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Tracking Loach
Politics ǀ Practices ǀ Production
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Book Presentation:
Offers a unique first-hand account of Ken Loach’s working methods
• Provides a detailed study of the making of The Angels’ Share
• Offers a wider analysis of Loach’s films and his film-related political activities
• Draws upon research from the British Film Institute's Loach Archive
• Demonstrates how a detailed knowledge of film making practices and methods can enhance film analysis and criticism
Tracking Loach presents a ground-breaking and unique contribution to the study of cinema. Archibald was granted unprecedented access to observe one of world cinema’s most celebrated and controversial filmmakers, Ken Loach, while he was making the 2012 feature The Angels Share, which received The Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
This book draws on this knowledge to offer a first-hand account of the director’s celebrated working methods, supplemented with insights gleaned from the British Film Institute’s Loach archive, and analysis of his wider output and film-related political activity.
Archibald has been ‘Tracking Loach’ for over three decades, as film viewer, film critic and film academic, and this inside perspective not only offers fresh insights into Loach’s films and how they are made, but also highlights the benefits of production studies to the understanding of cinema more broadly.
About the Author:
David Archibald is Professor of Political Cinemas at the University of Glasgow. His previous publications include The war that won’t die: The Spanish Civil War in Cinema (2012), and many essays on film and film culture. He is the Series Editor of the Edinburgh University Press Political Cinemas Series, sits on the editorial boards of Journal of Class and Culture and Media Practice and Education, and is a member of the Radical Film Network international steering committee. David is currently making films with Núria Araüna Baró under the banner ‘Ragged Cinema’, writing songs for and performing with The Tenementals, and is researcher-in-residence at The Revelator Wall of Death.
Press Reviews:
David Archibald’s book, Tracking Loach, is an academic celebration of Ken Loach’s 60 year career in socialist filmmaking and political activism. There is so much to discover and learn from its unique, rigorous and genuinely heartfelt exploration of one of the maestros of modern British cinema and modern British politics, Ken Loach. It is highly recommended.– Brett Gregory, Culture Matters
David Archibald’s book, Tracking Loach, is an academic celebration of Ken Loach’s 60-year career in socialist filmmaking and political activism. There is so much to discover from its unique, rigorous and heartfelt exploration of one of the maestros of modern British cinema and modern British politics. It is highly recommended.
– Brett Gregory, Morning Star
David Archibald’s excellent study … successfully distinguishes what makes Loach’s approach to filmmaking politically distinct and radical in contrast to commercial modes of filmmaking and the larger structures of capitalism. In its focus on Loach’s technique, Archibald’s analysis offers a path forward for future directorial studies that deemphasize auteurism for a more nuanced focus on the team dynamics that inform the process of filmmaking.
– Daniel Moore, Film Quarterly
Moving far beyond textual analysis, David Archibald takes us on to Loach’s set, introduces us to his collaborators, and reveals the collective working methods and practices that shape ‘a Ken Loach film’. This remarkably distinctive piece of scholarship offers a much needed challenge to conventional readings of film authorship.
– David Forrest, University of Sheffield
[Tracking Loach] successfully adds to existing studies of Loach’s work by filling in some of the gaps in our understanding of Loach’s working methods and encouraging greater attention to processes of production.– John Hill, Cineaste
Archibald’s study is an extremely valuable contribution to understanding Loach’s work, and others who have adopted, often by direct influence, similar working methods.
– Mike Wayne, Journal of Class & Culture
David Archibald provides a thorough analysis of the many facets of Ken Loach’s work as one of the most consistent and radical filmmakers in Britain. With a carefully argued methodology and a thorough case study, based on the production process of The Angels' Share, his book offers eloquent insight into this significant director and his work.
– Rod Stoneman, NUI Galway
See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press
See the complete filmography of Ken Loach on the website: IMDB ...
> From the same author:
The War That Won't Die (2012)
The Spanish Civil War in Cinema
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