Mick Gold (born Michael Gold, London, 7 August 1947) is a British documentary film maker, photographer and journalist, who has written for publications such as ''

Creem ''Creem'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American rock music magazine and entertainment company, founded in Detroit, whose initial print run lasted from 1969 to 1989. It was first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor ...

'', ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

'', and '' Let It Rock''. He has produced and directed six episodes of the BBC2 art history series The Private Life of a Masterpiece, and four films for the Channel 4 series Dispatches. In 1995 he won the Outstanding Historical Programming

Emmy award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

for his ''

Watergate The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon. The scandal began in 1972 and ultimately led to Nixon's resignation in 1974, in August of that year. It revol ...

'' documentary series.

Career

Gold studied English literature at

Sussex University The University of Sussex is a public research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the South Downs National Park, and provide ...

, followed by a degree in film and TV production at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

. From 1972 to 1978, he photographed and wrote about rock music for a variety of publications including ''

'', ''

'', and '' Let It Rock''. In 1976, he published ''Rock On the Road'', a collection of photo-essays about rock music and its sub-cultural audiences. Contributors to the book included

Simon Frith Simon Webster Frith (born 1946) is a British sociomusicologist and rock critic who specializes in popular music culture. He is professor emeritus of Music at University of Edinburgh.Frith has written a number of sociological analyses of popul ...

and John Pidgeon. The

Arts Council of Great Britain The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. It was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England (now Arts Council England), the Scottish Arts Council (l ...

funded several of his arts documentaries, including ''Europe After the Rain'' (1978), a history of

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...

and

Surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

, and '' Schiele in Prison '' (1980), which dramatised the prison diary of Viennese artist

Egon Schiele Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele (; 12 June 1890 – 31 October 1918) was an Austrian Expressionist painters, painter. His work is noted for its intensity and its raw sexuality, and for the many self-portraits the artist produced, including nude sel ...

. Gold co-directed ''Hostage '' (1999), a series of three films for

Channel Four Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded entirely by its commer ...

about the hostage crisis in Lebanon from 1984 to 1991. The series won first prize at the 1999 Festival International du Film d'Histoire, Pessac. Gold has produced and directed several history series for

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...

, including ''

'' (1994), a five-hour series about the downfall of President Nixon which won a

Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Owned and operated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the P ...

, and a duPont Columbia Award. Gold co-directed ''

Death of Apartheid ''Death of Apartheid'' (US title: ''Mandela's Fight For Freedom'') is the name of a three-part documentary series about the negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa and the first fully democratic election that followed. The series was firs ...

'' (US title: ''Mandela's Fight For Freedom'') (1995), a three-hour history of how

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...

negotiated his way out of prison and into power as the first President of an ANC government of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. The series was written by the South African journalist,

Allister Sparks Allister Haddon Sparks (10 March 1933 – 19 September 2016) was a South African writer, journalist, and political commentator. He was the editor of '' The Rand Daily Mail'' when it broke Muldergate, the story of how the apartheid government se ...

, and it was nominated for an

NAACP Image Award The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. The over 40 ...

in 1996. ''Endgame In Ireland'' (2001), won a

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...

for its "enlightening exploration of the tortuous complexities of international peace negotiations in Northern Ireland". Gold also produced and directed six episodes of the BBC2 art history series '' The Private Life of a Masterpiece'', focusing on paintings by

Velázquez Velázquez, also Velazquez, Velásquez or Velasquez (, ), is a surname from Spain. It is a patronymic name, meaning "son of Velasco". References to "Velazquez" without a first name are often to the Spanish painter, Diego Velázquez. Notable peo ...

Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, an ...

, Delacroix,

Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French people, French Impressionism, Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, Print ...

, Dalí, and

Rogier van der Weyden Rogier van der Weyden (; 1399 or 140018 June 1464), initially known as Roger de le Pasture (), was an Early Netherlandish painting, early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commis ...

. Gold directed four films for the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

series '' Dispatches'' about UK political developments, written and presented by journalist

Andrew Rawnsley Andrew Nicholas James Rawnsley (born 5 January 1962) is a British political journalist and broadcaster. A columnist and chief political commentator for ''The Observer'', he has written two books on New Labour. Early life Rawnsley was born in Le ...

, ending with ''A Year Inside Number 10''. In 2007, Gold produced and directed a controversial documentary about US foreign policy presented by

Richard Perle Richard Norman Perle (born September 16, 1941) is an American political advisor who served as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs under President Ronald Reagan. He began his political career as a senior staff member to ...

, "The Case for War", which was broadcast by

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

as part of the series ''

America at a Crossroads ''America at a Crossroads'' is a documentary miniseries concerning the issues facing the United States as related to the War on Terrorism. It originally aired on PBS. The miniseries initially consisted of 11 independently produced ''aired'' ep ...

''. In 2013, Gold produced and directed a series on the history of

the blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narra ...

, ''Blues America'', which was broadcast on

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

. In 2016, Gold produced and directed ''The Arc of History'', the fourth film in the series ''Inside Obama's White House'', produced by Brook Lapping for BBC2. Gold was producer-director of a two part history of Cuba, focusing on the ways in which the

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...

impacted on global politics, beginning with the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

and ending with President Obama's détente with Raúl Castro. The series was broadcast by

Arte Arte (, , ; ' ('), sometimes stylised in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European Union, European public service Television channel, channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based Europea ...

in December 2019, titled ''Cuba: la révolution et le monde''. ''

Le Monde (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...

'' wrote: "Diplomacy is a complex field, but it can be exciting, even on television. And when it comes to the foreign policy pursued for sixty years by a country as unusual as Cuba, this line of attack can result in a breathtaking TV programme." A revised version was broadcast by BBC2 in August 2020, titled ''Cuba: Castro vs the World''.

Awards

* 2002, nominated,

BAFTA Awards The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs or BAFTA Awards, is an annual film award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best Cinema of the United Kingdom, British and Worl ...

, Best current affairs, for ''Endgame in Ireland''. * 1995, won,

, Outstanding Historical Programming, for ''Watergate''

References

External links

*
Mick Gold's articles on Rock's Back Pages

Mick Gold's photos on Rock Archive

Mick Gold's photos on Getty images
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gold, Mick 1947 births Living people English music journalists British television producers British documentary filmmakers Alumni of the University of Sussex Alumni of the Royal College of Art Artists from London