July 20th 2011
In September 2011 the BFI will mark Ken Loach’s 75th birthday, and 50-year career in film and television, with the most comprehensive retrospective ever of his work.
Ken Loach is a filmmaker with an outstanding international reputation both as a hugely talented craftsman and as a radical social and political commentator; the retrospective will explore the full range of Loach’s films, television plays and documentaries. In full collaboration with Loach himself, this major BFI project incorporates a donation of Loach’s collection to the BFI National Archive, a two-month BFI Southbank season and Mezzanine exhibition, regional tour, an education programme and Screenonline and Mediatheque programmes.
Ken Loach said, “I am of course delighted that the BFI will show all these films.
However, I can’t help feeling a little anxious about what will be revealed…”
Winner of the Palme d’or at Cannes 2006 for The Wind That Shakes the Barley Ken Loach is one of Britain’s most celebrated and socially committed film-makers. He began his career in media production 50 years ago when he joined BBC Television’s drama department as a trainee director and went on to make ground-breaking television plays which are among the most important ever broadcast, such as Cathy Come Home or Up the Junction. His pioneering methods and gritty social realism had a huge influence on many filmmakers today including Shane Meadows, Paul Greengrass, Peter Mullan and many more. Loach’s career is full of richly rewarding films, from compelling accounts of contemporary life such as Riff-Raff and Looking for Eric, as well as engaging political dramas such as Hidden Agenda or Land and Freedom. Above all these are passionate, well-crafted works of cinema with a universal appeal which transcend their geographical location.
The entire Ken Loach project is supported by a generous donation of £200,000 from the Esmée Fairbaiu
Dawn Austwick, Chief Executive, said, “Esmée Fairbairn Foundation has for 50 years proudly supported civil society to achieve lasting change and improve people’s lives. As part of our 50th birthday celebrations, we are pleased to be working with the British Film Institute to help preserve the unique works of Ken Loach, which provide us with invaluable insight into the social history of modern Britain.”
SAVE THE CHILDREN FILM – WORLD PREMIERE
Ken Loach has never shied away from controversy in either his work or his personal political involvement. Several documentary projects have been effectively banned from transmission, including his 1969 film for Save the Children, which has only been viewed by a handful of BFI archivists in over 40 years. The film was mired in controversy and withdrawn under an injunction by Save the Children. The BFI are grateful to Save the Children for their permission to screen the film to launch the Ken Loach project at BFI Southbank on 1st September 2011.
THE KEN LOACH COLLECTION
Loach has donated to the BFI National Archive his entire archive of working papers including his emails. This precious hoard includes extensive production papers and working notes, casting lists, budgets, shooting schedules and annotated drafts and shooting scripts – even an Eric Cantona mask from Looking for Eric. A continuity script for Kes, full of on-location photographs, sits alongside scene breakdowns, early drafts and even notes on the process of training a kestrel. Correspondence to and from collaborators such as Jim Allen also includes letters of appreciation from fans as diverse as Alan Bennett and Neil Kinnock. The Channel 4 Duty log after a broadcast of Which Side are You On? illustrates the passionate response that Loach’s work evokes, among those both for and against. The cataloguing of the collection is bound to uncover more fascinating insights into the work which will be of great interest to students in higher and further education, studying politics, history, or film as well as interested members of the public. Digital copies of key Loach documents chosen by BFI expert curators will be able to be consulted on the BFI website next year, thanks to the grant from the Esmée Fairbairn Trust.
Heather Stewart, Creative Director, BFI said, “We are delighted to accept this extraordinarily generous gift by one of Britain’s most internationally renowned and important filmmakers. Ken Loach has created an outstanding body of work and through this donation we will be able to preserve his films to the highest archival standards while offering a unique insight into his working methods.”
BFI SOUTHBANK
This is the most comprehensive retrospective of the works of Ken Loach ever mounted covering his feature films, television and documentary work. Many of Loach’s best known collaborators such as producer Rebecca O’Brien, editor Jonathan Morris, writer Paul Laverty and producer Tony Garnett will be taking part in a range of events and introduced screenings. Ken Loach himself will launch the season with a screening of the Save the Children film and will also introduce Land and Freedom (one of his personal favourites).
