Happy 53rd Birthday, Kevin Macdonald! Born today in 1967, this Scottish author and film director has an impressive pedigree as a filmmaker: his maternal grandfather was Emeric Pressburger, screenwriting/producing partner of Michael Powell in The Archers.
This also included English screenwriter and actress Wendy Orme.
Macdonald's brother Andrew is a Scottish film producer. He best known for his collaborations with Danny Boyle ('Trainspotting', 'Slumdog Millionaire') and Scottish screenwriter and dramatist John Hodge.
Macdonald was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and raised on a sheep farm in Gartocharn, Dunbartonshire.
Years later, Macdonald was educated at Glenalmond College, and St. Anne's College in Oxford.
In 1994, Macdonald began his career in writing about his grandfather. This was with his 1994 biographical drama book Emeric Pressburger: The Life and Death of a Screenwriter.
The following year, Macdonald turned his book into the fifty-minute 1995 British television documentary film 'The Making of an Englishman'. He had written and directed the film while Andrew produced it.
Two years later, Macdonald directed the one-hour 1997 British black and white/color television documentary film 'Howard Hawks: American Artist'. This was for the BBC.
One year later, Macdonald co-produced and co-directed the seventy-five-minute 1998 British biographical documentary film 'DONALD CAMMELL: THE ULTIMATE PERFORMANCE'. This was also for the BBC.
The documentary chronicles the highs and disturbing lows of talented, troubled Scottish painter, screenwriter, and film director Donald Cammell, of whom had helped create one of the seminal British films of the 1970s, only to fade into virtual obscurity.
After being acquainted with the in-crowd during the swinging 1960s and leading the wild life of an artist, Cammell reaches his career apex in writing and co-directing the film of which he is best known after which he went to Hollywood.
This was the 1970 British crime/musical drama film 'Performance' Cammell had co-directed along with English film director and cinematographer Nicolas Roeg ('Walkabout', 'Don't Look Now', 'The Man Who Fell to Earth').
Although 'Performance' was completed in 1967, it was shelved because no one knew what to do with such a feature. Afterwards, unfortunately, years of failed or compromised projects had taken their toll on Cammell.
The following year, Macdonald married production designer Tatiana Lund in July 1999.
She would later go on to be a set decorator for (most notably) 'Billy Elliot (2000), 'Vanity Fair' (2004), 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' (2011), 'The Imitation Game' (2014), and 'The Snowman' (2017).
Later that same year, after making a series of biographical documentaries, Macdonald, directed the 1999 Swiss/German/British black and white/color documentary/sport film 'One Day in September'.
The film tells about the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Possibly the most striking feature of this film was the lengthy interview with Jamal Al-Gashey, the last known survivor of the Munich terrorists.
It has been suggested recently in Israeli author and journalist Aaron J. Klein's 2005 biographical true crime book Striking Back: The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel's Deadly Response.
that another, Mohammed Safady, might also still be alive.
Macdonald had found Al-Gashey through intermediaries, and was able to convince him that the film would only be truly authentic if Al-Gashey gave his side of the story.
Since the former terrorist was convinced that Israeli authorities were still hunting him, Al-Gashey agreed to the interview only three conditions.
These were that he would be disguised, his face would be shown only in shadow or blurred out, and that the interview would be conducted by a person and in a place of Al-Gashey's choosing (which turned out to be Amman, Jordan), although Al-Gashey agreed that Macdonald could be present.
Prior to this, Al-Gashey had been in hiding ever since being ransomed for a hijacked aeroplane less than two months after the Munich massacre.
Since the interview was conducted entirely in Arabic, Al-Gashey (through paranoia or annoyance) frequently stormed out of the interview room. This was even though Al-Gashey was known to be fluent in English, only having been interviewed in the language in 1972.
During shooting, Macdonald did not know if he had anything usable until he returned to London and hired an Arabic translator.
One year later, 'One Day in September' won an Oscar for Best Documentary. This occurred at the 72nd Academy Awards in late March 2000.
In August, Macdonald directed the forty-eight-minute 1991 American documentary film 'A Brief History of Errol Morris'.
American film director Morris ('The Thin Blue Line', 'Fast, Cheap & Out of Control'), primarily of documentaries examining and investigating, among other things, authorities and eccentrics, was acting as an assistant to Werner Herzog.
Morris had thought out loud to himself, "I can do this too. If you make a documentary, I'll eat my shoe," Herzog replied. And so it happened.
The documentary showed clips of Morris' celebrated films, plus images of Herzog eating his shoe in public. American composer and pianist Philip Glass wrote the film's soundtrack.
In December, Macdonald directed the fifty-minute 2000 British black and white/color biographical documentary film 'Humphrey Jennings: The Man Who Listened to Britain'. This was for the Channel 4 Television Corporation.
