Derek Williams (filmmaker)

Derek Williams (born August 20, 1929 in Newcastle upon Tyne ) is a British filmmaker , film director , screenwriter and cameraman who was nominated for an Oscar for the short film Turkey the Bridge which he produced . Four other films in which Williams played a leading role received Academy Award nominations, and four of his productions received the BAFTA Film Award .

biography

Williams attended Newcastle Royal Grammar School and then Corpus Christi College in Cambridge. His first film, Hadrian's Wall , was made while still a student and he financed it himself. The amateur film gave him the opportunity to join World Wide Pictures , and thus into the film industry. Even this first film showed very clearly Williams' working method, he paid great attention to the composition of the picture, a literary commentary was important to him and his romanticism, melancholy in nuances, also proved to be characteristic of him.

His first commercial film was the sponsored film Oil Harbor, Aden , which was about a port to be built and a nearby oil refinery. Williams worked on the film for two years and was both his own director and screenwriter and also operated the camera. The 1957 documentary short film There Was a Door , for which Williams had written the script, dealt with the care of people with learning disabilities and was funded by the Manchester Regional Hospital Board. With the film, Williams dedicated himself for the first time to a social issue, an area that had been crowned with success in British documentaries since the 1930s.

Williams experienced his cinematic breakthrough with his short film Foothold on Antarctica , which was released in 1957. Williams took part as a cameraman on the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition , where Vivian Fuchs and Edmund Hillary were there to shoot his short film. He also directed, wrote the script and commented on the film. James Carr received an Academy Award nomination for the film he produced. In addition to a private performance at Buckingham Palace , Foothold on Antarctica was also shown several times at public events, including lectures by Vivian Fuchs and at which donations were collected for the expedition costs incurred. The documentary short Oxford (1958), Williams' next film, was commissioned by the Central Office of Information and was part of an effort to attract foreign students. A year earlier Williams had switched from World Wide Films to Greenpark Films.

Williams' subsequent films were in turn sponsored by BP. For the very atmospheric film North Slope - Alaska (1964), Williams accompanied a team of Canadian oil explorers commissioned by BP to the dark and bitterly cold Arctic region of the 49th US state. I Do - And I Understand (1965) was a commissioned film and was awarded the previous BAFTA award. Turkey the Bridge , a 1966 film dealing with Turkey's historical and cultural heritage, was produced by Williams, who was also nominated for an Oscar for the film. Williams wrote the screenplay for the documentary Indus Waters , released in 1967, with financial support from The World Bank. The film was about a project in which an Indo-Pakistani treaty was supposed to help make the water of the Indus usable for agriculture in the interests of both parties. The film was also awarded the previous BAFTA award. Even the short film The End of the Road (The End of the Road) , which was published in 1976, and again Alaska had the subject, received an Oscar nomination. Williams wrote the spoken comments in the film.

An important film for Williams became the 1970 short film The Shadow of Progress , which was sponsored by BP and is an early example of the fact that environmental pollution from increasing industrialization and global warming was an issue even back then. The following year, under the auspices of BP, Williams made the short film Alaska: The Great Land , which explores the history, culture and animals of Alaska. The 1972 documentary short film The Tide of Traffic , which dealt with the pollution and damage to the urban environment by cars, received an Oscar nomination and an award at the Venice Film Festival.

Williams' last major film was the 1977 documentary short The Shetland Experience , which was about the history, culture and nature of the Shetlands . The film was financed by the environmental advisory group of the Sullom Voe Association. In this context, several players in the oil industry joined forces with the local government to ensure "that the development was carried out with maximum economic benefit and minimal environmental cost to life in the Shetlands". The film was nominated for an Oscar. Williams also attended the Academy Awards for the first and only time. Other films of a commercial nature followed, made possible through sponsorship.

Williams made his last film in 1992 - Oman - Tracts of Time was commissioned by the Sultan of Oman. During the filming, Williams suffered bad health again and again, so that he ended his film career after the film was over. In retirement he wrote and published two books on Roman history, a third remained unpublished.

As Williams is one of the leading British documentary filmmakers of the post-war period, the British Film Institute dedicated a retrospective to him in early December 2010. Derek Williams, who has been married since 1960, lives with his wife in Kent, in southeast England.

Filmography (selection)

Directed unless otherwise stated

• 1955: Oil Harbor, Aden (+ camera and screenplay)
• 1957: There Was a Door (documentary short film; + screenplay)
• 1957: Foothold on Antarctica (short film; + camera + screenplay + commentator)
• 1958: Oxford (documentary short film)
• 1961: Diamonds on board (+ script)
• 1962: The executioner can wait ( Mix me a Person ; only second unit )
• 1963: Adventure in Malta (Treasure in Malta)
• 1964: North Slope - Alaska
• 1965: I Do - And I Understand (documentary short film)
• 1966: Turkey the Bridge (short film; + producer)
• 1967: Indus Waters (documentary; + screenplay)
• 1970: The Shadow of Progress (short film; + screenplay)
• 1971: Alaska: The Great Land (short film)
• 1972: The Tide of Traffic (documentary short film; + screenplay)
• 1975: Sea Area Forties (short film; author comments)
• 1976: The End of the Road ( The Ende of the Road ; short film, script comments)
• 1977: The Shetland Experience (documentary short film; + screenplay)
• 1978: Planet Water (documentary short film)
• 1980: Army Cadet (short documentary film)
• 1982: South East Pipeline (for Esso)
• 1985: Configuration Management (for the British Armed Forces)
• 1986: Refenishment at Sea (as before)
• 1990: A Stake in the Soil (for Shell)
• 1992: Oman - Tracts of Time

Awards

Academy Awards 1967

• nominated with Turkey the Bridge in the category "Best Short Film" (Live Action)

BAFTA Film Award

• 1966 winner with I Do - And I Understand in the category "Best Specialized Film"
• 1968 Winner with Indus Waters in the category "Best Short Film"
• 1971 Winner with The Shadow of Progress in the category "Best Short Film"
• 1972 Winner with Alaska: The Great Land in the "Best Short Film" category
• 1978 nominated with The Shetland Experience in the category "Best Short Film" (non-fiction)
• 1979 nominated with Planet Water in the category "Best Short Film" (non-fiction film)

Web links

• Derek Williams in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Derek Williams on IMDb (English)
2. ↑ The 39th Academy Awards | 1967 see oscars.org (English)
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Patrick Russell: Derek Williams at screenonline.org.uk (English)