An exhibition of materials from the newly donated Ken Loach collection will be on show alongside other Loach items from the BFI’s collections in a dedicated display in the Mezzanine gallery at BFI Southbank. Opens September 2011.
UK-WIDE/REGIONAL SCREENINGS
The landmark retrospective of Ken Loach’s work for film and television screened at BFI Southbank in September and October will also have selected screenings in Bath, Sheffield, Belfast and Glasgow. Titles already confirmed include Carla’s Song, My Name is Joe, Sweet Sixteen, and Ae Fond Kiss which will screen at the Glasgow Film Theatre. Kes, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Hidden Agenda and My Name is Joe screen at Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast. Kes, The Game Keeper, The Price of Coal, Looks and Smiles and The Wind That Shakes the Barley will screen at Sheffield Showroom.
Each venue will also have a programme of educational events and special guests.
SCREENONLINE
The BFI’s online guide to British film and television (www.screenonline.org.uk) will present a thorough, in-depth account of Loach’s work in film, television and documentary, as well as two new short films about Ken Loach and some of his key collaborators: Loach: The TV Years has producer Tony Garnett and writer Nell Dunn recalling their work on The Wednesay Play; while a focus on Sweet Sixteen will explore Loach’s unique aesthetic and collaborative approach, with cinematographer Barry Ackroyd, long-time editor Jonathan Morris and actor Martin Compston.
MEDIATHEQUE
An expansive retrospective of Ken Loach’s film and television work will be available to view for free at the BFI Mediatheques in London (BFI Southbank), Derby (QUAD centre for art and film), Cambridge (Central Library), Newcastle upon Tyne (Discovery Museum), and Wrexham (Main Library).
This major addition to the Mediatheque’s collections will encompass complete feature films and TV programmes from the 1960s to today, including titles unavailable to the public for many years
EDUCATION
New materials and on-line guides for teachers will be produced by BFI Education for those involved in teaching about the films of Ken Loach.
A series of nationwide competitions will be run:
· Should British filmmakers be more independent?
A young journalist competition in association with Sight & Sound magazine (16 – 25yr olds)
· Between the Lines A writing competition encouraging young people inspired by Loach’s challenging approach, to champion alternative stories which challenge the establishment (10 – 25yrs in three age bands).
Events for schools will take place at BFI Southbank and at regional venues.
Film: 21st Century Literacy partners - All partners are supporting the Loach Project and the Between the Lines competition. FILMCLUB are promoting the competition to schools UK-wide and curating two special seasons of films, with accompanying online teaching guides:
§ 10 films directed by Loach, showcasing why his work connects for children and young people.
§ ‘Tell It Like It Is’: 10 British films which share Loach's sensibility and humour
Film Education will organise during National Schools Film Week free screenings, UK-wide, of Route Irish and an on-line resource for teachers; and will promote the competition to schools UK-wide. First Light are managing the competition.
NEW BOOK: THE POLITICS OF FILM AND TELEVISION
John Hill's definitive study looks at the career and work of British director Ken Loach. From his early television work (Cathy Come Home) through to landmark films (Kes) and examinations of British society (Looking For Eric) this landmark study reveals Loach as one of the great European directors. Paperback £16.99 BFI/Palgrave Macmillan – out now.
MEDIA PARTNERS
The Ken Loach project is presented with our media partners:
New Statesman magazine and Sight & Sound magazine.
