Gareth Jones (director) explained

Gareth Jones is a British film and television director and screenwriter. He is the owner and joint CEO, with Fiona Howe, of the independent production company Scenario Films.

Early life and education

Gareth Jones was born in London, son of the BBC Foreign Correspondent Ivor Jones and Jane Ann Sterndale Bennett. He is the grandson of the actress Athene Seyler[1] [2] and great-great-grandson of the composer William Sterndale Bennett.

He was educated at Westminster School and St John's College, Cambridge where he read modern languages. After graduation in 1973, he trained for a year at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

In 2011 he was awarded his PhD from Cambridge University for his thesis Rites of Recuperation: Film and the Holocaust in Germany and the Balkans.[3]

Career

1970s–1980s

Jones first joined Prospect Theatre Company, where he worked with Kenny McBain, directing Shakespeare, Brecht, Strindberg, and Chekhov.

He was director of productions at the bilingual Welsh/English touring company Theatr yr Ymylon. Between 1977 and 1980, he worked as a freelance theatre director for the Royal Court Theatre with Stuart Burge, and for Theatr Clwyd, where he directed his own plays My People (based on the short stories of Caradoc Evans) and Solidarity[4] During the 1980s he published two novels, Lord of Misrule and Noble Savage. After training as a television director at HTV Wales, he joined Granada Television at the invitation of producer Bill Podmore. There, he directed Coronation Street and the comedy drama series Brass, starring Timothy West, Caroline Blakiston and Barbara Ewing, the second series of which he also produced.[5] [6] [7]

From 1984 to 1987, he worked as a freelance writer/director for BBC television drama. He wrote the series Fighting Back,[8] [9] starring Hazel O'Connor, and the five-part drama Shalom Salaam, a Jewish-Muslim love story starring Mamta Kaash, Toby Rolt, Ayub Khan-Din and Charlotte Cornwell, which he also directed.[10] [11] [12]

Jones' other television directing credits include The Trial of Klaus Barbie[13] [14] (1987), which was based on court transcripts and screened shortly after the verdict of the Gestapo leader's trial; Watch with Mother and Seeing in the Dark for BBC Drama; and Seduction – Tell Me More for Channel 4, for which he also shot and co-wrote the three-part documentary Born of the One Father (Au Nom du Même Père) in 1980–81.

1990s–present

Jones has worked as a screenwriter in Europe, where his credits include television movies such as Forbidden Zone (Verbotene Zone, 1995) and Not Without You (Nicht Ohne Dich, 2001) for German broadcaster ZDF, The Gift of Life (Un Cadeau: la Vie) for France 2, Joseph, Mary Magdalen, Thomas and Saul of Tarsus for Mediaset in Italy, and the award-winning feature film (2000), starring Ulrich Tukur.

Since 2007, he has run the feature film development initiative Babylon. This aims to promote cultural diversity within the independent film sector in Europe, and to provide an international platform for emerging filmmakers.[15]

Jones wrote and directed a trilogy of feature films known collectively as the D-Trilogy, Desire (2009),[16] [17] [18] Delight (2013)[19] [20] and Delirium (2016).[21] Delight was screened at the 35th Moscow International Film Festival[19] and at the Wales One World Film Festival.[22]

Awards and nominations

Year AwardCategory Title Result
1983 British Press Guild Award Best Light Entertainment Brass Won
1989 FIPA, Cannes Best Actress Shalom Salaam Won
1989 FIPA, Cannes, SACD Award Best Screenplay Shalom Salaam Won
2000 40th International TV Festival Monte Carlo Nymphe d'Or Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace Won
2000 DAG Writer's Award, Germany Gold Medal, Most Challenging German Film Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace Won
2000 New York Festival Bronze World Medal Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace Won
2009 17th Raindance Film Festival 2009 Best UK Feature Desire Nominated
2013 German Script Prize 2013Best Script A Slice of Sea Nominated
2013 35th Moscow Film Festival 2013Golden St George, Best Film Delight Nominated

