Adam Curtis | |
|---|---|
 Curtis in 2005 | |
| Born | Kevin Adam Curtis (1955-05-26)26 May 1955 (age 70) |
| Education | Mansfield College, Oxford (BA) |
| Occupation | Documentaryfilmmaker |
| Years active | 1983–present |
| Awards | BAFTA (1993,2000,2006,2023) |
| Website | www |
Adam Curtis (born 26 May 1955) is an English documentary filmmaker.[1] Curtis began his career as a conventional documentary producer for theBBC throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s. The release ofPandora's Box (1992) marked the introduction of Curtis's distinctive presentation that usescollage to explore aspects ofsociology,psychology,philosophy andpolitical history.[2]
His style has been described as involving, "whiplash digressions, menacing atmospherics and arpeggiated scores, and the near-psychedelic compilation of archival footage", narrated by Curtis himself with "patrician economy and assertion".[3] His films have won fiveBAFTAs.
Adam Curtis was born inDartford inKent,[4] and raised in nearbyPlatt.[5] His father was Martin Curtis (1917–2002), acinematographer with asocialist background.[2][6] Curtis won a county scholarship and attended theSevenoaks School. It was there that an influential art teacher introduced him to the work ofRobert Rauschenberg.[7] Curtis completed aBachelor of Arts degree inhuman sciences atMansfield College, Oxford. He began aPhD and taught in politics, but ultimately became disillusioned withacademia and decided to leave.[6]
Curtis applied to theBBC and was hired to make a film for one of its training courses, comparingdesigner clothes inmusic videos to the design ofweapons. He was subsequently given a post onThat's Life!,[1] a magazine series that juxtaposed hard-hitting investigations and light-hearted content. He was afilm director onOut of Court, aBBC Two legal series, from 1980 until 1982.[8]
Curtis is inspired by the sociologistMax Weber, who, he argues, challenged the "crude, left-wing,vulgar Marxism that says that everything happens because of economic forces within society".[6] Curtis has answered questions on his politics in interviews over his career but has answered inconsistently, making it hard to label his politics. In a 2012 interview, Curtis remarked on his political outlook stating fondness for libertarian ideas but states his politics are unique and differ depending on the issue. Curtis also rejects being labelled aleftist, calling the idea "rubbish", saying:
People often accuse me of being a lefty. That's complete rubbish. If you look atThe Century of the Self, what I'm arguing is something very close to a neoconservative position because I'm saying that, with the rise ofindividualism, you tend to get the corrosion of the other idea of social bonds and communal networks, because everyone is on their own. Well, that's what the neoconservatives argue, domestically. ... If you ask me what my politics are, I'm very much a creature of my time. I don't really have any. I change my mind over different issues, but I am much more fond of alibertarian view. I have a more libertarian tendency ... What's astonishing in our time is how the Left here has completely failed to come up with any alternatives, and I think you may well see alefty libertarianism emerging because people will be much more sympathetic to it, or just a libertarianism, and out of that will come ideas. And I don't mean "localism".[2]
In a 2021 interview, Curtis stated having sympathies to radicalism and that progressivism is his politics. He notes again his political inconsistency, saying:
I'm emotionally sympathetic toradicalism ... I'm aprogressive, I mean that's really what my politics are. I mean, I'm typical of my time, I don't have a consistent set of politics and I always suspect people who do, but I'm progressive so I try and understand what went wrong with radicalism.[9]
In a 2022 interview, Curtis reiterated the neoconservative interpretation of "The Century of the Self" but added it is not what he himself believes. This time, Curtis states that he does not know his exact politics, saying:
[The Century of the Self could be interpreted as] a crystal perfect piece of neoconservative ideology, domestic neoconservatism, because what it's actually arguing is the rise of individualism acted like an acid eating away at the fabric of social organisations... which is a sort of moralistic neocon attitude. That's not actually what I think. But you could argue that about most films, I think. I don't know really what my politics are.[10]
Curtis cites theU.S.A. trilogy, a series of three novels byJohn Dos Passos that he first read when he was thirteen, as the greatest influence on his work:
You can trace back everything I do to that novel because it's all about grand history, individual experience, their relationship. And also collages, quotes from newsreels, cinema, newspapers. And it's about collage of history as well. That's where I get it all from.[2]
He has also citedRobert Rauschenberg andÉmile Zola as creative influences.[2] Curtis makes extensive use of archive footage in his documentaries. He has acknowledged the influence of recordings made byErik Durschmied and is "constantly using his stuff in my films".[11] Discussing his process in an interview with fellow documentary-makerJon Ronson forVice, Curtis said his extensive work with footage acquired from theBBC Archives is often led by "instinct and imagination", with the aim of creating "a mood that gives power and force to the story I'm telling".[12]
