Don Boyd
Encyclopedia
Donald William Robertson Boyd Hon D.Litt (Exeter) (born 11 August 1948 in Nairn
, Scotland) is a Scottish film director
, producer
, screenwriter
and novelist. He is a Governor of the London Film School
and a Visiting Professor in Film at Exeter University.
in Musselburgh
, East Lothian
. After leaving school in 1965 he trained as an accountant in Edinburgh before enrolling in the London Film School in 1968. He graduated in 1970 and began his career working for the BBC
television series Tomorrow's World
. After two years directing commercials for the likes of Coca Cola, Shell
and Chrysler
, he directed his first feature film, Intimate Reflections
, which premiered at the London Film Festival
in 1975. This was followed by East of Elephant Rock
starring John Hurt
, which also premiered at the London Film Festival but gathered mainly hostile reviews.
In 1977 Boyd established his own production company, Boyd's Co., which over the next decade produced a series of British films including Alan Clarke
's Scum
, Derek Jarman's
The Tempest, Lindsay Anderson
's Look Back in Anger
and Julien Temple's
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
. During this time his company featured the work of such actors, writers, directors, producers, cinematographers and musicians as John Hurt, Ray Winstone
, Dame Helen Mirren
, Tilda Swinton
, Stephen Fry
, Michael Tolkin
, Jeremy Thomas
, Sarah Radclyffe
, Bridget Fonda
, Kathy Burke
, The Edge
, and The Sex Pistols.
In 1978 Boyd collaborated on and helped finance Ron Peck's and Paul Hallam's 1978 Nighthawks, described by Time Out as "Britain's first committed gay feature film", which attracted controversy in the UK at the time prompting Channel 4
to delay its broadcast until 1984.
Many of Boyd's films at this time, including Scum, Sweet William, Derek Jarman's The Tempest and later Honky Tonk Freeway
, attracted investors because their financing incorporated tax avoidance schemes devised by his business partner and close friend the tax accountant (also arts patron and benefactor) Roy Tucker. These schemes were funded by the Rossminster banking group. Rossminster attracted adverse media attention, especially from the noted Sunday Times financial journalist Lorana Sullivan, and was discussed in parliament In 1981 The House of Lords
effectively ruled many of Tucker's schemes invalid
leaving most of Rossminster's customers, including Boyd's investors, unable to garner any tax relief from his schemes after 1975. The total potential loss to the exchequer before Rossminster's activities were curtailed was eventually estimated at £362 million while the tax eventually returned (with interest) estimated at around £500 million.
Tax avoidance schemes had been commonly used for years by celebrities in the entertainment world to protect their income but Tucker and Boyd were the first to provide them to finance films. The film critic and historian Alexander Walker
commented that financing films in such ways became a common practice at the time but suggested that ultimately it was self-defeating because the government of the day might well have concluded that if the British film industry was so good at inventing financial self-help of this sort then it had no need of government assistance. Indeed the 1985 Films Act, pushed through parliament despite all-party protest by Norman Lamont
, fellow alumnus of Boyd's at Loretto School, dismantled all subsidies to the British film industry.
Boyd moved to Hollywood in the early 1980s for a two year period, where he worked at both Paramount Pictures
and Universal Studios
and produced John Schlesinger
's 1981 $24 million commercial failure Honky Tonk Freeway. The film was based on an original idea of Boyd's and financed in part by his Rossminster associations. Its eventual $11 million loss to its principal backer Thorn-EMI significantly impacted Thorn-EMI's subsequent fortunes and aspirations.
Boyd returned to the UK in 1982 and attempted to resume his directorial career with Gossip
, which was to be a satire on celebrity life in the early Thatcher
years based on an original treatment by Frances Lynn
. The production ran into financial difficulties and was shut down after just two weeks shooting.
Dan North, a lecturer in Film in the Department of English at Exeter University, has chronicled Gossip in Sights Unseen: Unfinished British Films edited by North. Stephen Fry was given his first job in film by Boyd as a script rewriter for Gossip and its story is recounted by him in The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography
. Fry is supportive of Boyd in his book
In 1987 Boyd produced the multi-directorial opera film Aria which featured segments by Robert Altman
, Bruce Beresford
, Bill Bryden
, Jean-Luc Godard
, Derek Jarman, Franc Roddam
, Nicolas Roeg
, Ken Russell
, Charles Sturridge
and Julien Temple. It was in competition for the Palme d'Or
at the Cannes Film Festival
in 1987.
