Paul Gorman

Documentaries

Revenge of the suburbs: David Bowie fans shine in doc about the 1983 Milton Keynes Bowl gigs

wat15
//Members of the audience from Edinburgh who preferred Australian support act Icehouse to Bowie//

wat16

Fittingly Britain’s most surprising rock star has found his way to Britain’s newest and most surprising city, where high tech meets ecologic, where concrete meets conservation, where the silicon chip meets the fibreglass rod…

Steve Taylor, South Of Watford, Summer 1983, London Weekend Television

While putting the finishing touches to my forthcoming book about The Face magazine, I followed a line of research which lead me to an excellent documentary about the late David Bowie which I hadn’t seen since it was screened in 1983.

Shown as part of London’s regional broadcaster LWT’s South Of Watford strand, the film focused on Bowie’s immersion in the mainstream with the Let’s Dance LP and companion Serious Moonlight tour (sponsored by Levi’s in a groundbreaking marketing deal, this inaugurated the era of corporate and branded live music events).

wat2db9db8

The doc’s point of entry was Bowie’s weekend of sold-out gigs that summer at Milton Keynes Bowl, the open-air arena in Britain’s newest city north of London in the Buckinghamshire countryside.

Continue reading Revenge of the suburbs: David Bowie fans shine in doc about the 1983 Milton Keynes Bowl gigs

Nick Ebeling’s supercool ride into Dennis Hopper’s heart of darkness with ‘El Hombre Invisible’ Satya de la Manitou

aftr-selects-10
//Dennis Hopper and Satya de la Manitou photographed by Wim Wenders in Taos, 1978 (c) Wim WendersStiftung 2016//

Along For The Ride is the wild and suitably idisoyncratic documentary from LA-based artist Nick Ebeling about male friendship –  in particular the relationship between Ebeling’s cinematic hero Dennis Hopper and his right-hand man, “El Hombre Invisible” Satya de la Manitou – and the often fraught nature of film-making.

aftr_selects_02
//Satya de la Manitou in Along For The Ride//

With a score by Gemma Thompson of Savages and produced by Sheri Timmons, the core of Along For The Ride lies in stories of de la Manitou’s 40-year friendship with Hopper, as related to Ebeling over coffee in various LA diners.

Continue reading Nick Ebeling’s supercool ride into Dennis Hopper’s heart of darkness with ‘El Hombre Invisible’ Satya de la Manitou

She’s A Punk Rocker UK : An antidote to male musings on 1976 and all that

punk14

You would literally paint the news on your t-shirt that day and became part of the news, part of the progress with your artwork and your music…the women in punk were doing that; their style was a demonstration of their visual art, about what they were, where they were at and what they believed in.

Caroline Coon, She’s A Punk Rocker UK

She’s A Punk Rocker UK – Zillah Minx’s 2010 celebration of British female non-conformity – is a fantastic antidote to the current male musings on 1976 and all that.

Continue reading She’s A Punk Rocker UK : An antidote to male musings on 1976 and all that

Danny Kleinman’s film about Bazooka Joe and the first Sex Pistols gig now available to view here and at GQ Online

gqbj

Director Danny Kleinman’s film about his 70s group Bazooka Joe and the night the Sex Pistols played their first gig as support act is available to view here and at GQ Online.

For GQ I have written an introduction discussing last Friday’s event Be Reasonable Demand The Impossible, where Kleinman’s film was premiered.

View the film below and read my piece here:

Derek Boshier is the subject of What Do Artists Do All Day? on BBC Four next Monday (August 24)

DB-what do artists do all day artwork
//Artwork: Derek Boshier 2015//

Derek Boshier is the next subject of the BBC strand What Do Artists Do All Day? – Zara Hayes’ film, which was shot in Los Angeles and shadows Boshier on his daily routine, will be screened at 10.30pm UK time on BBC Four next Monday (August 24).

Continue reading Derek Boshier is the subject of What Do Artists Do All Day? on BBC Four next Monday (August 24)

BBC Four Goes Pop in August: Derek Boshier commissioned to create new channel ident and also appears in What Do Artists Do All Day? and Pop Goes The Easel

976976 copy 2

//Boshier features in these panels from BBC Four’s Pop Art-style run-down of the season elements//

British artist Derek Boshier – subject of Rethink/Re-entry, the monograph I have edited which is published this autumn – is to be featured in next month’s BBC season of programmes about Pop Art.

Boshier has been commissioned by the broadcaster to create a new BBC Four ident which will run throughout August alongside new logos produced by his fellow Royal College graduates Peter Blake and Peter Phillips (who starred with Boshier and the late Pauline Boty in Ken Russell’s groundbreaking 1962 BBC documentary Pop Goes The Easel).

Continue reading BBC Four Goes Pop in August: Derek Boshier commissioned to create new channel ident and also appears in What Do Artists Do All Day? and Pop Goes The Easel

Studio Prints: At A Printmaker’s Workshop in Kentish Town 1970

sp2
//Dorothea Wight picking up groceries in Queens Crescent Market…//
studioprints1
//…before heading into Studio Prints//

The 1970 BBC documentary At A Printmaker’s Workshop focuses on Dorothea Wight’s fabled Studio Prints in Queens Crescent, Kentish Town.

It is also a marvellous snapshot of London on the cusp of change as inner city areas became invigorated by the arrival of interesting new businesses (with none of today’s dread “regeneration” and its companion property-speak of “creative quartiers” and such).

Continue reading Studio Prints: At A Printmaker’s Workshop in Kentish Town 1970