2018 Directed by Vinod Mahindru, Robin Dutta
A feature length documentary about the real state of the British film industry in relation to UK structures past, present and currently for the future. This film exposes the shocking truths about the UK Governments' will to grow an indigenous British film industry, the legacy and testament of the now closed UK Film Council (UKFC), the current British Film Institute and the new Creative England.
UK
UK
OK as a film this may look and feel rather like one of those little reports on Watchdog into a company you think you know and believe to be reliable only to find out just how rotten to the core it actually is, but the corruption that Robin Dutta and Vinod Mahindru's film exposes is a story that needs to be told.
So we're caught in a tricky juxtaposition here; Who Killed British Cinema? is an absolute must-watch for anyone interested in the (British) film industry, and a real eye-opener to the white elephant nature of British studios and the broken promises and sell-outs, politics and poor funding, mismanagement and incompetence, lack of ambition or vision, and a deep-seated aversion…
A righteously angry piece: part expose, part exercise in hand-wringing. But there lies a central problem with a programme that doesn't know what it wants to be. I wish documentary makers would take smaller bites and concentrate on those rather than bittily surveying all things and everything - we all know what Jack wasn't a master of...
The apparent rot at the UK Film Council is worthy of its own investigative documentary (come back World in Action!) but this drifts off into side issues with an over reliance on clumsy illustration and spurious examples via film clips, so we never get to grips with the horrendous mess the council apparently was. As a pet peeve the constant goldfish memory graphics…
There's a few points I agree with in here, particularly on the ways Britain's class system makes establishing new talent difficult, and aids in the formation of a corrupt managerial class that basically exists to funnel government money into their side businesses. On the whole though, this is trash.
Listen, I agree it's depressing that such safe films get funded in Britain. But, it's also depressing to me that these creators think about this in such a roundabout way. You have to organically produce films that people actually want to see, surely. The complaining from English directors here that America has "colonized" their culture is particularly tiring - as is the very English trait of endlessly explaining how deep and…
think i need a plan b on this whole filmmaking career goal
definitely agree with the sentiment that the government killed off british cinema because they saw it as a political threat. especially with british filmmaking's roots in working class films that criticise power and those in power.
now more than ever we need diverse stories being told, from filmmakers of all kinds of backgrounds. and we need independent films to be given the funding they need in production and marketing, to fight against the disney monopoly that's currently going on in cinemas all over.
Very interesting independent documentary about the current state of the modern UK film industry with a lot of good points to make.
8/10
Equal measures of justified polemical anguish and ropey chip on the shoulder conjecture.
The clip of young nubile bodies writhing on spring break as an illustration of the lifestyles of people working in lottery film funding and certification was laugh out loud funny, but I don’t think it was supposed to be.
This goes deep and transparent very quickly, so put any illusions/naivete you have about how the film industry(s) works away as you start it. You're in for an education.
The future of the film industry is a boot self dealing to itself on public money, for ever. Oh yeah, there may have been a face being stomped somewhere, but no one remembers.