BFI SOUTHBANK RETROSPECTIVE IN FULL
Ken Loach season notes by John Hill, author of Ken Loach: The Politics of Film and Television
‘Ken Loach is a national treasure’, one critic has observed. ‘It just seems that the nation that produced him is not always keen to treasure him’. On the one hand, Loach is the most distinguished English filmmaker at work today, responsible for some of the most memorable British film and television productions of the last five decades. On the other hand, he has never become a fully accepted member of the political or fIIm establishments and has retained a certain ‘outsider’ status by virtue of his relish for work that provokes controversy and arouses debate. Loach has consistently chosen to use television and film as a way of drawing attention to the political problems faced by ‘ordinary’ people at the bottom of the social ladder. He has also sought to represent them in a way that he regards as faithful to the actuality of their lives. Thus while initially infl uenced by the anti-naturalistic polemics of Troy Kennedy Martin, Loach since evolved a ‘realist’ style characterised by location shooting, a mix of professional and non-professional actors and a pared-down observational mode of camerawork that maintains a respectful distance from the action. However, while it is relatively easy to identify distinctive ‘Loachian’ themes and stylistic traits, Loach has always resisted the label of ‘auteur’ on the grounds that filmmaking is a collective endeavour. This has meant that he has sought to maintain regular relationships with trusted collaborators, including writers Jim Allen, Barry Hines and Paul Laverty, producers Tony Garnett, Sally Hibbin and Rebecca O’Brien, cameramen Chris Menges and Barry Ackroyd, editors Roy Watts and Jonathan Morris, designers Martin Johnson and Fergus Clegg and composer George Fenton. So, while the current season provides an opportunity to trace the development of Loach’s work over 45 years, it is also a record of the creative partnerships that have enabled one of British cinema’s most distinctive, politically radical filmmakers to continue to be seen and heard.
Save the Children Film: World Premiere
A special opportunity to see a film never before screened. In 1969 Kestrel Films were commissioned by Save the Children to make a film portraying its work, to mark the 50th anniversary of the charity and intended for broadcast on London Weekend Television. Already a fiercely political filmmaker, Loach opened the film with a quotation from Friedrich Engels, and went on to construct a film that explored the politics of race, class and charity in capitalist society. At that time Save the Children representatives felt the film subverted their aims. The ensuing dispute meant that Save the Children did not agree to a public screening of the work, which resulted in its preservation within the BFI National Archive.
Forty years later we are delighted to show the film for the first time ever, in partnership with Save the Children, to launch the BFI’s Loach retrospective. Produced by Tony Garnett and shot by Chris Menges, this is a unique slice of British social and cinematic history.
Followed by a discussion with Ken Loach and representatives of Save the Children and the BFI National Archive.
Presented in association with Save the Children
Thu 1 Sept 18:20 NFT1
The Politics of Documentary
When Ken Loach sought to expose the corruption and concealed agendas of
the political establishment through a series of documentaries produced for
television in the 1980s, he found himself silenced and marginalised. Exploring controversial questions of political bias and censorship in the British media, then and now, we are delighted to welcome Ken Loach and guests to a discussion chaired by Jonathan Derbyshire, Culture Editor of the New Statesman.
Mon 19 Sept 18:20 NFT1
Up the Junction
BBC 1965. With Geraldine Sherman, Carol White, Vickery Turner, Tony Selby. 72min
Described by producer Tony Garnett as ‘not a play, a documentary, or a
musical’ but ‘all of these at once’, Up the Junction was a groundbreaking
production of Nell Dunn’s novel of working-class life. Although hated by
Mary Whitehouse for its treatment of a backstreet abortion, the production’s
energetic female cast and exuberant sense of artistic experiment make it
compelling.
Plus Auditions (1980, 60min): A rarely-seen documentary that follows three dancers searching for work following the end of the summer at Great Yarmouth.
*Introduced by film editor Jonathan Morris
Fri 2 Sept 18:00 NFT2*
Sun 4 Sept 20:10 NFT2
Cathy Come Home
BBC 1966. With Ray Brooks. 77min
Arguably the most famous drama ever made for British television, Cathy Come
Home’s heartbreaking tale of family break-up in the face of homelessness
pricked the conscience of the nation. While there were complaints about
the mixing of drama and documentary, only the most stony-hearted could
fail to be moved by Carol White’s luminous performance as the luckless
‘everywoman’, Cathy.