After producing Derek Jarman's War Requiem
, for the BBC in 1988, which was Laurence Olivier
's last film, Boyd returned to his directorial career. He directed low budget independent feature films such as Twenty-One
, written by Zoë Heller
and featuring Patsy Kensit
as female lead; Kleptomania, co-scripted by Christa Lang, the widow of Samuel Fuller
; Lucia, in which his daughter Amanda had the lead role; and My Kingdom
which featured Richard Harris
in his last leading role. He further directed over twenty television documentaries including a BAFTA
and Prix Italia
nominated film featuring the comedienne Ruby Wax
in a documentary about Imelda Marcos
; Andrew and Jeremy Get Married
, a documentary film
portrait of a commitment ceremony
which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival
in 2004 and was broadcast on the BBC
as part of their Storyville documentary series; Full Frontal in Flip Flops, a documentary film portrait of naturism
for ITV
; and Donald and Luba: A Family Movie, an 'intimate family documentary' in which he and his 22 year old filmmaker daughter Kate chronicled his parents' failed marriage (inter alia suggesting Boyd's father was a British spy during the Mau-Mau rebellion) and which was filmed on location in Harbin
, Hong Kong
, Jinja
, Kiev
, London, Nairobi
and Shanghai
for the BBC.
The National Film Theatre presented a season of his films in 1982 culminating in a Guardian Lecture with the film critic Derek Malcolm
.
In 2001 Boyd claimed he had been sexually abused by a teacher while a student at Loretto School
in the 1960s. The teacher was charged on the basis of other allegations that emerged but the case was later dropped.
The University of Exeter awarded him an honorary
Doctor of Letters
(DLitt) in 2009. Previously he had been an Honorary Visiting Professor in the College of Humanities between 2005 and 2008. Boyd had earlier donated his personal and business papers documenting his 30 year film career at that point to the university's Centre for Interdisciplinary Research (CIR)
. He has presented a series of In Conversation events at the CIR with prominent cultural figures such as Mike Leigh
and the Director-General of the BBC
, Mark Thompson
.
Boyd's 2009 internet venture Hibrow.tv, 'the world’s first independent Internet platform for freshly created content curated and produced by established visual and performing arts', had still to get fully off the ground as of March 2011.
Alexander Walker referred to him as 'the Boyd Wonder' in his 1985 book National Heroes: British Cinema in the 70's and 80's while Boyd describes himself in the same text as 'a director-orientated audience-conscious film-marketing editor'. Nevertheless, despite his evident prominence, his films have yet to have the commercial success of some his contemporaries while international critical acclaim has thus far proved equally elusive. His last feature film My Kingdom, co-scripted with Nick Davies
and drawing on both their researches into the London and Liverpool criminal underworld (which in Boyd's case included the Kray bothers
), brought him into conflict with its principal lead Richard Harris, who wanted to rewrite the script. The film subsequently received mixed reviews while generally acknowledging a fine performance from Harris who was nominated for a British Independent Film Award. Similarly Twenty-One earned Patsy Kensit an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead
nomination but itself received mixed press reviews in the UK (although it was well received at its Sundance
premiere earning Boyd a nomination).
newspaper, Time Out and The Observer
where his personal opinions as an informed insider have been balanced publicly with his championship of indigenous British cinema.
In 2006, in his role as the guest editor of the Directors Guild of Great Britain's annual magazine Direct, he persuaded 22 film-makers including Stephen Frears
, Hanif Kureishi
, Terence Davies and Charles Dance
to contribute articles and interviews to help consolidate the profile and public status of the unique pool of directorial talent in the United Kingdom.
Boyd's first novel Margot's Secrets, a psychological thriller set in Barcelona about a therapist forced to confront her own adulterous secret following a series of violent ritualistic murders involving her clients, was published in 2010. His wife Hilary, a granddaughter of the late Frederick Marquis, 1st Earl of Woolton, also has a forthcoming debut novel Thursdays in the Park due 2011, described by her publisher as 'a beautiful and insightful first novel written by an author who has the perfect experience to write it'.
Produced
Nairn
Nairn is a town and former burgh in the Highland council area of Scotland. It is an ancient fishing port and market town around east of Inverness...
