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Adam Curtis

British documentary filmmaker (born 1955)

Adam Curtis
Summary

British documentary filmmaker (born 1955)

FieldValue
nameAdam Curtis
imageAdam curtis.jpg
image_size220px
educationMansfield College, Oxford (BA)
captionCurtis in 2005
birth_nameKevin Adam Curtis
birth_date
birth_placeDartford, Kent, England, United Kingdom
years_active1983–present
occupationDocumentary filmmaker
awardsBAFTA (1993, 2000, 2006, 2023)
website

Adam Curtis (born 26 May 1955) is an English documentary filmmaker. Curtis began his career as a conventional documentary producer for the BBC throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s. The release of Pandora's Box (1992) marked the introduction of Curtis's distinctive presentation that uses collage to explore aspects of sociology, psychology, philosophy and political history.

His style has been described as involving, "whiplash digressions, menacing atmospherics and arpeggiated scores, and the near-psychedelic compilation of archival footage", narrated by Curtis himself with "patrician economy and assertion". His films have won five BAFTAs.

Early life

Adam Curtis was born in Dartford in Kent, and raised in nearby Platt. His father was Martin Curtis (1917–2002), a cinematographer with a socialist background. Curtis won a county scholarship and attended the Sevenoaks School. It was there that an influential art teacher introduced him to the work of Robert Rauschenberg. Curtis completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in human sciences at Mansfield College, Oxford. He began a PhD and taught in politics, but ultimately became disillusioned with academia and decided to leave.

Career

Early career

Curtis applied to the BBC and was hired to make a film for one of its training courses, comparing designer clothes in music videos to the design of weapons. He was subsequently given a post on That's Life!, a magazine series that juxtaposed hard-hitting investigations and light-hearted content. He was a film director on Out of Court, a BBC Two legal series, from 1980 until 1982.

Politics

Curtis is inspired by the sociologist Max Weber, who, he argues, challenged the "crude, left-wing, vulgar Marxism that says that everything happens because of economic forces within society". Curtis has answered questions on his politics in interviews over his career but has answered inconsistently, making it hard to label his politics. In a 2012 interview, Curtis remarked on his political outlook stating fondness for libertarian ideas but states his politics are unique and differ depending on the issue. Curtis also rejects being labelled a leftist, calling the idea "rubbish", saying:

In a 2021 interview, Curtis stated having sympathies to radicalism and that progressivism is his politics. He notes again his political inconsistency, saying:

In a 2022 interview, Curtis reiterated the neoconservative interpretation of "The Century of the Self" but added it is not what he himself believes. This time, Curtis states that he does not know his exact politics, saying:

Documentaries

Example of Curtis's "trademark" title screens (''Modern Times: The Way of All Flesh'', 1997)

Curtis cites the U.S.A. trilogy, a series of three novels by John Dos Passos that he first read when he was thirteen, as the greatest influence on his work:

He has also cited Robert Rauschenberg and Émile Zola as creative influences. Discussing his process in an interview with fellow documentary-maker Jon Ronson for Vice, Curtis said his extensive work with footage acquired from the BBC Archives is often led by "instinct and imagination", with the aim of creating "a mood that gives power and force to the story I'm telling".

Instead of specially composed music, which Curtis has said "creates a sort of monoculture", he uses tracks from a variety of genres, decades, and countries, as well as sound effects that he discovers on old tapes. According to a profile of Curtis by Tim Adams, published in The Observer: "If there has been a theme in Curtis's work ... it has been to look at how different elites have tried to impose an ideology on their times, and the tragicomic consequences of those attempts".

In 2005, Curtis received the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival. In 2006, he was given the Alan Clarke Award for Outstanding Creative Contribution to Television at the British Academy Television Awards. In 2009, the Sheffield International Documentary Festival gave Curtis the Inspiration Award for inspiring viewers and other documentary filmmakers. In 2015, he was awarded the True Vision Award by the True/False Film Fest. Curtis's critics have accused him of exaggeration and distortion, even wilful misrepresentation.

Blog

Curtis administered a blog subtitled 'The Medium and the Message' hosted by the BBC and updated between 2009 and 2016.