Also screens during Crisis event
Sat 3 Sept 16:10 NFT2
Poor Cow
UK 1967. 101min. 15
Loach returned to a Nell Dunn novel for his fi rst feature film and his fi rst
work to be shot in colour. Starring Carol White and Terence Stamp as an ill-starred romantic couple, it also proved to be a surprise commercial hit.
Although Loach has since expressed reservations about its ‘modishness’, it
remains a key film of the 1960s for its sardonic take on the ‘swinging sixties’
and happy-go-lucky mixing of social observation and Godardian modernism.
Sat 3 Sept 20:20 NFT2
Thu 8 Sept 20:20 NFT2*
Sat 3 Sept 18:00 NFT2
Tue 6 Sept 20:40 NFT2
Wed 7 Sept 20:40 NFT2
The Golden Vision
BBC 1968. With Ken Jones, Bill Dean,
Neville Smith. 60min
Focusing on a group of dedicated Everton fans, The Golden Vision combines
fictional scenes (performed by a sparkling cast of local club entertainers)
with documentary material of Everton offi cials and players.One of Loach’s
most relaxed and straightforwardly enjoyable works. Plus After a Lifetime
(ITV 1971, 71min): Reuniting many of the cast from The Golden Vision, Neville
Smith’s semi- autobiographical story mourns the loss of the revolutionary
spirit of an earlier generation.
*Introduced by Neville Smith
Sat 3 Sept 20:20 NFT2
Thu 8 Sept 20:20 NFT2*
Kes
UK 1969. With Lynn Perrie, Freddie Fletcher, Colin Welland, Brian Glover.
112min. Digital PG
Arguably Loach’s best-known work and regularly cited as one of the best
British films of all time, Kes was the first of a series of collaborations with
writer Barry Hines (and cinematographer Chris Menges). Dealing with a young
Barnsley boy’s rapport with a kestrel, the film was shot with a predominantly
non-professional cast in a spare observational style. Newcomer David
Bradley gives a fine performance as the schoolboy let down by the education system.
Fri 9 – Sat 24 Sept
Seniors’ Matinee (with introduction)
Fri 9 Sept 14:00 NFT1
Family Life
UK 1971. With Bill Dean, Grace Cave, Malcolm Tierney. 108min. 15
A remake of David Mercer’s In Two Minds, which Loach had previously
made for The Wednesday Play series. Drawing on RD Laing’s critique
of the diagnosis and treatment of‘schizophrenia’, the film charts – in
an uncluttered observational style – the way in which an oppressive family
structure and an unsympathetic medical establishment exacerbates,
rather than ‘cures’, the ‘illness’ of the female lead, Janice (played with
heartfelt conviction by newcomer Sandy Ratcliff).
Sun 4 Sept 17:50 NFT2
Mon 12 Sept 21:00 NFT2
Days of Hope
BBC 1975. With Paul Copley,
Pamela Brighton, Nikolas Simmonds, Alun Armstrong. 97min + 104min +
81min + 133min
Consisting of four television films dealing with the Great War through to
the 1926 General Strike, Days of Hope represents something of a high-water
mark for Loach in terms of scale of production, artistic achievement
and political ambition. Despite the inevitable press denunciations of its
‘left-wingery’, it was left to Stephen Frears to point out that no British
film ‘made for cinema distribution’could compare ‘in importance with
Days of Hope’.
Joint ticket available £20.70, concs
£13.75 (Members pay £1.50 less)
Days of Hope – 1916:
Joining Up
Sat 10 Sept 13:30 NFT2*
Days of Hope – 1921
Sat 10 Sept 15:40 NFT2
Days of Hope – 1924
Sat 10 Sept 18:10 NFT2
Days of Hope – 1926:
General Strike
Sat 10 Sept 20:20 NFT2
*Introduced by Paul Copley
The Price of Coal
BBC 1977. Part One: Meet the People + Part Two: Back to Reality. With Bobby Knutt, Duggie Brown, Rita May, Jackie Shinn. Total 150min
Set in a Yorkshire coalmine, Part One of these two made-for-television
films provides a wry observation of the absurdities surrounding the
preparations for a royal visit while Part Two deals with a pit accident that
leaves men trapped underground. Extracting excellent performances
from a cast largely made up of local club entertainers and nonprofessionals,
The Price of Coal is both a carefully observed drama of pit-head life and a moving plea for improvements in safety conditions
Sat 17 Sept 15:20 NFT2
Black Jack
UK 1979. With Stephen Hirst, Louise Cooper, Jean Franval, Phil Askham. 110 min. Video. U
Loach’s own adaptation of a children’s novel by Leon Garfield, Black Jack is set in Yorkshire in the 18th century and tells the story of a young lad forced to go on the run with the criminal “Black Jack”. Although relatively unloved at the time of its release, Black Jack has since been rediscovered and praised for its evocation of the period, distinctive visual style and folk music soundtrack.
