Kenneth Loach (born June 17, 1936), known as Ken Loach, is an English television and film director. He is known for his naturalistic, social realism directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues as homelessness (e.g., Cathy Come Home) and labour rights (e.g., Riff-Raff).

Biography

Akua Ofosuhene, is a 38 year old mother and filmmaker from London. She began her working life in Fashion and music festivals before turning her hand to filmmaking. She has made 4 short films to date and is working on her 1st feature length documentary.

Her work has been screened as part of Black History Month in London and Colchester. Commonwealth and Empire Museum Bristol, LineOut film Festival Leicestershire. Images of Black Women London and The Ghanaian Film Festival. She regularly screens her work in Colleges as part of the Citizenship module in the national curriculum.

Akua is also co director of A Taste of Africa, an African arts, music, film events company.

Film style

Loach's film work is characterised by a particular view of realism; he strives in every area of filmmaking to emphasise genuine interplay between actors, to the point where some scenes in his films appear unscripted. Rather than employing method actors, he prefers unknown talent who have had some of the actual life experience of the characters they portray - so much so that many professional actors aspiring to work with Loach will often pretend to be actual construction labourers or other working class types called for in his script. [1759].

For Bread and Roses, he chose two leading actors who had experience of union organizing and life as an immigrant. The lead actress in the film, Pilar Padilla, actually had to learn English in order to play the part.

He tries to make sure that actors express as genuinely as possible the feelings of their characters by filming the story in order and, crucially, not giving the actors the script until a few minutes before the filming. Frequently only some of the actors will know what is going to happen in a scene - the others will often, therefore, be able to express genuine surprise or sadness because they really are affected by the events of the scene.

Two examples: in Kes the boy actor, discovering the dead bird at the end, believed that the director had actually killed the bird that he had become quite close to during the filming (in fact he had used a dead bird found elsewhere). In Raining Stones one of the actresses visited at her house by a loan shark had no idea that he was going to force her to take off her wedding ring and give it to him as part payment. There are many other such examples.

Ken Loach is a strong opponent of censorship within cinema and was outraged at the 18 certificate given to Sweet Sixteen. Loach himself said,

Filmography

Television

Z Cars (series, 1962)

Diary of a Young Man (1964)

3 Clear Sundays (1965)

Up the Junction (1965)

The End of Arthur's Marriage (1965)

Coming Out Party (1965)

Cathy Come Home (1966) (as Kenneth Loach)

In Two Minds (1967)

The Golden Vision (1968)

The Big Flame (1969)

The Rank and the File (1971) - part of the Play for Today series.

After a Lifetime (1971)

A Misfortune (1973)

Days of Hope (mini-series, 1975)

The Price of Coal (1977)

Auditions (1980)

A Question of Leadership (1981)

The Red and the Blue: Impressions of Two Political Conferences - Autumn 1982 (1983)

Questions of Leadership (1983)

The View From the Woodpile (1989)

Cinema

Poor Cow (1967)

Kes (1969) (as Kenneth Loach)

The Save the Children Fund Film (1971)

Family Life (1971)

Black Jack (1979)

The Gamekeeper (1980)

Looks and Smiles (1981) (as Kenneth Loach)

Which Side Are You On? (1984)

Fatherland (1986)

Hidden Agenda (1990). Cannes Special Jury Prize.

Riff-Raff (1990).

Raining Stones (1993). Cannes Special Jury Prize.

Ladybird, Ladybird (1994)

Land and Freedom (1995). FIPRESCI International Critics Prize and the Cannes Ecumenical Jury Prize.

A Contemporary Case for Common Ownership (1995)

Carla's Song (1996)

The Flickering Flame (1997)

My Name Is Joe (1998)

Bread and Roses (2000)

The Navigators (2001)

Sweet Sixteen (2002)

11'9"01 September 11 (segment "United Kingdom") (2002)

Ae Fond Kiss... (2004)

Tickets (2005), along with Ermanno Olmi and Abbas Kiarostami

The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) Palme d'Or, Cannes

It's a Free World... (2007) Screenplay Osella at 64th Venice Film Festival

External links

Ken Loach - Production Company and DVD box set

Ken Loach Filmography

Extensive Ken Loach Biography and Filmography

Interview with Loach about My Name is Joe

Interview with Loach from 1996 about Land and Freedom

Interview with Loach from 1998

A biography

Biography from BFI's screenonline

Posters and Stills Gallery from the BFI

Interview: Ken Loach about Media, Culture and the Prospects for a New Liberatory Project, Democracy & Nature, Volume 5, 1999.

[1760] Critical article of Ken Loach containing some information about his background.]

A study of some major themes in Ken Loach's filmography