Filmography

YearTitleSubjectPartsChannel/VenueNotes & Awards
1983Just Another Day: "Selfridges"Behind the scenes at Selfridges, a department store on Oxford Street, London.S01E03BBC Two, 29 March 1983
1983Just Another Day: "The Seaside"A typical day in Walton-on-the-Naze.S01E06BBC Two, 19 April 1983
1983Trumpets and Typewriters: A History of War ReportingThe history of war correspondents.BBC One, 19 July 1983
1984Inquiry: The Great British Housing Disaster.The system-built housing of the 1960s. Narrated by David Jones.BBC Two, 4 September 1984
1984Italians: "The Mayor of Montemilone"The politics of a small Italian town and its communist mayor, Dino Labriola.S01E04BBC One, 26 October 1984
1984The Cost of TreacheryThe Albanian Subversion, in which the CIA and MI6 attempted to overthrow the Albanian government and to weaken the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War in 1949, and the role of double agent Kim Philby.BBC One, 30 October 1984
198740 Minutes: "Bombay Hotel"The luxurious Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, contrasted with the poverty of the city's slums.BBC Two, 30 April 1987
1988An Ocean ApartExplores the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States from World War I to the 1980s.7BBC One, 20 April 1988
198940 Minutes: "The Kingdom of Fun"Documentary about the Metro Centre in Gateshead, developed by entrepreneur John Hall. It compares Hall's plans to regenerate North East England with those of Labour politician T. Dan Smith.BBC Two, 19 January 1989
1989Inside Story: "The Road to Terror"How the Iranian Revolution turned from idealism to terror, drawing parallels with the French Revolution two hundred years earlier.E06BBC One, 14 June 1989
1992Pandora's BoxThe dangers of technocratic and political rationality.6BBC Two, 11 June 1992Originality and Best Factual Series, BAFTA Awards 1993
1995The Living DeadThe different ways that history and memory (both national and individual) have been used and manipulated by politicians and others.3BBC Two, 30 May 1995
1996£830,000,000 – Nick Leeson and the Fall of the House of BaringsNick Leeson and the collapse of Barings Bank.BBC One, 12 June 1996An Inside Story special. Later titled 25 Million Pounds.
1997Modern Times: The Way of All FleshThe story, dating back to the 1950s, of the search for a cure to cancer, and the impact of Henrietta Lacks, the "woman who will never die" because her cells never stopped reproducing.BBC Two, 19 March 1997
1999The Mayfair SetLooks at the birth of the global arms trade, the invention of asset stripping, and how buccaneer capitalists shaped the Thatcher years, focusing on the rise of Colonel David Stirling, Jim Slater, Sir James Goldsmith and Tiny Rowland—members of the elite Clermont Club in the 1960s.4BBC Two, 18 July 1999Best Factual Series or Strand, BAFTA Awards 2000
2002The Century of the SelfHow Freud's theories on the unconscious led to the development of public relations by his nephew Edward Bernays; the use of desire over need; and self-actualisation as a means of achieving economic growth and the political control of populations.4BBC Two, 17 March 2002; art-house cinemas in the U.S.Best Documentary Series, Broadcast Awards; Historical Film of the Year, Longman-History Today Awards; Nominated for Best Documentary Series, Royal Television Society
2004The Power of NightmaresSuggests a parallel between the rise of Islamism in the Arab world and neoconservatism in the United States, and their mutual need, argues Curtis, to create the myth of a dangerous enemy to gain support.3BBC Two, 20 October 2004Best Factual Series or Strand, BAFTA Awards 2005
2007The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of FreedomExplores the modern concept of freedom, specifically, "how a simplistic model of human beings as self-seeking, almost robotic creatures led to today's idea of freedom".3BBC Two, 7 March 2007
2007The Rise and Fall of the TV JournalistShort film chronicling the transformation of mainstream media and the balance of political power in the last few decades by looking at how the role of the broadcast journalist has changed since the 1950s.Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, third episode of the fourth series
2009Oh DearismShort film about how mainstream media simplify complex events and present them as "scattered terrible things happening everywhere, Oh Dear", leaving the public feeling powerless to do anything about them.Charlie Brooker's Newswipe, third episode of the first series