Narrated by English actor James Purefoy, the film tells of the brief life and career of the eponymous English documentary filmmaker (‘Fires Were Started’) and one of the founders of the Mass Observation organization.
Notable interviewees included Richard Attenborough (‘Gandhi') and English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright Mike Leigh (‘Secrets & Lies’).
The following year, Macdonald co-directed the 2001 British biographical music television documentary film 'Being Mick'.
It was also co-directed by American narrative and documentary filmmaker George Hickenlooper ('Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse').
'Being Mick' chronicles the life of The Rolling Stones rock star for one year. Much of the film was shot by Jagger using a handheld camera.
The film documents from a fly-on-the-wall perspective of Jagger's recording his fourth solo album "Goddess in the Doorway", as well as daily life including his family and friends.
Five years later, Macdonald directed the film of which he is best known. This was the 2006 British/German drama/history film 'The Last King of Scotland'.
While in Uganda on a medical mission, Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) becomes the personal physician and close confidante of dictator Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker).
Although at first Dr. Garrigan feels flattered by his new position of power, he soon comes to realize that Amin's rule is soaked in blood, and that he is complicit in the atrocities. Garrigan then faces the fight of his life as he tries to escape Amin's firm grasp.
The film is based on English author Giles Foden's 1998 thriller adventure fiction novel of the same name. On a budget of $6 million, 'The Last King of Scotland' went on to gross $48.4 million at the box office.
One year later, 'The Last King of Scotland' won three BAFTA Awards for Best British Film, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Forest Whitaker), and Best Adapted Screenplay. This occurred at the 60th British Academy Awards in February 11, 2007.
Two weeks later, 'The Last King of Scotland' won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role. This occurred at the 79th Academy Awards on February 25, 2007.
In 2008, film magazines had written about Macdonald's upcoming American drama film 'Bobby Fischer Goes to War'.
It would chronicle American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer facing off against Russia chess grandmaster Boris Spassky in the 1972 World Chess Championship. As of today, the film has yet to be made.
Two years later, Macdonald served as executive producer on British filmmaker Asif Kapadia's 2010 British sport documentary film 'Senna'.
One year later, Macdonald co-directed the crowd=sourced 2011 British/American drama/documentary independent film 'Life in a Day'.
Ridley Scott, along with his younger brother, English film director, producer and screenwriter Tony Scott ('Top Gun'), both served as executive producers.
From 80,000 submissions comprising of 4,500 hours of footage, the film was shot by people in one hundred and ninety-two countries.
'Life in a Day' presents a time capsule for future generations to see what it was like to be alive around the globe on July 24, 2010 from their videos posted on YouTube.
The following year, Macdonald wrote and directed the 2012 British/American biographical/music documentary film 'Marley'.
The documentary tells the life story of musician, revolutionary and legendary Jamaican singer-songwriter Bob Marley, from the early days to international superstardom. The film also features rare footage, performances and interviews.
Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, Marley's musical career was marked by blending elements of reggae, ska, and rocksteady, as well as forging a smooth and distinctive vocal and songwriting style.
Macdonald later worked with the British film production team Altitude. The company was also responsible for creating Kapadia's 2015 British color/black and white documentary/musical film 'Amy'.
Three years later, Macdonald worked with Altitude again to direct the 2018 British/American documentary/musical film 'Whitney', based on the African-American singer Whitney Houston.
This was the first Whitney Houston documentary to be officially authorized by the estate, and included never-before-seen footage of Houston.
This also included exclusive demo recordings, rare performances and interviews with luminaries like American record producer, A&R executive, and music industry executive Clive Davis.
Macdonald later stated, "The story that is never told about Whitney is just how brilliant she was as an artist; by many measures she had the greatest voice of the last fifty years. She changed the way pop music was sung - bringing it back full circle to its blues and gospel roots."
She was also completely unique in being a black pop star who transcended her race globally with her work sold in countries where black artists don't sell."
For Macdonald's latest project, he will be in co-producing and directing the upcoming crowdsourced documentary film 'Life in a Day 2020'. It is set to be released in January 2021. It will also be co-produced by Ridley Scott and distributed by National Geographic.
For YouTube's forthcoming “Life in A Day 2020,” received more than 300,000 submissions from one hundred and ninety-one countries, all recorded on July 25, 2020.
Macdonald has also directed a number of television commercials with the British commercial, television, music video and documentary production company Rogue Film. They have represented Macdonald for all of his television commercial work worldwide.
According to Macdonald's personal life, he and Lund currently reside in North London. They have three sons together.
Macdonald has been active from 1994–present.
#borntodirect
@BFI
@Kanopy
@ScreenDaily
@unitedagents
@roguefilmsyeah
@theguardian
@HollywoodReporter
@DocAlliance
@natgeo
@tubi
@getFANDOM
No comments:
Post a Comment