINES OF LOVING GRACE". BBC. 10 May 2011. 
  31. ^ "TV Review: All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace". The Guardian. 23 May 2011. 
  32. ^ "BBC - Adam Curtis Blog: EVERY DAY IS LIKE SUNDAY". BBC. Retrieved 6 August 2011. 
  33. ^ Adams, Tim (7 July 2013). "Massive Attack v Adam Curtis – review". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 18 July 2013. 
  34. ^ Dave Simpson (5 July 2013). "Massive Attack v Adam Curtis – review". The Guardian (London). 
  35. ^ "Adam Curtis: 'I try to make the complexity and chaos intelligible'". The Guardian. 24 January 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2015. 
  36. ^ "Adam Curtis: Bitter Lake". BBC iPlayer. BBC. 25 January 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2015. 

External links[edit]

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