, Scotland) is a Scottish film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
, screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
and novelist. He is a Governor of the London Film School
London Film School
The London Film School is a private film school in London and is situated in a converted brewery in Covent Garden, London, close to a hub of the UK film industry based in Soho. The LFS was founded in 1956 by Bob Dunbar as The London School of Film Technique...
and a Visiting Professor in Film at Exeter University.
Biography
Boyd was brought up by his Scottish father and Russian mother in Hong Kong, Uganda and Kenya and educated at the noted Scottish public school Loretto SchoolLoretto School
Loretto School is an independent school in Scotland, founded in 1827. The campus occupies in Musselburgh, near Edinburgh.-History:Loretto was founded by the Reverend Thomas Langhorne in 1827. Langhorne came from Crosby Ravensworth, near Kirkby Stephen. The school was later taken over by his son,...
in Musselburgh
Musselburgh
Musselburgh is the largest settlement in East Lothian, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth, six miles east of Edinburgh city centre.-History:...
, East Lothian
East Lothian
East Lothian is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a lieutenancy Area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Scottish Borders and Midlothian. Its administrative centre is Haddington, although its largest town is Musselburgh....
. After leaving school in 1965 he trained as an accountant in Edinburgh before enrolling in the London Film School in 1968. He graduated in 1970 and began his career working for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television series Tomorrow's World
Tomorrow's World
Tomorrow's World was a long-running BBC television series, showcasing new developments in the world of science and technology. First aired on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003.- Content :...
. After two years directing commercials for the likes of Coca Cola, Shell
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...
and Chrysler
Chrysler
Chrysler Group LLC is a multinational automaker headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA. Chrysler was first organized as the Chrysler Corporation in 1925....
, he directed his first feature film, Intimate Reflections
Intimate Reflections
Intimate Reflections is a 1975 British independent drama film directed by Don Boyd and starring Anton Rodgers, Lillias Walker, Sally Anne Newton and Jonathan David. It was Boyd's first feature film and premiered at the 1975 London Film Festival...
, which premiered at the London Film Festival
London Film Festival
The BFI London Film Festival is the UK's largest public film event, screening more than 300 features, documentaries and shorts from almost 50 countries. The festival, , currently in its 54th year, is run every year in the second half of October under the umbrella of the British Film Institute...
in 1975. This was followed by East of Elephant Rock
East of Elephant Rock
East of Elephant Rock is a 1977 British independent drama film directed by Don Boyd and starring John Hurt, Jeremy Kemp and Judi Bowker. It was Boyd's second feature film following his little-noticed 1975 Intimate Reflections...
starring John Hurt
John Hurt
John Vincent Hurt, CBE is an English actor, known for his leading roles as John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mr. Braddock in The Hit, Stephen Ward in Scandal, Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant and An Englishman in New York...
, which also premiered at the London Film Festival but gathered mainly hostile reviews.
In 1977 Boyd established his own production company, Boyd's Co., which over the next decade produced a series of British films including Alan Clarke
Alan Clarke
Alan Clarke was a television and film director, producer and writer, born in Wallasey, Merseyside, England.Most of Clarke's output was for television rather than cinema, including work for the famous play strands The Wednesday Play and Play for Today...
's Scum
Scum (film)
Scum is a 1979 British crime drama film directed by Alan Clarke, portraying the brutality of life inside a British borstal. The story was originally made for the BBC's Play for Today strand in 1977, however due to the violence depicted in the film, it was withdrawn from broadcast...
, Derek Jarman's
Derek Jarman
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...
The Tempest, Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Gordon Anderson was an Indian-born, British feature film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading light of the Free Cinema movement and the British New Wave...
's Look Back in Anger
Look Back in Anger (1980 film)
Look Back in Anger is a 1980 British film starring Malcolm McDowell, Lisa Banes and Fran Brill, and directed by Lindsay Anderson and David Hugh Jones...
and Julien Temple's
Julien Temple
Julien Temple is an English film, documentary and music video director. He began his career with short films featuring the Sex Pistols, and has continued with various off-beat projects, including The Great Rock And Roll Swindle, Absolute Beginners and a documentary film about Glastonbury.-Temple...
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle is a mockumentary film directed by Julien Temple and produced by Don Boyd and Jeremy Thomas about the British punk rock band Sex Pistols....
