
Ken Loach
Director · b. 1936 · Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England, UK
Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936; Nuneaton) is a retired British film director, screenwriter and producer. His humanist values and socialist political views are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty (Poor Cow, 1967), homelessness (Cathy Come Home, 1966), and labour rights (Riff-Raff, 1991, and The Navigators, 2001). Kenneth Charles Loach was born on 17 June 1936 in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, the son of Vivien (née Hamlin) and John Loach. He attended King Edward VI Grammar School and at the age of 19 went to serve in the Royal Air Force. He read law at St Peter's College, Oxford and graduated with a third-class degree. As a member of the Oxford University Experimental Theatre Club he directed an open-air production of Bartholomew Fair for the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford, in 1959 (when he also took the role of the shady horse-dealer Dan Jordan Knockem). After Oxford, he began a career in the dramatic arts. Loach's film Kes (1969) was voted the seventh greatest British film of the 20th century in a poll by the British Film Institute. Two of his films, The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) and I, Daniel Blake (2016), received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, making him one of only nine filmmakers to win the award twice.
Movies21
Movie5.4DocumentaryLooks at the glamour, red carpets, movies, craziness, stunts, deals, parties and personalities that have been part of the Cannes Film Festival over eight decades, as well as looking to the future.
Cannes Uncut
2023 · 7 votes
Movie7.8DocumentaryHistoryWhy are we still able, today, to view images that were captured over 125 years ago? As we enter the digital age, audiovisual heritage seems to be a sure and obvious fact. However, much of cinema and our filmed history has been lost forever. Archivists, technicians and filmmakers from different parts of the world explain what audiovisual preservation is and why it is necessary. The documentary is a tribute to all these professionals and their important work.
Film: The Living Record of Our Memory
2022 · 10 votes
Movie5.2DocumentaryHistoryAn account of the life and work of legendary cinematographer and director Carlo Di Palma (1925-2004) and an emotional journey through the great moments of cinema, from Italian neorealism to the masterpieces of Woody Allen.
Acqua e zucchero – Carlo Di Palma: i colori della vita
Water and Sugar – Carlo Di Palma: The Colours of Life
2017 · 5 votes
Movie5.0DocumentaryA history of the Cannes Film Festival's Director's Fortnight selection.
40 x 15: The Forty Years of the Directors' Fortnight
2008 · 1 votes
MovieDocumentaryTen years after the first documentary, the legend of the Palme d’Or… continues. Some new laureates of the Cannes trophy relive, for us, the very special moments surrounding the awarding of the Palme d’Or.
Movie5.3DocumentaryAt the 60th anniversary of Cannes Film Festival, 34 famous directors are followed by camera.
Movie7.0DocumentaryUntil the 1970s, Italian cinema dominated the international scene, even competing with Hollywood. Then, in just a few years, came its rapid decline, the flight of our greatest producers, a crisis among the best writer-directors, the collapse of production. But what are the true causes and circumstances of this decline? In an attempt to provide an answer to this question, Di Me Cosa Ne Sai strives to depict this great cultural change. Begun as a loving examination of Italian cinema, the film transformed into a docu-drama that alternates between interviews with the great names of the past and fragments of cultural and political life of the last 30 years. It is a travel diary that shows Italy from north to south, through movie theatres; television-addicted kids; Berlusconi and Fellini; shopping centers; TV news editors; stories of impassioned film exhibitors and directors who fight for their films; and interviews with itinerant projectionists and great European directors.
Movie8.2DocumentaryAn abandoned tumbledown theater in the outback of Paraíba state is the initial setting of a film about cinema, which explores the testimonials of the novelist and playwright Ariano Suassuna and other filmmakers such as Ruy Guerra, Julio Bressane, Ken Loach, Andrzej Wajda, Karim Ainouz, José Padilha, Hector Babenco, Vilmos Zsigmond, Béla Tarr, Gus Van Sant and Jia Zhangke. They all respond to two basic questions: why do they make movies and why do they serve the seventh art. The filmmakers share their thoughts about time, narrative, rhythm, light, movement, the meaning of tragedy, the audience‘s desires and the boundaries with other forms of art.
Movie6.6DocumentaryA surprisingly candid behind-the-scenes account of the career of Ken Loach, one of Britain’s most celebrated and controversial filmmakers, as he prepares to release his final major film I, Daniel Blake.
Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach
2016 · 18 votes
MovieDramaDocumentaryThey're young, unemployed and on the march - from Glasgow, Liverpool and Swansea to London.
Movie6.7DocumentaryThe story of the biggest demonstration in human history, which took place on 15th February 2003, against the impending war on Iraq.
We Are Many
2014 · 15 votes
Movie5.8DocumentaryDocumentary feature about Czech director Jiří Menzel, featuring Menzel himself as well as Miloš Forman, Emir Kusturica, István Szabó and others.
