Ken McMullen (born 31 August 1948, Manchester) is a film director, artist and since 2012 Anniversary Professor of Film Studies at Kingston University, London. McMullen's films are grounded in philosophy, history, psychoanalysis and literature. McMullen's exhibition Signatures of the Invisible brought together artists and scientists working at CERN, the European particle physics facility near Geneva. His other work includes filming conversations with physicists at Stanford Linear Accelerator Centre, which he describes as "making a diary of the transition in human culture" because he believes physics is arriving at another shifting point. His latest work Arrows of Time is a radical new form of cinema consisting of 40 interchangeable elements that deal with literature, philosophy, and contemporary physics, premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco in April 2007.
During the late 1990s and early 2000s McMullen also lectured and took tutor groups and what was then 'The London College of Printing and Distributive Trades' - now the London College of Communication. Attached to the department of Film and Television studies at the college's Back Hill facility, McMullen was popular with students.
Joel Daniel Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen, together known as the Coen brothers, are an American filmmaking duo. Their films span many genres and styles, which they frequently subvert or parody. Their most acclaimed works include Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1987), Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), No Country for Old Men (2007), A Serious Man (2009), True Grit (2010) and Inside Llewyn Davis (2013). Many of their films are distinctly American, often examining the culture of the American South and American West in both modern and historical contexts.
Masaki Kobayashi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, best known for the epic trilogy The Human Condition (1959–1961), the samurai films Harakiri (1962) and Samurai Rebellion (1967), and the horror anthology Kwaidan (1964). Senses of Cinema described him as "one of the finest depicters of Japanese society in the 1950s and 1960s."
Jan Tomáš "Miloš" Forman was a Czech-American film director, screenwriter, actor, and professor who rose to fame in his native Czechoslovakia before emigrating to the United States in 1968. Throughout Forman's career he won two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Golden Bear, a César Award, and the Czech Lion.
Ross McElwee is an American documentary filmmaker known for his autobiographical films about his family and personal life, usually interwoven with an episodic journey that intersects with larger political or philosophical issues. His humorous and often self-deprecating films refer to cultural aspects of his Southern upbringing. He received the Career Award at the 2007 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, film producer and Professor at Tama Art University in Tokyo. Working outside the strict confines of the Thai film studio system, Apichatpong has directed several features and dozens of short films. Friends and fans sometimes refer to him as "Joe".
Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, particularly early ones, relate to arts in other disciplines: painting, dance, literature and poetry, or arise from research and development of new technical resources.
Sir Isaac Julien is a British installation artist, filmmaker, and Distinguished Professor of the Arts at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Don McKellar is a Canadian actor, writer, playwright, and filmmaker. He was part of a loosely-affiliated group of filmmakers to emerge from Toronto known as the Toronto New Wave.
Peter Louis Galison is an American historian and philosopher of science. He is the Joseph Pellegrino University Professor in history of science and physics at Harvard University.
Maria Esteves de Medeiros Victorino de Almeida, DamSE, known professionally as Maria de Medeiros, is a Portuguese actress, director, and singer who has been involved in both European and American film-productions.
Brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, collectively referred to as the Dardenne brothers, are a Belgian filmmaking duo. They write, produce, and direct their films together. They also own the production company Les Films du Fleuve.
Bhabendra Nath Saikia was a novelist, short-story writer, editor and film director from Assam, India. Dr. Saikia received his doctorate in physics from the University of London. He began his career as a reader in the Department of Physics, University of Guwahati. He later played an important role in the publication of college level textbooks in the Assamese language during his tenure as the Secretary of the Co-ordination Committee for production of textbooks in regional languages.
Partition is a film by award-winning director Ken McMullen. The film is set in the turmoil surrounding the transfer of political power in British India from British to Indian hands and the Partition of the Indian subcontinent into the Dominion of Pakistan and the Republic of India in 1947. Made in 1987, the film was released on DVD in 2007. Its screening has been voted Time Out Critics' choice No 1 after 20 years.
Ghost Dance is a 1983 British film directed by Ken McMullen. This independent film explores the beliefs and myths surrounding the existence of ghosts and the nature of cinema.
1871 is a 1990 period film about the rise and fall of the Paris Commune in 1871. It was directed by Ken McMullen and produced by Stewart Richards. The writers were McMullen, James Leahy and Terry James. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival and the 1991 American Film Institute Los Angeles International Film Festival, at which it was “highly recommended” by the Los Angeles Times. The film stars Ana Padrao, Roshan Seth, John Lynch, Jack Klaff, and Timothy Spall.
The 43rd Cannes Film Festival was held from 10 to 21 May 1990. The Palme d'Or went to Wild at Heart by David Lynch.
Benjamin Heisenberg is a German film director and screenwriter. He has directed sixteen films since 1995. His film Schläfer was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. His 2010 film, The Robber, was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival.
Stewart Richards is an English film producer, television executive, publisher and writer. He is notable for producing award-winning British arthouse films in the 1980s, including 1988 Palme d'Or-nominated Out of Town, the 1990 Un Certain Regard-selected 1871, and the 1991 Academy Award-nominated and BAFTA-nominated Dear Rosie.