Talk

Ken Loach

Festival of Ideas

Friday 3 May 2019 12.30 - 1.30pm

The Benjamin West Lecture Theatre, Burlington Gardens, Royal Academy of Arts

£20, £12

Booking for Friends of the RA opens at 10am on Tuesday 26 February 2019. Booking opens to the public at 10am on Friday 1 March 2019.

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Award-winning director, Ken Loach, joins writer and critic Francine Stock to talk about his 50-year career in film and the widely differing reactions his films have provoked, particularly in Britain.

His work is characterised by realistic portrayals of working class life, with its contradictions, comedy and struggles, both personal and political. A thorn in the side of the establishment, his films have always provoked strong responses. He talks about how cinema reflects political ideas, sometimes consciously, sometimes inadvertently, and about how the process of film-making cannot be separated from the content of the films.

Ken Loach was born in 1936 in Nuneaton. He attended King Edward VI Grammar School and went on to study law at St. Peter’s Hall, Oxford. After a brief spell in the theatre, Loach was recruited by the BBC in 1963 as a television director. He started his career directing Z Cars and quickly established himself as a director who didn’t shy away from confronting difficult and controversial issues. In 1966 he directed the iconic Cathy Come Home which was watched by a quarter of the British population and coincided with the foundation of two housing charities – Crisis and Shelter.

The Wind that Shakes the Barley, about two brothers who join the fight for Irish independence in 1920, won a Palme D’Or at Cannes, and his most recent film I Daniel Blake – a portrait of a man denied benefits despite ill health – landed a second. He is currently editing Sorry We Missed You.

He makes it clear that he is not an auteur and has been fortunate to work with fine writers and creative producers. For the last quarter of a century, he has worked alongside the writer Paul Laverty, and producer Rebecca O’Brien.

This event will be followed by an audience Q&A.

£20, £12

Booking for Friends of the RA opens at 10am on Tuesday 26 February 2019. Booking opens to the public at 10am on Friday 1 March 2019.

Media Partner