. During this time his company featured the work of such actors, writers, directors, producers, cinematographers and musicians as John Hurt, Ray Winstone
Ray Winstone
Raymond Andrew "Ray" Winstone is an English film and television actor. He is mostly known for his "tough guy" roles, beginning with that of Carlin in the 1979 film Scum and as Will Scarlet in the cult television adventure series Robin of Sherwood. He has also become well known as a voice over...
, Dame Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
, Tilda Swinton
Tilda Swinton
Katherine Mathilda "Tilda" Swinton is a British actress known for both arthouse and mainstream films. She has appeared in a number of films including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, The Beach, We Need to Talk About Kevin and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her...
, Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
, Michael Tolkin
Michael Tolkin
Michael L. Tolkin is an American filmmaker and novelist. He has written numerous screenplays, including The Player , which he adapted from his 1988 book by the same name, and for which he received the 1993 Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay...
, Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy Jack Thomas, CBE is a British film producer, founder of the Recorded Picture Company. He was the producer of Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, which won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Picture. In 2006 he received a European Film Award for Outstanding European Achievement in World...
, Sarah Radclyffe
Sarah Radclyffe
Sarah Radclyffe , sometimes credited as Sarah Radcliffe is a British film producer.She began working as associative producer in the late 1970s on movies like The Tempest by Derek Jarman...
, Bridget Fonda
Bridget Fonda
Bridget Jane Fonda is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in films such as The Godfather Part III, Single White Female, Point of No Return, It Could Happen to You, and Jackie Brown...
, Kathy Burke
Kathy Burke
Katherine Lucy Bridget Burke is an English actress, comedienne, playwright and theatre director. She is best known for her portrayals of Perry in the Harry Enfield film Kevin and Perry Go Large, and of Linda La Hughes in the British sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme...
, The Edge
The Edge
David Howell Evans , more widely known by his stage name The Edge , is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record...
, and The Sex Pistols.
In 1978 Boyd collaborated on and helped finance Ron Peck's and Paul Hallam's 1978 Nighthawks, described by Time Out as "Britain's first committed gay feature film", which attracted controversy in the UK at the time prompting Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
to delay its broadcast until 1984.
Many of Boyd's films at this time, including Scum, Sweet William, Derek Jarman's The Tempest and later Honky Tonk Freeway
Honky Tonk Freeway
Honky Tonk Freeway is a UK comedy film directed by John Schlesinger. It was released in August 1981 by Universal Studios. The film, conceived and co-produced by Don Boyd, was one of the most expensive box office flops in history, losing its British backers Thorn-EMI an estimated $11,000,000 and...
, attracted investors because their financing incorporated tax avoidance schemes devised by his business partner and close friend the tax accountant (also arts patron and benefactor) Roy Tucker. These schemes were funded by the Rossminster banking group. Rossminster attracted adverse media attention, especially from the noted Sunday Times financial journalist Lorana Sullivan, and was discussed in parliament In 1981 The House of Lords
Judicial functions of the House of Lords
The House of Lords, in addition to having a legislative function, historically also had a judicial function. It functioned as a court of first instance for the trials of peers, for impeachment cases, and as a court of last resort within the United Kingdom. In the latter case the House's...
effectively ruled many of Tucker's schemes invalid
The Ramsay Principle
The Ramsay Principle is the shorthand name given to the decision of the House of Lords in two important cases in the field of UK tax, reported in 1982:...
leaving most of Rossminster's customers, including Boyd's investors, unable to garner any tax relief from his schemes after 1975. The total potential loss to the exchequer before Rossminster's activities were curtailed was eventually estimated at £362 million while the tax eventually returned (with interest) estimated at around £500 million.
Tax avoidance schemes had been commonly used for years by celebrities in the entertainment world to protect their income but Tucker and Boyd were the first to provide them to finance films. The film critic and historian Alexander Walker
Alexander Walker (critic)
Alexander Walker was a film critic, born in Portadown, Northern Ireland. He worked for the Birmingham Post in the 1950s, before becoming film critic of the London Evening Standard in 1960, a role he held until his death in 2003...
commented that financing films in such ways became a common practice at the time but suggested that ultimately it was self-defeating because the government of the day might well have concluded that if the British film industry was so good at inventing financial self-help of this sort then it had no need of government assistance. Indeed the 1985 Films Act, pushed through parliament despite all-party protest by Norman Lamont
Norman Lamont
Norman Stewart Hughson Lamont, Baron Lamont of Lerwick, PC is a British politician and former Conservative MP for Kingston-upon-Thames. He is best-known for his period serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer, from 1990 until 1993...