2009It Felt Like a KissCollaboration with theatre company Punchdrunk and Damon Albarn.Manchester International Festival
2010Paranoia and Moral PanicsShort film using the paranoia of Richard Nixon to explore how a similar outlook on life has been propagated on a larger social scale in the new media age and the resulting moral panics and immobilisation of politics.Charlie Brooker's Newswipe, fourth episode of the second series
2011All Watched Over by Machines of Loving GraceArgues that computers have failed to liberate humanity, and instead have "distorted and simplified our view of the world around us". The title is taken from a 1967 poem of the same name by Richard Brautigan.3url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2011/may/23/review-machines-of-loving-gracetitle=TV review: All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Gracenewspaper=The Guardiandate=23 May 2011last1=Wollastonfirst1=Sam}}
2011Every Day Is Like SundayThe rise and fall of press baron Cecil King, and the changing relationship between the public, politics and the media.His personal blog; not a full documentary, but "a rough cut".
2013Everything Is Going According to Plan (Massive Attack v Adam Curtis)url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jul/05/massive-attack-adam-curtis-manchester-reviewtitle=Massive Attack v Adam Curtis (review)newspaper=The Guardiandate=5 July 2013}}Manchester International Festival
2014Oh Dearism IIShort film examining the global events of 2014 to reveal a chaotic morass, the reporting of which is increasingly difficult to comprehend in the context of the 24-hour news cycle and the internet (special feature on Russian Vladislav Surkov).Charlie Brooker's 2014 Wipe, 30 December 2014
2015Bitter LakeHow Western leaders' simplistic good vs. evil narrative has failed in the complex post-war era, and how many Islamic terrorist groups have their origins in the U.S.'s long-standing alliance with Saudi Arabia.url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p02gyz6b/bitter-laketitle=Adam Curtis: Bitter Lakepublisher=BBC iPlayeraccess-date=31 January 2015}}
2016Living in an Unreal WorldShort film for Vice Media about the illusion of stability, freedom, and prosperity in the West, comparing it to life in the Soviet Union during the 1970s. Ends with a trailer for HyperNormalisation.VICE (Facebook), 15 October 2016
2016HyperNormalisation"How we got to this strange time of great uncertainty and confusion where those who are supposed to be in power are paralysed and have no idea what to do".url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2016/adam-curtis-hypernormalisationtitle=Adam Curtis' new film HyperNormalisation to premiere on BBC iPlayer this Octoberpublisher=BBCdate=22 September 2016access-date=22 September 2016}}Nominated for Best Single Documentary, BAFTA Awards 2017
2017MK UltraDance collaboration with Rosie Kay Dance Company. Explores project MKUltra and conspiracy theories including the Illuminati, themes later reworked into Can't Get You Out of My Head.Live performance. Commissioned by Birmingham Repertory Theatre, DanceXchange, Warwick Arts Centre & HOME
2019UntitledCollaboration with Massive Attack. "How we have moved into a strange backward-looking world, enclosed by machines that read our data and predict our every move, haunted by ghosts from the past".Mezzanine XXI tour
2021Can't Get You Out of My Headurl=https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2021/cgyoomhtitle=New six-film series from Adam Curtisdate=20 January 2021website=BBCMedia Centre}}6BBC iPlayer, 11 February 2021
2022url=https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2022/adam-curtis-russia-1985-1999-traumazonetitle=New Adam Curtis project lands on BBC iPlayer on Thursday 13 Octoberdate=22 September 2022website=BBC Media Centre}}Seven hour-long films about the disintegration of the Soviet Union and subsequent rise to power of Vladimir Putin as the President of Russia, seen through the eyes of Russian people at every level of society.7Premiered at Telluride Film Festival, 2022Best Specialist Factual, BAFTA Awards 2023
2024The Way3 part drama series co-created by Curtis.3BBC One
2025Shifty"Shifty shows, in a new and imaginative way, how over the past 40 years in Britain extreme money and hyper-individualism came together in an unspoken alliance"5BBC iPlayer, 14 June 2025

