Colin Young (5 April 1927 – 27 November 2021) was a British film educator, chairman of the School of Theater, Film and Television at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

, founder of the film program at Rice University, Houston, Texas, and the first director of the British National Film and Television School. He was awarded a

BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award The BAFTA Fellowship, or the Academy Fellowship, is a lifetime achievement award presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in recognition of "outstanding achievement in the art forms of the moving image". The award is t ...

, the highest honor of the

British Academy of Film and Television Arts British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

, in 1993.

Early life

Young was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 5 April 1927. He graduated from the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

with a degree in Philosophy and Morals. He worked in Scotland as a film journalist before going to California to study film at UCLA, where he earned a MFA degree.Petrie, Duncan, "Colin Young". Journal of British Cinema and Television. Volume 7, Page 311-323 DOI 10.3366/jbctv.2010.0008, ISSN 1743-4521

UCLA

At UCLA, Young moved from student to teacher, becoming chairman of the School of Theater, Film and Television in 1965. Graduates during his tenure included Francis Ford Coppola, Paul Schrader, John Milius,

Haskell Wexler Haskell Wexler, ASC (February 6, 1922 – December 27, 2015) was an American cinematographer, film producer, and director. Wexler was judged to be one of film history's ten most influential cinematographers in a survey of the members of the Inte ...

Barry Levinson Barry Lee Levinson (born April 6, 1942) is an American filmmaker, comedian and actor. Levinson's best-known works are mid-budget comedy drama and drama films such as '' Diner'' (1982); ''The Natural'' (1984); '' Good Morning, Vietnam'' (1987); ...

and

Lawrence Kasdan Lawrence Edward Kasdan (born January 14, 1949) is an American filmmaker. He is the co-writer of the '' Star Wars'' films ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980), ''Return of the Jedi'' (1983), ''The Force Awakens'' (2015), and '' Solo: A Star Wars St ...

.Petrie, Duncan, "British Film Education and the Career of Colin Young", Journal of British Cinema and Television. Volume 1, Page 78-92 DOI 10.3366/JBCTV.2004.1.1.78, ISSN 1743-4521. He had a policy of employing filmmakers who were in between jobs to teach: although as David MacDougall said some of them "couldn't teach", despite that "they were infected with the virus of cinema and we caught it from them".MacDougall, David, "Colin Young, Ethnographic Film and the Film Culture of the 1960s." Visual Anthropology Review. Volume 17, Issue 2, pages 81–88, September 2001 He was particularly involved in the creation of UCLA's Ethnographic Film Program, launched in 1966 inspired by the ideas of

Harold Garfinkel Harold Garfinkel (October 29, 1917 – April 21, 2011) was an American sociologist and ethnomethodologist, who taught at the University of California, Los Angeles. Having developed and established ethnomethodology as a field of inquiry in sociolo ...

, intending to bring film and anthropology together. While in California, he also wrote for the University of California Press's journal ''

Film Quarterly ''Film Quarterly'', a journal devoted to the study of film, television, and visual media, is published by University of California Press. It publishes scholarly analyses of international and Hollywood cinema as well as independent film, including d ...

'', becoming its LA editor.

National Film and Television School

In 1970 when the decision was made to establish a national film school in the UK in order to revitalise the British film industry, Young was invited to apply to become the founding director, a post which he took up in 1971. He worked there for more than two decades, at a time when the school produced alumni including

Bill Forsyth William David Forsyth (born 29 July 1946). known as Bill Forsyth, is a Scottish film director and writer known for his films '' Gregory's Girl'' (1981), '' Local Hero'' (1983) and '' Comfort and Joy'' (1984) as well as his adaptation of the Ma ...

Terence Davies Terence Davies (born 10 November 1945) is an English screenwriter, film director, and novelist, seen by many critics as one of the greatest British filmmakers of his times. He is best known as the writer and director of autobiographical films ...

, Julien Temple,

Beeban Kidron Beeban Tania Kidron, Baroness Kidron, (born 2 May 1961) is a British filmmaker and an advocate for children's rights in the digital world. Kidron is Chair of 5Rights Foundation, a charity that delivers children's rights for young people online, ...

, and

Nick Park Nicholas Wulstan Park (born 6 December 1958) is a British animator who created ''Wallace and Gromit'', ''Creature Comforts'', ''Chicken Run'', ''Shaun the Sheep'', and '' Early Man''. Park has been nominated for an Academy Award a total of ...

. Young believed the difference between film school graduates and those who learned on the job was that the former "will have their time directed by themselves in a school environment which is keyed to their development and will leave within them a spirit of an inner-directed development as opposed to the industry’s outer-directed one." He placed a particular emphasis on documentary, particularly what he called "observational cinema", which sought to avoid both melodrama and didacticism. The School produced documentarists including

Nick Broomfield Nicholas Broomfield (born 1948) is an English documentary film director. His self-reflective style has been regarded as influential to many later filmmakers. In the early 21st century, he began to use non-actors in scripted works, which he cal ...

and

Molly Dineen Molly Dineen (born 7 March 1959) is a television documentary director, cinematographer and producer. One of Britain's most acclaimed documentary filmmakers, Molly is known for her intimate and probing portraits of British individuals and institut ...

. He also favoured a loosely structured "active curriculum" in which students learned by working on projects rather than being taught in more formal situations.

Later life

Young left the school in 1992 and founded Ateliers du Cinema Europeen in Paris, to train European film producers. He died on 27 November 2021, at the age of 94 and was buried on the eastern side of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

Awards

As well as the

he received in 1993, he received an OBE and

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

from the British government and the

Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is ...

from the French government.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Colin 1927 births 2021 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery Film educators Commanders of the Order of the British Empire BAFTA fellows BAFTA Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award Film people from Glasgow Alumni of the University of St Andrews UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television faculty UCLA Film School alumni Academics from Glasgow