, fellow alumnus of Boyd's at Loretto School, dismantled all subsidies to the British film industry.
Boyd moved to Hollywood in the early 1980s for a two year period, where he worked at both Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
and Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
and produced John Schlesinger
John Schlesinger
John Richard Schlesinger, CBE was an English film and stage director and actor.-Early life:Schlesinger was born in London into a middle-class Jewish family, the son of Winifred Henrietta and Bernard Edward Schlesinger, a physician...
's 1981 $24 million commercial failure Honky Tonk Freeway. The film was based on an original idea of Boyd's and financed in part by his Rossminster associations. Its eventual $11 million loss to its principal backer Thorn-EMI significantly impacted Thorn-EMI's subsequent fortunes and aspirations.
Boyd returned to the UK in 1982 and attempted to resume his directorial career with Gossip
Gossip (1982 UK film)
Gossip was a 1982 British independent drama film directed by Don Boyd that collapsed early in its production and was never finished.It is the subject of an essay by Dan North in Sights Unseen: Unfinished British Films, edited by him, and is referenced by Stephen Fry, employed as a script rewriter...
, which was to be a satire on celebrity life in the early Thatcher
Premiership of Margaret Thatcher
The Premiership of Margaret Thatcher began on 4 May 1979, with a mandate to reverse the UK's economic decline and to reduce the role of the state in the economy...
years based on an original treatment by Frances Lynn
Frances Lynn
-Biography:Lynn was born in St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington in London, and was educated at Malvern Girls' College.In 1977, Lynn started her journalistic career when she became the film editor and gossip columnist for the now defunct Ritz Newspaper, published by David Bailey. Interview subjects...
. The production ran into financial difficulties and was shut down after just two weeks shooting.
Dan North, a lecturer in Film in the Department of English at Exeter University, has chronicled Gossip in Sights Unseen: Unfinished British Films edited by North. Stephen Fry was given his first job in film by Boyd as a script rewriter for Gossip and its story is recounted by him in The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography
The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography
The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography is the 2010 autobiography of Stephen Fry. The book is a continuation from the end of his 1997 publication of his first autobiography, Moab Is My Washpot: An Autobiography...
. Fry is supportive of Boyd in his book
In 1987 Boyd produced the multi-directorial opera film Aria which featured segments by Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
, Bruce Beresford
Bruce Beresford
Bruce Beresford is an Australian film director who has made more than 30 feature films over a 40-year career.-Early life:...
, Bill Bryden
Bill Bryden
William Campbell Rough Bryden CBE is a British stage- and film director and screenwriter.-Biography:...
, Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
, Derek Jarman, Franc Roddam
Franc Roddam
Francis George "Franc" Roddam is an English film director, businessman, screenwriter, television producer and publisher. He is married to photographer, Leila Ansari, and has six children from previous marriages. He currently lives in London.-Career:Roddam's films include "Quadrophenia", "K2",...
, Nicolas Roeg
Nicolas Roeg
Nicolas Jack Roeg, CBE, BSC is an English film director and cinematographer.-Life and career:Roeg was born in London, the son of Mabel Gertrude and Jack Nicolas Roeg...
, Ken Russell
Ken Russell
Henry Kenneth Alfred "Ken" Russell was an English film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. He attracted criticism as being obsessed with sexuality and the church...
, Charles Sturridge
Charles Sturridge
Charles B. G. Sturridge is an English screenwriter, producer, stage, television and film director.-Personal life:Sturridge was born in London, England to Alyson Bowman Vaughan and Jerome Sturridge. He was educated at Stonyhurst College...
and Julien Temple. It was in competition for the Palme d'Or
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
in 1987.
After producing Derek Jarman's War Requiem
War Requiem
The War Requiem, Op. 66 is a large-scale, non-liturgical setting of the Requiem Mass composed by Benjamin Britten mostly in 1961 and completed January 1962. Interspersed with the traditional Latin texts, in telling juxtaposition, are settings of Wilfred Owen poems...