References

References

  1. Andrew Anthony. (4 January 2015). "Adam Curtis: Cult film-maker with an eye for the unsettling". [[The Guardian]].
  2. Darke, Chris (17 July 2012). [https://web.archive.org/web/20140116091402/http://filmcomment.com/entry/interview-adam-curtis "Interview: Adam Curtis."] ''[[Film Comment]]''. Archived from [http://filmcomment.com/entry/interview-adam-curtis the original.]
  3. (15 February 2021). "Adam Curtis: "Big Tech and Big Data have been completely useless in this crisis"". [[New Statesman]].
  4. (9 October 2016). "Adam Curtis continues search for the hidden forces behind a century of chaos". The Guardian.
  5. (27 October 2016). "Adam Curtis and the Secret History of Everything". The New York Times.
  6. (February 2012). "In Conversation with Adam Curtis, Part I". [[e-flux]].
  7. (20 May 2011). "Adam Curtis: The Perils of Binary Thinking". [[The Daily Telegraph.
  8. "Search results for 'Out of Court', 'Adam Curtis'". BBC.
  9. (Feb 16, 2021). "Red Scare Podcast: "Cant Get You Out Of My Head" Adam Curtis Interview (Excerpt)".
  10. Roussinos, Aris. (2022-12-07). "Adam Curtis and the death of autocracy".
  11. Ronson, Jon. (16 January 2015). "Jon Ronson in Conversation with Adam Curtis".
  12. Gavin Miller. (15 December 2011). "It's the inner DJ in me: Ghosting Season meet film maker Adam Curtis".
  13. Adams, Tim. (24 October 2004). "The Exorcist". [[The Observer]].
  14. "SF Int'l Film Festival - Awards & Tributes - Adam Curtis".
  15. "2006 Television Alan Clarke Award - BAFTA Awards". [[BAFTA]].
  16. "Sheffield Doc/Fest Award Winners".
  17. (2015-02-03). "Adam Curtis is the 2015 True Vision Award Recipient". True/False Film Fest.
  18. [https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/adam-curtis-the-trap-game-theory Adam Curtis's paranoia] - Max Steuer, [[Prospect (magazine)]]
  19. [https://thequietus.com/articles/21077-adam-curtis-hypernormalisation-review-bbc-politics-doom HyperNormalisation: Is Adam Curtis, Like Trump, Just A Master Manipulator?] - Phil Harrison, [[The Quietus]]
  20. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/webarchive/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fblogs%2Fadamcurtis ''Adam Curtis - The Medium and the Message''] - his personal blog at [[BBC Online]]
  21. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7860964/ "Selfridges."] [[IMDb]].
  22. (1983-03-24). "Just Another Day: Selfridges - BBC Two England - 29 March 1983". [[The Radio Times]].
  23. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7861024/ "The Seaside."] [[IMDb]].
  24. (1983-04-14). "Just Another Day: The Seaside - BBC Two England - 19 April 1983". [[The Radio Times]].
  25. (1983-07-14). "Trumpets and Typewriters - BBC One London - 19 July 1983". [[The Radio Times]].
  26. "The Great British Housing Disaster (1984)". [[British Film Institute]].
  27. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6005814/ ''The Great British Housing Disaster'' (TV Movie 1984).] [[IMDb]].
  28. (1984-08-30). "Inquiry: The Great British Housing Disaster - BBC Two England - 4 September 1984". [[The Radio Times]].
  29. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7958134/ "The Mayor of Montemilone".] [[IMDb]].
  30. (1984-10-18). "Italians - BBC One London - 26 October 1984". [[The Radio Times]].
  31. (1984-10-25). "The Cost of Treachery - BBC One London - 30 October 1984". [[The Radio Times]].
  32. (1987-04-23). "40 Minutes - BBC Two England - 30 April 1987". [[The Radio Times]].
  33. (1988-04-14). "An Ocean Apart - BBC One London - 20 April 1988". [[The Radio Times]].
  34. (1989-01-12). "40 Minutes - BBC Two England - 19 January 1989". [[The Radio Times]].
