Shane Meadows

x By Katherine x

A Little bit about Shane Meadows…

• Born 26 December 1972 a film director and screenwriter, from Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, England.

• He dropped out of school before doing his ‘O’ levels and moved to to Nottingham when he was 20.

• He first got into film making when him and a group of friends started making short films, however there were no film festivals in his area to show them. So him and his friends started one in a local cinema which became really popular with the town. His fame started when a film scout found him and took him on as an amateur film director and his entire catalogue of films have been set in the Nottingham area.

Filmography• Director• (8.10) - Dead Man's Shoes (2004) • (8.00) - This Is England (2006) • (7.59) - A Room for Romeo Brass (1999) • (7.25) - Northern Soul (2004) • (7.02) - Small Time (1996/II) • (6.97) - Where's the Money, Ronnie? (1996) • (6.92) - 24 7: Twenty Four Seven (1997) • (5.95) - Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (2002)

Filmography

• Writer• (8.10) - Dead Man's Shoes (2004) • (8.00) - This Is England (2006) • (7.59) - A Room for Romeo Brass (1999) • (7.23) - Northern Soul (2004) • (7.00) - Small Time (1996/II) • (6.94) - Where's the Money, Ronnie? (1996) • (6.92) - 24 7: Twenty Four Seven (1997) • (5.95) - Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (2002)

Filmography• Actor• (7.57) - A Room for Romeo Brass (1999) • (6.89) - 24 7: Twenty Four Seven (1997) • (6.78) - Small Time (1996/II) • (6.68) - Where's the Money, Ronnie? (1996) • (5.93) - Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (2002) • Self• (6.90) - The Making of 'This Is England' (2007) (TV) • (6.66) - In Shane's Shoes: The Making of 'Dead Man's Shoes'

(2004) (TV) • Editor• (7.10) - Northern Soul (2004) • (6.74) - Where's the Money, Ronnie? (1996)

Filmography

• Producer• (6.76) - Small Time (1996/II) • (6.65) - Where's the Money, Ronnie? (1996) • Cinematographer• (6.60) - Where's the Money, Ronnie? (1996) • Thanks• (9.50) - Dog Altogether (2007) • Camera and Electrical Department• (6.60) - Where's the Money, Ronnie? (1996)

Summery of ‘This is England’• After being bullied at school, 12-year-old Shaun (Thomas

Turgoose) comes across a small band of Skinheads lead by Woody (Joseph Gilgun), a charismatic teenager who befriends the boy immediately. Bringing him into the group as one of their own, Woody quickly initiates Shaun as a Skinhead to the dismay of his widowed mother. Having lost his father in the Falklands War, Shaun gleefully embraces his new found friends (and look) until the group is split with the arrival of Combo (Stephen Graham), an older, nationalist skinhead just released from prison. Once friends, now bitter rivals, Combo and Woody divide the group along political lines. Blaming England's economic woes, growing unemployment and post-war grievances on the influx of foreign minorities, Combo persuades Shaun and other members of the pack to make a stand, preserving England for the English. After attending a meeting of right-wing nationalists, Combo takes his new found gang of hooligans to threaten the local Pakistani community. Combo begins to reveal his own emotional battles with loss, loneliness and isolation. Combo turns his hate, envy and rage against one member of the group to devastating effect... changing Shaun's viewpoint in an instant.

Reviews

• The Times

“Few directors tap their damaged past as brilliantly as Meadows. This is England is by far his most personal and powerful testimony.”

• BBC Movie Reviews “A FUNNY AND DEEPLY MOVING PORTRAIT”

Summery of ‘Room for Romeo Brass’

• Two twelve-year-old boys, Romeo and Gavin, undergo an extraordinary test of character and friendship when Morell, a naive but eccentric and dangerous stranger, comes between them. Morell befriends the two boys and later takes a liking to Romeo's beautiful elder sister. He gradually becomes more violent after she rejects him…

Reviews

• Channel 4 Film

“Shane Meadows's calm approach results in intelligent and committed filmmaking.”

Meadows style of acting• Meadows is, as so often, more comfortable with

machismo than with the humour and gentleness which play a smaller, yet powerful part of his movies.

• Meadows is often compared to Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, but Scorsese is his idol. He may be dealing with the mean streets of Uttoxeter but Meadows loves films with a universal message.

• Full of colour and wit, Meadows' early films mirror his experience of growing up on a council estate in Uttoxeter.

• The main theme of Meadows' work is the nature - and failure - of masculinity

• Meadows hates filming sex scenes - 'Emotionally, I'll send someone to hell, but when it comes to a girl taking her clothes off, I really struggle.'