 Ron Peck is known best for Nighthawks (1978), the first overtly gay British film, which he made in collaboration with Paul Hallam. However, his film output and other activities are diverse. He has made documentaries about artists (Edward Hopper, 1981) and boxers (Fighters, 1992), a personal film about naked men and censorship (What Can I do with a Male Nude?, 1985), and the high-profile feature Empire State (1987). Rather than choosing to work within the traditional film industry, which may have meant compromising his vision and his principles, he has always worked collaboratively and sought to share his filmmaking knowledge and resources. After graduating from the London International Film School in 1976, Peck set up Four Corners Films in Bethnal Green with fellow filmmakers Mary Pat Leece, Joanna Davis and Wilfried Thust. Four Corners still exists and supports filmmakers from disadvantaged communities in the East End. It was at Four Corners that he made Nighthawks. It won acclaim at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and internationally, especially at the emerging lesbian and gay film festivals around the world. He continued to make his films at Four Corners, particularly with the support of Channel Four, until 1991 when he moved on to establish Team Pictures with Mark Ayres in Bow, East London. There, he made Strip Jack Naked (1991), a documentary and update of Nighthawks and after that, Fighters. In the mid-1990s, Peck raised over a million pounds from the Arts Council Lottery Fund and the European Regional Development Fund to establish a digital production and education project at Team Pictures, which opened in 1998. Now, after receiving an award from the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts, he is taking his own filmmaking practice into the digital era. Helen de Witt
|
FILM & TV CREDITS