Filmography

Year(s) Title Role Channel/Distributor Duration
1980 Crown Court Writer Granada Television 3 x 30 mins
1981 Coronation Street Director Granada Television 14 x 30 mins
1983 Brass (Series 1) Director Granada Television 13 x 25 mins
1984 Brass (Series 2) Producer/Director Granada Television 13 x 25 mins
1985 Albion Market (Pilot) Director Granada Television 2 x 30 mins
1985-6 Albion Market Producer Granada Television 70 x 30 mins
1986 Fighting Back Writer BBC Television 5 x 60 mins
1987 The Trial of Klaus Barbie Director BBC Television 1 x 90 mins
1988 Shalom Salaam Writer/Director BBC Television 5 x 60 mins
1988 Watch with Mother Director BBC Television 1 x 75 mins
1989 Seeing in the Dark Director BBC Television 1 x 75 mins
1990 Seduction: Tell Me More Director Channel 4 1 x 20 mins
1991 Born of the One Father (Au Nom du Même Père)Director Channel 4/TF1 3 x 50 mins
1994 Forbidden Zone (Verbotene Zone)Co-Writer ZDF/ARTE 1 x 90 mins
1995-6 Open Sundays (Sonntags Geöffnet) Co-Writer RTL 13 x 50 mins
1999 The Gift of Life (Un Cadeau la Vie) Co-Writer France 2 1 x 90 mins
1999 Joseph (Giuseppe) Writer Mediaset 1 x 90 mins
2000 St Paul (San Paolo) Writer Mediaset 2 x 90 mins
2000 (Maria Maddalena) Writer Mediaset 1 x 90 mins
2000 (Bonhoeffer – Die letzte Stufe) Writer ARD/Theatrical 1 x 90 mins
2001 Thomas (Tommaso)Writer Mediaset 1 x 90 mins
2001 Not Without You (Nicht Ohne Dich) Co-Writer ZDF 1 x 90 mins
2009 Desire Writer/Director Scenario Films/Theatrical 1 x 90 mins
2013 Delight Writer/Director Scenario Films/Theatrical 1 x 100 mins
2016 Delirium Writer/Director Scenario Films/Theatrical 1 x 100 mins

Theatre and radio

Year Title Role Venue/Broadcaster Description
1980 My People Writer/Adaptor/Director Theatr Clwyd/Tour Theatre Play
1981 Solidarity Writer/Director Theatr Clwyd Theatre Play
1981 Solidarity Writer BBC Radio 3 Theatre Play
1981 Lord of Misrule Writer/Novel BBC Radio 4 9-part Dramatization
1982 The Drovers' Roads Writer/Director/Presenter BBC Wales Radio Documentary
1982 Night Must Fall Director Theatr Clwyd Theatre Play

Selected publications

Year Title Role Publisher Description
1980 Lord of Misrule(aka The Disinherited) Author Farrar, Straus & Giroux US/Gollancz/Penguin UK Novel
1985 Noble Savage Author Weidenfeld & Nicolson/Sphere UK Novel
2006 The Optimists Author Kinokultura, November 2006, ed Iordanova Film Criticism/Academic
2006 Sarajevo - Trauma Revisited Author Beyond Camps and Forced Labour, ed Steinert and Weber-Newth (Osnabrück: Secolo, 2007) Film Criticism/Academic
2007 The Cinema of the Balkans Author Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 27, Issue 2 Film Criticism/Academic
2007 An Inner Exodus: The Many Diasporas of Balkan Cinema Author Cineaste, Vol XXXII, No 3 Film Criticism/Academic
2010 Future Imperfect; European Cinema in Motion: Migrant and Diasporic Film in Contemporary Europe ed. Berghahn and Sternberg Author Palgrave Macmillan, 2010 Film Criticism/Academic

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/books/gareth%2Bjones Athene Seyler on Desert Island discs
  2. http://www.reading.ac.uk/web/FILES/special-collections/trewin.pdf Correspondence between Athene Seyler and J. C. Trewin
  3. http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/2010-11/weekly/6234/6234.pdf p11
  4. The Guardian, Carol Wilks review, 30 April 1981.
  5. TV Times Magazine 26 February - 4 March 1983, cover story and article pp16-19
  6. Arts Guardian 15 March 1983, review by Peter Fiddick
  7. Guardian Online 24 May 2012 "Your next box set: Brass".
  8. Radio Times 2–8 August 1986, cover article pp 4-5
  9. Sunday Times review 17 August 1986, Rachel Hepburn
  10. Radio Times, 22–28 April 1989, article pp 10-11
  11. Sunday Times article 5 February 1989, Amit Roy
  12. https://books.google.com/books?id=MoKuVLHEMvUC&q=shalom+salaam+bbc+1989 Making Sense of Suburbia Through Popular Culture
  13. Sunday Times Review 19 July 1987, Patrick Stoddart, p 58
  14. The Guardian, Media Page, 13 July 1987, Peter Fiddick, p13
  15. Web site: European partners start new initiative for minority film-makers.
  16. Johnian News Issue 26 October 2009: Desire - A film by Gareth Jones starring Oscar Pearce.
  17. http://www.raindance.co.uk/site/raindance-film-festival-awards-2009 17th Raindance Film Festival Nominations: Best UK Feature 2009
  18. Web site: Adams . Mark . Desire . Screen Daily. 3 March 2011 . 8 October 2022.
  19. http://www.themoscowtimes.com/arts_n_ideas/article/35th-moscow-international-film-festival-takes-off/482001.html Moscow Times article
  20. Web site: Moscow Film Fest to Kick off Thursday with Brad Pitt's 'World War Z'. . 19 June 2013.
  21. Web site: Gareth Jones' 'Delirium' begins shoot.
  22. Preview: Wales One World Festival . David. Gillam. . 13 March 2014 . 8 October 2022.