, for the BBC in 1988, which was Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
's last film, Boyd returned to his directorial career. He directed low budget independent feature films such as Twenty-One
Twenty-One (film)
Twenty-One is a British-American drama film directed by Don Boyd and co-scripted by him with Zoë Heller. Patsy Kensit stars as the 21-year-old protagonist. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in February 1991...
, written by Zoë Heller
Zoë Heller
Zoë Kate Hinde Heller is an English journalist and novelist.-Early life:Heller was born in North London as the youngest of four children of German-Jewish immigrant Lukas Heller, who was a successful screenwriter. Her mother was instrumental in keeping up the Labour Party's "Save London Transport...
and featuring Patsy Kensit
Patsy Kensit
Patricia Jude Francis "Patsy" Kensit is an English actress, singer, model and former child star, known for her television and film appearances. Her films include Lethal Weapon 2 and she has been married to rock stars Jim Kerr and Liam Gallagher, as well as herself fronting the band Eighth Wonder...
as female lead; Kleptomania, co-scripted by Christa Lang, the widow of Samuel Fuller
Samuel Fuller
Samuel Michael Fuller was an American screenwriter, novelist, and film director known for low-budget genre movies with controversial themes.-Personal life:...
; Lucia, in which his daughter Amanda had the lead role; and My Kingdom
My Kingdom (film)
My Kingdom is a 2001 British crime film directed by Don Boyd and starring Richard Harris, Lynn Redgrave and Jimi Mistry.It premiered at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival but failed to make an impression The following year My Kingdom grossed $2,607 on its opening weekend in Los Angeles...
which featured Richard Harris
Richard Harris
Richard St John Harris was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer....
in his last leading role. He further directed over twenty television documentaries including a BAFTA
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
and Prix Italia
Prix Italia
The Prix Italia is an international Italian television, radio-broadcasting and Website award. It was established in 1948 by RAI - Radiotelevisione Italiana in Capri...
nominated film featuring the comedienne Ruby Wax
Ruby Wax
Ruby Wax is a BAFTA nominated American comedian who made a career in the United Kingdom as part of the alternative comedy scene in the 1980s.-Early life:...
in a documentary about Imelda Marcos
Imelda Marcos
Imelda R. Marcos is a Filipino politician and widow of 10th Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos. Upon the ascension of her husband to political power, she held various positions to the government until 1986...
; Andrew and Jeremy Get Married
Andrew and Jeremy Get Married
Andrew and Jeremy Get Married is a 2004 British documentary film written and directed by Don Boyd for the BBC. It tells the story of two Englishmen, Andrew Thomas and Jeremy Trafford, as they plan for their commitment ceremony...
, a documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
portrait of a commitment ceremony
Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
in 2004 and was broadcast on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
as part of their Storyville documentary series; Full Frontal in Flip Flops, a documentary film portrait of naturism
Naturism
Naturism or nudism is a cultural and political movement practising, advocating and defending social nudity in private and in public. It may also refer to a lifestyle based on personal, family and/or social nudism....
for ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
; and Donald and Luba: A Family Movie, an 'intimate family documentary' in which he and his 22 year old filmmaker daughter Kate chronicled his parents' failed marriage (inter alia suggesting Boyd's father was a British spy during the Mau-Mau rebellion) and which was filmed on location in Harbin
Harbin
Harbin ; Manchu language: , Harbin; Russian: Харби́н Kharbin ), is the capital and largest city of Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China, lying on the southern bank of the Songhua River...
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, Jinja
Jinja, Uganda
Jinja is the largest town in Uganda, Africa. It is the second busiest commercial center in the country, after Kampala, Uganda's capital and only city. Jinja was established in 1907.-Location:...
, Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, London, Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
and Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
for the BBC.
The National Film Theatre presented a season of his films in 1982 culminating in a Guardian Lecture with the film critic Derek Malcolm
Derek Malcolm
Derek Malcolm is a British film critic and historian.Malcolm was educated at Eton College and Oxford University. He worked for several decades as a film critic for The Guardian, having previously been an amateur jockey and the paper's first horse racing correspondent. In 1977, he was a member of...
.
In 2001 Boyd claimed he had been sexually abused by a teacher while a student at Loretto School
Loretto School
Loretto School is an independent school in Scotland, founded in 1827. The campus occupies in Musselburgh, near Edinburgh.-History:Loretto was founded by the Reverend Thomas Langhorne in 1827. Langhorne came from Crosby Ravensworth, near Kirkby Stephen. The school was later taken over by his son,...
in the 1960s. The teacher was charged on the basis of other allegations that emerged but the case was later dropped.