Instead of specially composed music, which Curtis has said "creates a sort of monoculture", he uses tracks from a variety of genres, decades, and countries, as well as sound effects that he discovers on old tapes.[13] According to a profile of Curtis by Tim Adams, published inThe Observer: "If there has been a theme in Curtis's work ... it has been to look at how different elites have tried to impose an ideology on their times, and the tragicomic consequences of those attempts".[14]
In 2005, Curtis received the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award at theSan Francisco International Film Festival.[15] In 2006, he was given theAlan Clarke Award for Outstanding Creative Contribution to Television at theBritish Academy Television Awards.[16] In 2009, theSheffield International Documentary Festival gave Curtis the Inspiration Award for inspiring viewers and other documentary filmmakers.[17] In 2015, he was awarded the True Vision Award by theTrue/False Film Fest.[18] Curtis's critics have accused him of exaggeration and distortion, even wilful misrepresentation.[19][20]
Curtis administered ablog subtitled 'The Medium and the Message' hosted by the BBC and updated between 2009 and 2016.[21]
| Year | Title | Subject | Parts | Channel/Venue | Notes & Awards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Just Another Day: "Selfridges" | Behind the scenes atSelfridges, a department store onOxford Street,London.[22] | S01E03 | BBC Two, 29 March 1983[23] | |
| 1983 | Just Another Day: "The Seaside" | A typical day inWalton-on-the-Naze.[24] | S01E06 | BBC Two, 19 April 1983[25] | |
| 1983 | Trumpets and Typewriters: A History of War Reporting | The history ofwar correspondents. | BBC One, 19 July 1983[26] | ||
| 1984 | Inquiry: The Great British Housing Disaster.[27] | The system-built housing of the 1960s. Narrated by David Jones.[28] | BBC Two, 4 September 1984[29] | ||
| 1984 | Italians: "The Mayor of Montemilone" | The politics of asmall Italian town and its communist mayor, Dino Labriola.[30] | S01E04 | BBC One, 26 October 1984[31] | |
| 1984 | The Cost of Treachery | TheAlbanian Subversion, in which theCIA andMI6 attempted to overthrow the Albanian government and to weaken theSoviet Union at the height of theCold War in 1949, and the role of double agentKim Philby. | BBC One, 30 October 1984[32] | ||
| 1987 | 40 Minutes: "Bombay Hotel" | The luxuriousTaj Mahal Palace Hotel inMumbai, contrasted with the poverty of the city's slums. | BBC Two, 30 April 1987[33] | ||
| 1988 | An Ocean Apart | Explores the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States from World War I to the 1980s. | 7 | BBC One, 20 April 1988[34] | |
| 1989 | 40 Minutes: "The Kingdom of Fun" | Documentary about theMetro Centre in Gateshead, developed by entrepreneurJohn Hall. It compares Hall's plans to regenerateNorth East England with those of Labour politicianT. Dan Smith. | BBC Two, 19 January 1989[35] | ||
| 1989 | Inside Story: "The Road to Terror" | How theIranian Revolution turned from idealism to terror, drawing parallels with theFrench Revolution two hundred years earlier. | E06 | BBC One, 14 June 1989[36] | |
| 1992 | Pandora's Box | The dangers oftechnocratic and politicalrationality. | 6 | BBC Two, 11 June 1992[37] | Originality and Best Factual Series,BAFTA Awards 1993[38] |
| 1995 | The Living Dead | The different ways that history andmemory (both national and individual) have been used and manipulated by politicians and others. | 3 | BBC Two, 30 May 1995[39] | |
| 1996 | £830,000,000 – Nick Leeson and the Fall of the House of Barings | Nick Leeson and the collapse ofBarings Bank. | BBC One, 12 June 1996[40] | AnInside Story special. Later titled25 Million Pounds. | |
| 1997 | Modern Times: The Way of All Flesh | The story, dating back to the 1950s, of the search for a cure to cancer, and the impact ofHenrietta Lacks, the "woman who will never die" because her cells never stopped reproducing. | BBC Two, 19 March 1997[41] | ||
| 1999 | The Mayfair Set | Looks at the birth of the globalarms trade, the invention ofasset stripping, and how buccaneer capitalists shaped theThatcher years, focusing on the rise of ColonelDavid Stirling,Jim Slater,Sir James Goldsmith andTiny Rowland—members of the eliteClermont Club in the 1960s. | 4 | BBC Two, 18 July 1999[42] | Best Factual Series or Strand,BAFTA Awards 2000[43] |
| 2002 | The Century of the Self | HowFreud's theories on the unconscious led to the development ofpublic relations by his nephewEdward Bernays; the use of desire over need; andself-actualisation as a means of achieving economic growth and the political control of populations. | 4 | BBC Two, 17 March 2002;[44] art-house cinemas in the U.S. | Best Documentary Series,Broadcast Awards;[45] Historical Film of the Year,Longman-History Today Awards;[46] Nominated for Best Documentary Series,Royal Television Society[47] |
| 2004 | The Power of Nightmares | Suggests a parallel between the rise ofIslamism in the Arab world andneoconservatism in the United States, and their mutual need, argues Curtis, to create the myth of a dangerous enemy to gain support. | 3 | BBC Two, 20 October 2004[48] | Best Factual Series or Strand,BAFTA Awards 2005[49] |