Sun 4 Sept 15:30 NFT2
Sun 18 Sept 15.10 NFT2
The Gamekeeper
ITV 1980. With Phil Askham, Rita May, Andrew Grubb. 84min
Although made for ATV’s Documentary department, and described at the time as a ‘dramatised documentary’, The Gamekeeper is, in fact, an adaptation of a novel by Barry Hines dealing with a year in the life of a gamekeeper on a
country estate in South Yorkshire. An unusual piece for Loach insofar as it
deals with rural life, its emphasis upon work and class relations links it firmly
to his other films. Plus Which Side Are You On? (1985, 53min): Made during
the coal dispute of 1984-5, and providing an invigorating documentary
record of the ‘stories, poems and experiences’ inspired by the miners’ fight against pit closures.
Wed 7 Sept 18:00 NFT2
Fri 16 Sept 20:20 NFT2
Looks and Smiles
UK 1981. With Graham Green, Tony Pitts,
Carolyn Nicholson. 104min. Video. 15
Scripted by Barry Hines, Looks and Smiles was partly conceived as a follow-up to Kes in which a schoolleaver embarks upon a search for his
first job. Making it in the early years of Thatcherism, Loach later complained
that the film was insufficiently critical of government policies. Nevertheless,
beautifully shot in black and white by Chris Menges, the film is one of
Loach’s most visually arresting and quietly eloquent works.
Fri 9 Sept 18:20 NFT2
Sun 18 Sept 20:40 NFT2
Hidden Agenda
UK 1990. With Frances McDormand, Brian Cox, Brad Dourif, Mai Zetterling, Maurice Roeves. 108min. 15
Loosely based on John Stalker’s enquiry into the alleged ‘shoot to kill’ policy in
Northern Ireland in the early 1980s, this political thriller was denounced as
a ‘pro-IRA’ film by Conservative MP Ivor Stanbrook when first shown at
Cannes. The film itself, however, was not really about the IRA at all but how the actions of the British secret services can threaten civil rights and democratic accountability not only in Northern Ireland but in Britain as well.
*Introduced by producer Rebecca O’Brien
Fri 9 Sept 20:30 NFT2
Sun 11 Sept 18:10 NFT2
Thu 15 Sept 18:20 NFT2*
Riff-Raff
UK 1991. With Emer McCourt,
Jimmy Coleman. 96min. 15
Based on Bill Jesse’s reminiscences of working on building sites, Riff-Raff
signalled a return to familiar terrain for Loach following experiments with
the European art film (Fatherland) and political thriller (Hidden Agenda).
Bringing together a strong cast that included Robert Carlyle and Ricky
Tomlinson, the film celebrates the humour and camaraderie of men
forced to work in uncongenial conditions but also reveals how these
become subject to strain in the face of unscrupulous employment practices
Sun 11 Sept 20:50 NFT2
Wed 14 Sept 20:30 NFT2
Sat 17 Sept 18:30 NFT2
Raining Stones
UK 1993. With Bruce Jones, Julie Brown,
Ricky Tomlinson. 91min. 15
Shot on the run-down Middleton estate in Manchester where writer Jim
Allen had once lived, Raining Stones focuses on an unemployed man’s descent into debt when faced with his daughter’s forthcoming communion. Although some of Loach and Allen’s admirers were surprised by the film’s
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