Sally Potter

Sally Potter (b. 19 September 1949 in London) is an English film director and screenwriter.

Career

Having left school at sixteen to become a filmmaker, she joined the London Film-Makers' Co-op and started making experimental short films. She later trained as a dancer and choreographer at the London School of Contemporary Dance, before founding her own company, The Limited Dance Company.

Potter went on to become an award winning performance artist and theatre director, with shows including Mounting , Death and the Maiden and Berlin . In addition, she was a member of several music bands (including the Feminist Improvising Group and The Film Music Orchestra) working as a lyricist and singer. She collaborated (as a singer-songwriter) with composer Lindsay Cooper on the song cycle Oh Moscow which was performed throughout Europe, Russia and North America. Her music work continued later when she co-composed with David Motion the soundtrack to Orlando , and created the score for The Tango Lesson . Her most recent music work is as producer and composer of the original tracks for Yes .

Potter returned to filmmaking with her short film Thriller (1979) which was a hit on the international festival circuit. This was followed by her first feature film, The Gold Diggers (1983), starring Julie Christie; a short film, The London Story (1986); a documentary series for Channel 4, Tears, Laughter, Fears and Rage (1986); and a programme about women in Soviet cinema, I Am an Ox, I Am a Horse, I Am a Man, I Am a Woman (1988).

The internationally acclaimed Orlando (1992) brought Potter's work to a wide audience. Starring Tilda Swinton, the film was based on Virginia Woolf's classic novel and adapted for the screen by Potter. In addition to two Academy Award nominations, Orlando won more than 25 international awards, including the Felix awarded by the European Film Academy for the best Young European Film of 1993, and first prizes at St Petersburg, Thessaloniki and other festivals.

Her next film was The Tango Lesson , in which she also performed, with renowned tango dancer Pablo Veron. First presented at the Venice Film Festival, the film was awarded the "Ombú de Oro" for Best Film at the Mar del Plata Film Festival, Argentina, the SADAIC Great Award from the Sociedad Argentina de Autores y Compositores de Música, as well as receiving Best Film nominations from BAFTA and the US National Board of Review.

In 2000 she completed The Man Who Cried (starring Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Cate Blanchett and John Turturro), a story set just before World War II in Paris, in the world of the opera.

Sally's film Yes opened in the U.S. & UK in 2005, after a year of touring the worldwide festival circuit. Yes is the story of a passionate love affair between an American woman (Joan Allen) and a Middle-Eastern man (Simon Abkarian), the dialogue of which is entirely in Iambic Pentameter.

She directed English National Opera's production of Bizet's Carmen in 2007, opening on 29 September at the London Coliseum starring Alice Coote.

Potter maintains a daily online diary on her official website.

Sally Potter premiered her new film Rage at this years Berlin Film Festival. The New film made on a small £1 million budget has created a new genre of film titled Naked Cinema . The film will see a UK release on 24 September 2009 for one night only at the BFI and other participating Cinemas.

Feature film credits

• Thriller (1979)
• London Story (1980)
• The Gold Diggers (1983)
• I Am an Ox, I Am a Horse, I Am a Man, I Am a Woman (1988)
• Orlando (1992)
• The Tango Lesson (1997)
• The Man Who Cried (2000)
• Yes (2004)
• Rage (2009)

Further reading

• Catherine Fowler, SALLY POTTER Urbana and Chicago, University of Illinois Press, November 2008
• Sophie Mayer, THE CINEMA OF SALLY POTTER A Politics of Love , 224 pages´, Wallflower Press, Wallflower Publishing Ltd., July 2009

References

1. ^ Sophie Mayer, THE CINEMA OF SALLY POTTER A Politics of Love

Sally Potter - Singer / Songleader

The New York Times! In February 2008, Sally was featured in the New York Times, in a story detailing the singing community she has created. Read it Here:

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Sally Potter - Singer / Songleader

Welcome to the website of Sally Potter, Lansing, MI singer, songleader, producer, teacher and community cheerleader.

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Sally Potter | Official Website

Welcome to the official site of Sally Potter, Independent Film Maker and Director.

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Sally Potter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sally Potter (b. 19 September 1949 in London) is an English film director and screenwriter.

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TRAILERS | Sally Potter

Watch the trailers for Sally Potter’s last four feature films as well as clips from her other work.

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Rage | Babelgum

Defying the usual conventions of film, RAGE is the new cinematic creation from groundbreaking writer/director Sally Potter. Using a radical narrative structure focusing entirely on ...

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Sally Potter Retrospective | Babelgum

Opening at London's BFI Southbank on December 2 with the premiere of a digitally-remastered ORLANDO and onstage conversation between Sally Potter and Tilda Swinton, the program ...

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Sally Potter (I)

Director: Orlando. Visit IMDb for Photos, Filmography, Discussions, Bio, News, Awards, Agent, Fan Sites.

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Sally Potter

The Auteurs is your online cinema, anytime, anywhere. Watch, discover and discuss independent, foreign and classic films.

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Sally Potter

Sally Potter “Interviews With Three Women Film Makers”, Verina Glaessner, Time Out, 17th March, 1972. “Rendezvous D’Edinburgh: A report on the festival’s Feminism ...

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