| 2007 | The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom | Explores the modern concept offreedom, specifically, "how a simplistic model of human beings as self-seeking, almost robotic creatures led to today's idea of freedom". | 3 | BBC Two, 7 March 2007[50] | |
| 2007 | The Rise and Fall of the TV Journalist | Short film chronicling the transformation ofmainstream media and the balance of political power in the last few decades by looking at how the role of thebroadcast journalist has changed since the 1950s.[51] | Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, third episode of the fourth series | ||
| 2009 | Oh Dearism | Short film about how mainstream media simplify complex events and present them as "scattered terrible things happening everywhere, Oh Dear", leaving the public feeling powerless to do anything about them.[51] | Charlie Brooker's Newswipe, third episode of the first series | ||
| 2009 | It Felt Like a Kiss[52] | Collaboration with theatre companyPunchdrunk andDamon Albarn.[53] | Manchester International Festival | ||
| 2010 | Paranoia and Moral Panics | Short film using theparanoia ofRichard Nixon to explore how a similar outlook on life has been propagated on a larger social scale in thenew media age and the resultingmoral panics and immobilisation of politics.[51] | Charlie Brooker's Newswipe, fourth episode of the second series | ||
| 2011 | All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace | Argues that computers have failed to liberate humanity, and instead have "distorted and simplified our view of the world around us". The title is taken from a 1967poem of the same name byRichard Brautigan. | 3 | BBC Two, 23 May 2011[54] | |
| 2011 | Every Day Is Like Sunday | The rise and fall of press baronCecil King, and the changing relationship between the public, politics and the media. | His personal blog; not a full documentary, but "a rough cut".[55] | ||
| 2013 | Everything Is Going According to Plan (Massive Attack v Adam Curtis)[56] | Collaboration withMassive Attack. Based on technocrats and global corporations establishing an ultraconservative norm, with the internet providing a "fake, enchanting world, which has become a kind of prison".[57] | Manchester International Festival | ||
| 2014 | Oh Dearism II | Short film examining the global events of 2014 to reveal a chaotic morass, the reporting of which is increasingly difficult to comprehend in the context of the24-hour news cycle and the internet (special feature on RussianVladislav Surkov).[51] | Charlie Brooker's 2014 Wipe, 30 December 2014 | ||
| 2015 | Bitter Lake[58] | How Western leaders' simplistic good vs. evil narrative has failed in the complex post-war era, and how manyIslamic terrorist groups have their origins in the U.S.'s long-standing alliance with Saudi Arabia. | BBC iPlayer, 25 January 2015[59] | ||
| 2016 | Living in an Unreal World | Short film forVice Media about the illusion of stability, freedom, and prosperity inthe West, comparing it to life in theSoviet Union during the 1970s. Ends with atrailer forHyperNormalisation.[60] | VICE (Facebook), 15 October 2016[61] | ||
| 2016 | HyperNormalisation | "How we got to this strange time of great uncertainty and confusion where those who are supposed to be in power are paralysed and have no idea what to do". | BBC iPlayer, 16 October 2016[62] | Nominated for Best Single Documentary,BAFTA Awards 2017[63] | |
| 2017 | MK Ultra | Dance collaboration withRosie Kay Dance Company. Exploresproject MKUltra and conspiracy theories including the Illuminati, themes later reworked intoCan't Get You Out of My Head.[64][65][66] | Live performance. Commissioned byBirmingham Repertory Theatre, DanceXchange,Warwick Arts Centre & HOME[67] | ||
| 2019 | Untitled | Collaboration withMassive Attack. "How we have moved into a strange backward-looking world, enclosed by machines that read our data and predict our every move, haunted by ghosts from the past".[68] | Mezzanine XXI tour | ||
| 2021 | Can't Get You Out of My Head | A six-part BBC documentary series that "tells the story of how we got to the strange days we are now experiencing. And why both those in power – and we – find it so difficult to move on". It "explores whether modern culture, despite its radicalism, is really just part of the new system of power".[69] | 6 | BBC iPlayer, 11 February 2021[70] | |
| 2022 | Russia 1985–1999: TraumaZone[71] | Seven hour-long films about thedisintegration of theSoviet Union and subsequent rise to power ofVladimir Putin as the President of Russia, seen through the eyes of Russian people at every level of society. | 7 | Premiered atTelluride Film Festival, 2022[72] BBC iPlayer, 13 October 2022[73] | Best Specialist Factual,BAFTA Awards 2023[74] |
| 2024 | The Way | 3 part drama series co-created by Curtis.[75] | 3 | BBC One | |
| 2025 | Shifty | "Shifty shows, in a new and imaginative way, how over the past 40 years in Britain extreme money and hyper-individualism came together in an unspoken alliance"[76] | 5 | BBC iPlayer, 14 June 2025 |
The BBC also won best single doc for9/11 - A Firefighters' Story and best series,The Century of the Self, while BBC Films took best single drama forOut of Control.
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