The University of Exeter awarded him an honorary
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...
(DLitt) in 2009. Previously he had been an Honorary Visiting Professor in the College of Humanities between 2005 and 2008. Boyd had earlier donated his personal and business papers documenting his 30 year film career at that point to the university's Centre for Interdisciplinary Research (CIR)
Bill Douglas Centre
The Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture contains both a public museum and an academic research centre, housing one of Britain's largest public collections of books, prints, artefacts and ephemera relating to the history and prehistory of cinema...
. He has presented a series of In Conversation events at the CIR with prominent cultural figures such as Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh
Michael "Mike" Leigh, OBE is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s...
and the Director-General of the BBC
Director-General of the BBC
The Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation is chief executive and editor-in-chief of the BBC.The position was formerly appointed by the Board of Governors of the BBC and is now appointed by the BBC Trust....
, Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
Mark John Thompson is Director-General of the BBC, a post he has held since 2004, and a former chief executive of Channel 4...
.
Boyd's 2009 internet venture Hibrow.tv, 'the world’s first independent Internet platform for freshly created content curated and produced by established visual and performing arts', had still to get fully off the ground as of March 2011.
Alexander Walker referred to him as 'the Boyd Wonder' in his 1985 book National Heroes: British Cinema in the 70's and 80's while Boyd describes himself in the same text as 'a director-orientated audience-conscious film-marketing editor'. Nevertheless, despite his evident prominence, his films have yet to have the commercial success of some his contemporaries while international critical acclaim has thus far proved equally elusive. His last feature film My Kingdom, co-scripted with Nick Davies
Nick Davies
Nick Davies is a British investigative journalist, writer and documentary maker.Davies has written extensively as a freelancer, as well as for The Guardian and The Observer, and been named Reporter of the Year Journalist of the Year and Feature Writer of the Year at the British Press Awards...
and drawing on both their researches into the London and Liverpool criminal underworld (which in Boyd's case included the Kray bothers
Kray twins
Reginald "Reggie" Kray and his twin brother Ronald "Ronnie" Kray were the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in London's East End during the 1950s and 1960s...
), brought him into conflict with its principal lead Richard Harris, who wanted to rewrite the script. The film subsequently received mixed reviews while generally acknowledging a fine performance from Harris who was nominated for a British Independent Film Award. Similarly Twenty-One earned Patsy Kensit an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead
Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead
The Film Independent's Spirit Award for Best Female Lead is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
nomination but itself received mixed press reviews in the UK (although it was well received at its Sundance
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
premiere earning Boyd a nomination).
Writing
Boyd contributes to The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
newspaper, Time Out and The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
where his personal opinions as an informed insider have been balanced publicly with his championship of indigenous British cinema.
In 2006, in his role as the guest editor of the Directors Guild of Great Britain's annual magazine Direct, he persuaded 22 film-makers including Stephen Frears
Stephen Frears
Stephen Arthur Frears is an English film director.-Early life:Frears was born in Leicester, England to Ruth M., a social worker, and Dr Russell E. Frears, a general practitioner and accountant. He did not find out that his mother was Jewish until he was in his late 20s...
, Hanif Kureishi
Hanif Kureishi
Hanif Kureishi CBE is an English playwright, screenwriter and filmmaker, novelist and short story writer. The themes of his work have touched on topics of race, nationalism, immigration, and sexuality...
, Terence Davies and Charles Dance
Charles Dance
Walter Charles Dance, OBE is an English actor, screenwriter and director. Dance typically plays assertive bureaucrats or villains. His most famous roles are Guy Perron in The Jewel in the Crown , Dr Clemens, the doctor of penitentiary Fury 161, who becomes Ellen Ripley's confidante in Alien 3 ,...
to contribute articles and interviews to help consolidate the profile and public status of the unique pool of directorial talent in the United Kingdom.
Boyd's first novel Margot's Secrets, a psychological thriller set in Barcelona about a therapist forced to confront her own adulterous secret following a series of violent ritualistic murders involving her clients, was published in 2010. His wife Hilary, a granddaughter of the late Frederick Marquis, 1st Earl of Woolton, also has a forthcoming debut novel Thursdays in the Park due 2011, described by her publisher as 'a beautiful and insightful first novel written by an author who has the perfect experience to write it'.
