Peter Watkins

Peter Watkins (born 29 October 1935) is an English filmmaker, documentarian, writer, and film theorist. He is known as a pioneer of the docudrama and the mockumentary genres, typically with heavy political content. His films present pacifist and radical ideas in a nontraditional style. He mainly concentrates his works and ideas around the mass media and our relation/participation to a movie or television documentary.

Nearly all of Watkins' films have used a combination of dramatic and documentary elements to dissect historical occurrences or possible near future events. The first of these, '' Culloden'', portrayed the Jacobite uprising of 1745 in a documentary style, as if television reporters were interviewing the participants and accompanying them into battle; a similar device was used in his biographical film ''Edvard Munch''. ''La Commune'' reenacts the Paris Commune days using a large cast of French non-actors. ''The War Game'' (1966) depicts the aftermath of a hypothetical nuclear attack on London. His other notable works include ''Edvard Munch,'' a biographical film of the painter of the same name, and ''The Journey,'' a 14-hour essay film about nuclear disarmament.

The British Film Institute writes "in an age when the media stranglehold on both our lives and the means by which we communicate is ever tightening, atkinsfilms remain a vital tool for considering new forms of image-making and a vibrant and engaging force in their own right."

Early life

Watkins was born in Norbiton, Surrey. During the Second World War, his family moved several times. After doing his National Service with the East Surrey Regiment, followed by studying acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Watkins began his television and film career as an assistant producer of short TV films and commercials; and in the early 1960s was an assistant editor and director of documentaries at the BBC.

Career

All of his films have either been documentary or drama presented with documentary techniques, sometimes portraying historical occurrences and sometimes possible near future events as if contemporary reporters and filmmakers were there to interview the participants. Watkins pioneered this technique in his first full-length television film, '' Culloden'', which portrayed the Jacobite uprising of 1746 in a style similar to the Vietnam War reporting of the time. In 1965, he won a Jacob's Award for ''Culloden'' at the annual presentation ceremony in Dublin.

The scope and formal innovation of ''Culloden'' drew immediate critical acclaim for the previously unknown director, and the BBC commissioned him for another ambitious production, the nuclear-war docudrama ''The War Game'', for ''The Wednesday Play'' series. The production was subsequently released to cinemas and won the 1966 Academy Award for Documentary Feature, eventually being screened by the BBC on 31 July 1985 after a 20-year ban.

His reputation as a political provocateur was amplified by ''Punishment Park'', a story of violent political conflict in the United States that coincided with the Kent State Massacre. Opposition to war is a common theme of his work, but the films' political messages are often ambiguous, usually allowing the main characters to present violently opposing viewpoints which in many cases are improvised by the cast: in ''Punishment Park'', the soldiers and dissidents were played by nonprofessional actors whose political opinions matched those of their characters so well that the director said he feared actual violence would break out on set. He took a similar approach in his Paris Commune re-enactment ''La Commune'', using newspaper advertisements to recruit conservative actors who would have a genuine antipathy to the Commune rebels. Watkins is also known for political statements about the film and television media, writing extensively about flaws in television news and the dominance of the Hollywood-derived narrative style that he refers to as "the monoform".

After the banning of ''The War Game'' and the poor reception of his first non-television feature, '' Privilege'', Watkins left England and has made all of his subsequent films abroad: '' The Gladiators'' in Sweden, ''Punishment Park'' in the United States, ''Edvard Munch'' in Norway, ''Evening Land'' in Denmark, '' Resan'' (a 14-hour film cycle about the threat of nuclear war) in ten different countries, and ''La Commune'' in France. ''Freethinker: The Life and Work of Peter Watkins'', is a forthcoming biography by Patrick Murphy, a Senior Lecturer in Film and Television at York St John University, and John Cook. It is being compiled with Watkins' active help and participation.

In 2004, he wrote the book '' Media Crisis'', which discusses his ideas of media hegemony which he calls, ''the monoform'', and the lack of debate around the construction of new forms of audiovisual media.

Influence

Citing their 1969 Bed-in efforts and Peace Concert, an interviewer asked John Lennon and Yoko Ono, "Is there any one particular incident that got you started in this peace campaign?". John answered, "...the thing that really struck it off was a letter we got from a guy called Peter Watkins who made a film called ''The War Game''. It was a very long letter stating just what's happening – how the media is really controlled, how it's all run, and everything else that people really know deep down. He said 'People in your position have a responsibility to use the media for world peace'. And we sat on the letter for about three weeks thinking 'Well, we're doing our best. All you need is love, man.' That letter just sort of sparked it all off. It was like getting your induction papers for peace!"Geoffrey Giuliano, ''The Beatles – A Celebration'', p.144

Personal life

Watkins has resided at various times in Canada, Lithuania, and France. He is married to Vida Urbonavičius, and has two sons, Patrick and Gerard.

Filmography

Short films

Feature films

Awards and nominations

Works about Watkins

* 2001 : '' The Universal Clock: The Resistance of Peter Watkins'' is a 77-minute documentary film about Watkins and the making of ''La Commune''. The film is directed by Geoff Bowie and produced by the National Film Board of Canada. The universal clock refers to the synchronisation and the global movement of the televisions in the world, calibrated to be diffused anywhere around the globe, at any time.
* 2001 : ''Peter Watkins – Lituania'', Rebond for la Commune and Peter Watkins

References

Bibliography

* Manuel Ramos
"People Fever, The Popular Passions of Peter Watkins' La Commune (Paris 1871)"
Screen, special edition on television studies edited by Karen Lury, Vol. 57, No. 2, Summer 2016, pp.197-217
* Montero, José Francisco & Paredes, Israel. ''Imágenes de la Revolución''. 2011. Shangrila Ediciones
* Duarte, German A. ''La scomparsa dell'orologio universale. Peter Watkins e i mass media audiovisivi''. 2009. Mimesis Edizioni Milano
* Duarte, German A.
Conversaciones con Peter Watkins/Conversations With Peter Watkins
'. 2016. UTADEO Press

Further reading

*

External links

Official website

BFI: Peter Watkins
*

Notes on The Media Crisis
An essay by Peter Watkins. MACBA, 2010.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watkins, Peter
1935 births
Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Living people
English film directors
Jacob's Award winners
People educated at Christ College, Brecon
People from the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames
Directors of Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners
Producers of Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners