NEWS RELEASE ACCLAIMED BRITISH DIRECTOR DON BOYD HOSTS RETROSPECTIVE AT LONDON INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL 23rd April - 8th May 2010, Venues across London
Acclaimed director/producer Don Boyd’s documentary work is celebrated at this year’s London International Documentary Festival (23 April – 8 May) with a ten film retrospective.
Spanning a diverse range of topics - from opera, to British naturism, to sensitive portrayals of live & love – Boyd's retrospective is a masterclass in the art of documentary film- making.
The showcase opens with the highly acclaimed but controversial Lucia which explores relationships within an opera troupe performing Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor for a wedding party. The bride’s brother hopes her new husband, a rich American tenor, will contribute cash to save the failing troupe, but she’s really in love with someone else...
As The Times reviewer put it at the time: ‘Handsome to look at and gorgeous to listen to, Boyd's fine soprano soars above some dazzling imagery’. Released in 1998 this is a one- off opportunity to see this operatic film classic in a fitting auditorium, The Barbican, 25th April.
A triple bill on 26 April at The Horse Hospital is a must for all Boyd fans. The bill features Full Frontal in Flipflops – Boyd’s documentary marking the 50th anniversary of British naturism – The Babe Business, charting the lives of young models in New York, and Donald and Luba, chronicling the history of his Scottish father and Russian mother. A Q&A with the director follows this screening.
The Cannes Palme d’Or-nominated Aria (1987), Boyd’s extraordinary operatic collaboration with 10 of the world's most distinguished Directors, screens at the Clapham Picture House on 30 April. While most opera-films present an opera in its entirety, Aria consists of ten musical excerpts from ten different operas, directed by tan extraordinary line-up of talent including Ken Russell, Julien Temple, Nicolas Roeg, Jean-Luc Godard, Derek Jarman and Robert Altman, Franc Roddam
The retrospective continues with Archive of Dreams (set in La Spezia, Italy) and The Passion of Louis Malle, a documentary portrait of the legendary French film director featuring many of his collaborators including playwrights David Hare and John Guare, his brother Vincent Malle, his wife Candice Bergen, the Observer film critic Philip French and a myriad of the movie stars, actors and actresses he worked with. Screened together at the Lexi Cinema on 4th May.
A double bill of Man, God and Africa – a vivid portrayal of the importance and vibrancy of Pentecostal Christianity o Black South Africans - and Boyd’s much-loved depiction of a gay love affair Andrew and Jeremy Get Married screens at The Horse Hospital on 6th May, followed by a panel discussion.
Finally, Boyd’s long-time collaboration with the iconic director Derek Jarman is marked by a screening of War Requiem on 8 May at the British Museum. Using no spoken dialogue, this moving film simply allows the music and lyrics of Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem, which include WWI soldier poet Wilfred Owen's poems, to tell the story of war's horrors. It also includes actual footage of contemporary wars (WWII, Vietnam, Angola, etc.) making this very much a film that deserves a further airing.
Fiercely independent and critical of much mainstream entertainment, Boyd has little time for much contemporary ‘documentary’ television. “Television journalism has hijacked what was once a great art form and uses the word ‘documentary’ to describe what is also loosely called ‘factual’ or ‘reality’ television, but is in fact just bastardised, cheap forms of manipulated, invariably mendacious, amateur entertainment masquerading as an honest representation of reality,” he says.
In addition to screenings of many of Boyd’s documentaries, he will take part in debates and discussions at locations throughout the festival. To hear more of Boyd’s trenchant views on film, television and much more besides, come along to LIDF 2010! For further information please contact Fiona Hazard, LIDF Press Office, tel: 07786 435595.
About Don Boyd With a career spanning more than 35 years, Don Boyd is the creative mainspring behind dozens of movies, documentaries and works for television. As a director, his many ground-breaking documentaries include Andrew and Jeremy get Married, Full Frontal with Flip-flops and The Passions of Louis Malle, about the great French film director. Boyd’s feature films as director include My Kingdom, starring Richard Harris and Lynn Redgrave, Lucia, based on the opera Lucia de Lammamoor, and Goldeneye, starring Charles Dance as James Bond author Ian Fleming. His producer credits range from Lyndsay Anderson’s Look Back in Anger to the multi-directed Aria, taking in several Derek Jarman movies including The Last of England and The Tempest. The film critic and writer Alexander Walker once described Boyd as ‘a one man film industry’. Fiercely independent and critical of much mainstream entertainment, he has little time for much contemporary ‘documentary’ television. “Television journalism has hijacked what was once a great art form and uses the word ‘documentary’ to describe what is also loosely called ‘factual’ or ‘reality’ television, but is in fact just bastardised, cheap forms of manipulated, invariably mendacious, amateur entertainment masquerading as an honest representation of reality,” he says. Boyd was brought up in Hong Kong, Uganda and Kenya, the son of a Scottish father and Russian mother. He was educated at Loretto School in Scotland and at the London Film School. For further information please contact Fiona Hazard, LIDF Press Office, tel: 07786 435595.