Filmography
Directed- Intimate ReflectionsIntimate ReflectionsIntimate Reflections is a 1975 British independent drama film directed by Don Boyd and starring Anton Rodgers, Lillias Walker, Sally Anne Newton and Jonathan David. It was Boyd's first feature film and premiered at the 1975 London Film Festival...
(1975) - East of Elephant RockEast of Elephant RockEast of Elephant Rock is a 1977 British independent drama film directed by Don Boyd and starring John Hurt, Jeremy Kemp and Judi Bowker. It was Boyd's second feature film following his little-noticed 1975 Intimate Reflections...
(1977) - GossipGossip (1982 UK film)Gossip was a 1982 British independent drama film directed by Don Boyd that collapsed early in its production and was never finished.It is the subject of an essay by Dan North in Sights Unseen: Unfinished British Films, edited by him, and is referenced by Stephen Fry, employed as a script rewriter...
(1982 unfinished) - Goldeneye (1989)
- Twenty-OneTwenty-One (film)Twenty-One is a British-American drama film directed by Don Boyd and co-scripted by him with Zoë Heller. Patsy Kensit stars as the 21-year-old protagonist. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in February 1991...
(1991) - Kleptomania (1993)
- Lucia (1998)
- My KingdomMy Kingdom (film)My Kingdom is a 2001 British crime film directed by Don Boyd and starring Richard Harris, Lynn Redgrave and Jimi Mistry.It premiered at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival but failed to make an impression The following year My Kingdom grossed $2,607 on its opening weekend in Los Angeles...
(2001) - Andrew and Jeremy Get MarriedAndrew and Jeremy Get MarriedAndrew and Jeremy Get Married is a 2004 British documentary film written and directed by Don Boyd for the BBC. It tells the story of two Englishmen, Andrew Thomas and Jeremy Trafford, as they plan for their commitment ceremony...
(2004)
Produced
- The Four Seasons (1977)
- Anti-ClockAnti-ClockAnti-Clock is a 1979 film written and directed by Jane Arden, and co-directed by Jack Bond. The film, which stars Arden's son Sebastian Saville, was shot on film and video in colour and black and white sequences...
(1979) - Blue Suede Shoes (1979)
- Hussy (1979)
- ScumScum (film)Scum is a 1979 British crime drama film directed by Alan Clarke, portraying the brutality of life inside a British borstal. The story was originally made for the BBC's Play for Today strand in 1977, however due to the violence depicted in the film, it was withdrawn from broadcast...
(1979) - The Tempest (1979)
- Sweet WilliamSweet William (film)Sweet William is a 1980 British drama film directed by Claude Whatham and starring Sam Waterston, Jenny Agutter, Geraldine James, Anna Massey, Arthur Lowe, Tim Pigott-Smith and Melvyn Bragg....
(1980) - The Great Rock 'n' Roll SwindleThe Great Rock 'n' Roll SwindleThe Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle is a mockumentary film directed by Julien Temple and produced by Don Boyd and Jeremy Thomas about the British punk rock band Sex Pistols....
(1980) - Look Back in AngerLook Back in Anger (1980 film)Look Back in Anger is a 1980 British film starring Malcolm McDowell, Lisa Banes and Fran Brill, and directed by Lindsay Anderson and David Hugh Jones...
(1980) - Honky Tonk FreewayHonky Tonk FreewayHonky Tonk Freeway is a UK comedy film directed by John Schlesinger. It was released in August 1981 by Universal Studios. The film, conceived and co-produced by Don Boyd, was one of the most expensive box office flops in history, losing its British backers Thorn-EMI an estimated $11,000,000 and...
(1981) - An Unsuitable Job For A Woman (1982)
- Scrubbers (1982)
- Captive (1985)
- Aria (1987)
- The Last of England (1987)
- War RequiemWar Requiem (film)War Requiem is a film adaptation of Benjamin Britten's musical piece of the same name.It was shot in 1988 by the British film director Derek Jarman with the 1963 recording as the soundtrack, produced by Don Boyd and financed by the BBC. Decca Records required that the 1963 recording be heard on its...
(1988) - The Girl With Brains In Her Feet (1996)
External links
- http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/don_boyd/profile.htmlProfile at The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
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