  35. (1989-06-08). "Inside Story - BBC One London - 14 June 1989". [[The Radio Times]].
  36. (1992-06-04). "Pandora's Box - BBC Two England - 11 June 1992". [[The Radio Times]].
  37. "1993 Television - BAFTA Awards". BAFTA.
  38. (1995-05-25). "The Living Dead - BBC Two England - 30 May 1995". [[The Radio Times]].
  39. (1996-06-06). "Inside Story Special - BBC One London - 12 June 1996". [[The Radio Times]].
  40. (1997-03-13). "Modern Times: The Way of All Flesh - BBC Two England - 19 March 1997". [[The Radio Times]].
  41. (1999-07-15). "The Mayfair Set - BBC Two England - 18 July 1999". [[The Radio Times]].
  42. "2000 Television Factual Series or Strand - BAFTA Awards". [[BAFTA]].
  43. (2002-03-14). "The Century of the Self - BBC Two England - 17 March 2002". [[The Radio Times]].
  44. (30 January 2003). "BBC cleans up at Broadcast Awards 2003". [[Broadcast (magazine).
  45. (3 March 2003). "Back to Narrative at the History Today Awards". [[History Today]].
  46. (14 March 2011). "Programme Awards Winners 2002". [[Royal Television Society]].
  47. (2004-10-14). "The Power of Nightmares - BBC Two England - 20 October 2004". [[The Radio Times]].
  48. "2005 Television Factual Series or Strand - BAFTA Awards". [[BAFTA]].
  49. (2007-03-08). "The Trap - What Happened to Our Dreams of Freedom - BBC Two England - 11 March 2007". [[The Radio Times]].
  50. [http://thoughtmaybe.com/by/adam-curtis Thoughtmaybe: ''Films by Adam Curtis''.] Accessed Aug. 9, 2016.
  51. (15 December 2009). "BBC - Adam Curtis Blog: It Felt Like A Kiss: The Film". BBC Blogs.
  52. (2009-07-02). "The Culture Show - BBC Two England - 8 July 2009". [[The Radio Times]].
  53. (23 May 2011). "TV review: All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace". [[The Guardian]].
  54. (27 July 2011). "Every Day Is Like Sunday {{!}} The Downfall of a Press Baron". BBC.
  55. (7 July 2013). "Massive Attack v Adam Curtis (review)". [[The Observer]].
  56. (5 July 2013). "Massive Attack v Adam Curtis (review)". [[The Guardian]].
  57. MacInnes, Paul. (24 January 2015). "Adam Curtis: 'I try to make the complexity and chaos intelligible'". [[The Guardian]].
  58. "Adam Curtis: Bitter Lake". [[BBC iPlayer]].
  59. Adam Curtis. (15 October 2016). "Watch a short film Adam Curtis made for VICE about your life". [[Vice Media]].
  60. [[Vice Media
  61. (22 September 2016). "Adam Curtis' new film HyperNormalisation to premiere on BBC iPlayer this October". [[BBC]].
  62. "Television in 2017 {{!}} BAFTA Awards". [[BAFTA]].
  63. Mackrell, Judith (21 April 2017). [http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/apr/21/mk-ultra-adam-curtis-doc-rosie-kay-illuminati-dance-laban "MK Ultra review – Adam Curtis doc dominates Rosie Kay's Illuminati dance."] ''[[The Guardian]]''.
  64. (2017-03-13). "'Television is so rigid': Adam Curtis on his first dance work".
  65. Stone, Bryony. (2018-11-07). "adam curtis is making an illuminati-themed entrance into the dance world".
  66. (3 May 2017). "MK ULTRA".
  67. Sam Moore. (25 January 2019). "Massive Attack have collaborated with Adam Curtis for their 'Mezzanine' tour".
  68. (20 January 2021). "New six-film series from Adam Curtis".
  69. (22 September 2022). "New Adam Curtis project lands on BBC iPlayer on Thursday 13 October".
  70. (2022-09-01). "Inside the Telluride Film Festival Lineup: "There Will Be Fighting"".
  71. "2023 Television Specialist Factual {{!}} BAFTA Awards". [[BAFTA]].
  72. (17 February 2023). "BBC One, BBC Wales and iPlayer announce the Way, a new drama from Michael Sheen, James Graham and Adam Curtis".
  73. (15 May 2025). "Shifty - A new series by Adam Curtis coming to BBC iPlayer in June 2025".
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