 Directing films from the 1950s through to the early 90s, Derek Williams
exemplifies many of the paradoxes enfolding his generation of postwar
directors making documentaries for the large screen. Williams' films were
showered with awards (including Oscar nominations) but entirely escaped the
critical attention that the previous generation had enjoyed. Working under
sponsorship - particularly from BP and other industrial concerns - in his own
words, he walked a 'tightrope', exemplified by his cycle of films on
environmental themes funded by oil companies.
Williams was born in 1929 in Newcastle on Tyne. His calling card into the
film industry was Hadrian's Wall (1951), an acclaimed amateur film (made during
Cambridge University vacations) which presaged much of his later work: its
careful attention both to stately pictorial composition and literate commentary,
and its somewhat melancholy romanticism, proved to be characteristic. As a
professional filmmaker, Williams enjoyed periods of direct employment by World
Wide Pictures and (more happily) by Greenpark Productions, alternating with
longer periods of freelancing at these and other companies.
While the commissions he received varied immensely, in the first half of his
career, thanks to films like Foothold on Antarctica (1956), documenting the
advance party of the Trans-Antarctic Commonwealth Expedition, Williams acquired
a particular reputation for adventurous filmmaking in remote, inhospitable
locations. This sequence of films culminated in the splendidly atmospheric North
Slope - Alaska (1964), for which Williams accompanied a team of BP-contracted
Canadian oil prospectors to the dark and bitterly cold Arctic region of the 49th
US state.
As the director later admitted, North Slope's initial popularity died down as
the 1960s wore on and its heroic view of man and industry struggling against the
wilderness became untenable in the face of rapidly changing attitudes. All the
more fascinating, then, that Williams' key films from 1970 onwards should
reflect big industry's attempts both to renegotiate its relationship with the
environment and to rethink its public relations. There may (and should) be
heated debate over how these films ought, ultimately, to be judged. If they
never entirely escape the spectre of self-contradiction, the skill and
seriousness of their making, as well as their initial worldwide public impact,
should also be recognised.
Williams' lugubrious and very memorable Greenpark film The Shadow of Progress
(1970), BP's contribution to European Conservation Year, is arguably the last
momentous work to emerge from the 'classic' documentary film (as opposed to
television) tradition. Certainly, it proves that its strengths (cinematic
assurance and epic sweep) and its weaknesses (caution when formulating its
message) were often inextricably intertwined, both being products of relatively
costly industrial sponsorship.
In the film's 'sequel', The Tide of Traffic (1972), Williams attempted to
push harder. Its bitter edge reflects the writer-director's own disdain for the
age of the motor vehicle, but exposes a mismatch between the logic of the film's
argument and the logic of its funding. Amid lesser (and lesser-budgeted) later
efforts, Williams' The Shetland Experience (1977) is perhaps his crowning
achievement, partly because its sponsorship didn't come straight from the
boardroom. This characteristically contemplative portrait of the Shetland
Islands and its position in the North Sea oil rush was funded by the
environmental advisory group of the Sullom Voe Association, in which several oil
industry players joined with the local council to ensure developments were
managed with maximum economic benefit, and minimum ecological cost, to Shetland
life.
After this Oscar-nominated short, Williams' career went into prolonged
decline, typical of a generation of filmmakers who fell prey to the downturn in
documentary sponsorship and the shrinkage of its once-large audience base. While
he continued directing until 1992, few of his later films approached the scope
or impact of his best work. Happily, his last two films were a (somewhat muted)
return to form. The Shell films A Stake in the Soil (1989) and Oman - Tracts of
Time (1992) echo an earlier BP trilogy (Turkey - The Bridge, 1966; Alaska - The
Great Land, 1971; Scotland, 1973) concerned with history and landscape. They
also share environmental implications with the cycle of films initiated by The
Shadow of Progress. But they were largely limited to educational viewing. The
industry from which Williams now retired was but a shadow of the one he had
entered. If his career ultimately reflects documentary's decline, it also proves
that the decline set in slowly, even gracefully.
Patrick Russell
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FILM & TV CREDITS