To Make a Comedy Is No Fun
2016 · 4 votes
- Movie8.0Documentary
Peter Watkins recounts the short-lived, happy period making his classic documentary Culloden and discusses, as he sees it, the tragic decline television has taken since it was made.
Making Reel History
2006 · 1 votes
MovieDocumentaryA documentary on the films of Ken Loach. Interviews with cast and crew who worked with Loach over the years. It describe his approach to allowing actors a wide range of freedom.
Carry On Ken
2006
MovieDocumentaryIn 2017 Tyneside Cinema turned 80.
Movie6.1DocumentaryFeatures conversations with ten of the world's greatest living directors: Bernardo Bertolucci, David Lynch, Liliana Cavani, Stephen Frears, Agnes Varda, Ken Loach, Todd Haynes, Catherine Breillat, Richard Linklater and John Sayles. The film documents Ismailos' voyage of discovering the creative personalities behind the camera.
Great Directors
2009 · 17 votes
Movie7.6DocumentaryThis film sketches a very personal and decidedly political portrait of the Iron Lady who left the greatest mark on the UK, alongside Queen Elizabeth II. Archives and interviews are enriched by songs from this period that really help to understand the social atmosphere of that time.
Movie6.0DocumentaryThis documentary looks at the life of Jordi Dauder through an interview with the actor a few weeks before his death. From her interventions and people who knew him, the play explores the experiences of actor, from his artistic side as from his political convictions and life.
Jordi Dauder, la revolució pendent
2012 · 1 votes
Movie7.5DocumentaryMusicPart music documentary, part unflinching character study, part a punk version of ‘A Christmas Carol’ - I Get Knocked Down is the funny, surreal, and deeply human untold story of Chumbawamba and its ex-front man Dunstan Bruce.
I Get Knocked Down
2023 · 2 votes
Movie6.3DocumentaryA documentary about Vittorio de Sica with clips of his films and testimonials from friends and family.
Vittorio D.
2009 · 10 votes
MovieDocumentaryMarking Play for Today’s 50th anniversary, Drama Out of a Crisis is a compelling exploration of the series, its origins, achievements, controversies and legacies. Featuring a rich and surprising range of archive extracts and original interviews with many who created the series, including producers Kenith Trodd, Margaret Matheson and Richard Eyre, and directors Mike Leigh, David Hare and Ken Loach.
Series12
TV5.9NewsTalk ShowThis topical debate series based on Any Questions? typically features politicians from at least the three major political parties as well as other public figures who answer pre-selected questions put to them by a carefully selected audience.
Question Time
1979 · 15 votes
- TV5.1
The BBC's flagship cinema review TV program featuring reviews of new releases, news items and interviews. The title of the program changes each year to incorporate the year of broadcast.
Film '72
1971 · 8 votes
TV
TVTalk ShowSquare
2012
TV7.0Talk ShowA three series talk show. With the host in conversation with people whom he admires.
John Bishop: In Conversation with...
2016 · 3 votes
TV8.0DocumentaryExhaustive 13-part survey of the television medium from its hesitant beginnings in the 1920s to the multi-million dollar extravaganzas of today and the cable and satellite technologies of the future [relative to 1985]. Tackling the medium as a worldwide phenomenon, the series examines each of the principal areas of programming - news, drama, documentaries, and light entertainment - and the unique impact of "live" coverage.
Television
1985 · 1 votes
TV7.7DocumentaryA worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made and the story of international cinema through the history of cinematic innovation.
The Story of Film: An Odyssey
2011 · 69 votes
TV5.5DocumentaryRunning for seven weeks from July 2007, each week focused on a different genre, examining British film by genre. Presented by Jessica Stevenson the series featured over 200 exclusive interviews with leading actors and directors including Sir Michael Caine, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Kate Winslet.
British Film Forever
2007 · 2 votes
TV4.0DocumentaryDramaAn immersive look at how a young woman from a small village in 18th-century England became one of the UK's best-loved novelists.
Jane Austen: Rise of a Genius
2025 · 2 votes
TV8.5DocumentaryComedian Nick Helm narrates this bold new documentary series exploring the dramatic history of British cinema. Discover how cinema held a mirror up to society from 1960 through to the 00s.
Reel Britannia
2022 · 4 votes
TV7.0DocumentaryBack in 2009, Victoria wrote a list of her favourite moments from her seminal 80s series, intending to use it as a compilation show of self-selected best bits. The list remained locked away in her personal office until now. It features familiar favourites and often overlooked gems, but as these two programmes explore, the chosen sketches serve as a prediction of what was to come in an unparalleled career that crossed just about every genre of stage and screen.
Victoria Wood: The Secret List
2020 · 1 votes
- TV
A documentary on the films of Ken Loach. Interviews with cast and crew who worked with Loach over the years. It describe his approach to allowing actors a wide range of freedom.
Carry On Ken
2006