JAMES SCOTT

James Scott was born in England, into a family of artists. With a joint passion for film and painting, and with no film school in England in the sixties, he entered the Slade School of Fine Art in London where he made his first film, The Rocking Horse (1962). Though still a painting student, this short film catapulted James into a career in film working with Tony Richardson. Embarking on an era of social change at the end of the sixties, and having pioneered a new kind of art film with artists such as Hockney, Kitaj, Hamilton and Oldenburg, James turned his attention to the political.  In 1970, as part of the Berwick Street Film Collective  (Marc Karlin, Humphry Trevelyan, Mary Kelly), he began work on Nightcleaners.  During the three years he spent collaborating on this project, James also returned to his interest in narrative films, writing and directing Adult Fun (1972) and Coilin and Platonida (1976). Then in 1977, he began work on the second part of the Nightcleaners film, ’36 to ’77.

 In the early eighties, James returned to narrative filmmaking, adapting and directing the short story A Shocking Accident (1983) by Graham Greene, which won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short.  He followed this with another Greene adaptation, his last mainstream feature with Molly Ringwald, Robert Lindsay and John Gielgud, Loser Takes All completed in 1990 and produced by Harvey Weinstein. Following a nightmare experience on Loser Takes All ,  James moved to Los Angeles remarried and started a new family.  While the foundation of his art practice had been  drawing on a daily basis,  Scott shifted his focus to painting.  His new work found inspiration in the contrasting realities of Hollywood and his new family life. His paintings have been included in exhibitions in New York, London and Los Angeles.

In August 2017, the British Film Institute released a double DVD set that includes six of his films on artists under the title, Every Picture Tells a Story.  James continues to reside in Los Angeles, painting, writing, cooking and making films.  His most recent is a documentary, Fragments 2019 with the artist, Derek Boshier which premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 2020. He is currently completing a long term project on the Catalan artist Antoni Tàpies.

 For an excellent interview with James Scott click here