Justin Edgar

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Edgar at the premiere of The Marker, Edinburgh International Film Festival 2017

Justin Edgar (born 18 August 1971) is a British film director, screenwriter and producer.

Early life

Born in Handsworth, Birmingham, Edgar left school with no qualifications because he regularly played truant to watch movies at the nearby Odeon. He had a string of dead-end jobs before enrolling on a Sutton College media course from 1991 to 1993 where he used the basic equipment to make films. "It was really, really bog standard stuff and the edit suite was simply two VHS machines joined together. But I used to stay there until last thing at night until the caretaker came to kick me out."[1]

He graduated from

Portsmouth University in 1996 with a first class degree in film.[2]

In a 2020 interview, Edgar spoke about his grandfather, who was a committed pacifist and conscientious objector during World War Two. He also mentions his mother, a peace activist for the Peace Pledge Union.[3]

Career

In 1998 he directed the short comedy Dirty Phonecalls for

Film Four
and went straight in at number one in the UK video charts. It sold to over twenty countries around the world.

His 2005 short Special People won Best Film at the 2005 Chicago International Film Festival, Best Drama at the 2006

BAFTAs and Turner Classic Movies Prize Shorts. Also shot in 2005, real-time crime drama The Ends won best short at the 2005 Raindance Film Festival in London and was nominated for the Golden Horseman Award at Dresden film festival.[2] It also won the Big Issue Film Award and was shown on Channel 4 and cable TV throughout Europe.[4]

His second feature film Special People premiered at the 2007 Edinburgh International Film Festival in competition for the Michael Powell Award, gaining great public and critical acclaim. It opened the 2008 London Disability Film Festival and won best film at the Britspotting Film Festival in Berlin.[2] The film was released in the United Kingdom in November 2008 to positive reviews.[5]

Edgar shot his third feature film

Screen Daily said it was a "likeable, breezy British teen comedy".[9] Andrew Blair in Den of Geek noted the film's "political bent" and "anger bubbling under its surface".[10]

His fourth film

Golden Globe nominated actress Cathy Tyson and Romanian actress Ana Uluru.[11] The Wee Review stated it was "A well-crafted noir thriller that satisfies the sadistic cinema goer with its darkly uncompromising take on the genre".[12] Another critic commented “A shocking, dark, vicious, violent, forceful, engrossing, touching, beautiful film! The film of the Edinburgh Film Festival.”[13] In February 2018 it premiered on Netflix.[14]

Birmingham

Edgar has said that the UK city of

Rotunda building as a location prior to its renovation in 2003.[15]

His company 104 Films is named after a bus route in the city.[16]

Film and disability

Edgar runs

London Olympics, the British Film Institute and Creative Skillset.[17] In 2013 Edgar was invited to meet Her Royal Highness the Queen in respect of his work in disability and film.[18]

104 Films have produced or co-produced feature films related to disability including

ME which was shortlisted for the 2018 Best Documentary Oscar[23] and Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story which was also critically acclaimed[24] and nominated for a BIFA following a premiere at SXSW
.

Edgar has written about representations of disability and film in the UK's The Guardian arguing for more disabled talent behind the camera.[25] He has also appeared on BBC Radio 4 proposing a disability version of the Bechdel Test for film called the 104 test which states that 1) The film must have a disabled actor playing a disabled character or a disabled writer or director; 2) The disabled character does not have to overcome adversity 3) The disabled character is not able-bodied either at the beginning or end of the film[26] On Channel 4 News in 2019 he was interviewed and spoke of how depictions of disability are damaging because they "are about loss".[27] He has also contributed to the diversity debate in events such as Screen International's round table on diversity in the film industry[28] and BAFTA's Diversify conference.[29] The credits of We Are the Freaks end with the phrase "Powered by disability".

Edgar also produced the

Royal Television Society Award-winning Deaf World War One one-off television drama Battle Lines starring Harris Dickinson in 2015.[1]

[1]He wrote and produced the 2019 short film Verisimilitude for the BBC, directed by David Proud and starring Ruth Madeley, Esther Smith and Alice Lowe[30] which was released in cinemas and received positive reviews from The Guardian and Time Out.[31][32] In 2023 he also produced a portmanteau of short films for Film4 entitled 4Love,[33] working with emerging disabled film talent.

He is a member of the jury for the BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer[34]

Visual Arts

In 2020 Edgar created his first visual arts exhibition about a fictional

Arts Council of England.[36][non-primary source needed] This collection of made-up artefacts, documentaries, photographs and press cuttings included a television camera which exhibition promotional materials claim had been shot by activists during a raid on BBC Pebble Mill television studios. The exhibition opened at The Art House contemporary art gallery in Wakefield in January 2020 and was due to tour to The Attenborough Arts Centre in Leicester and the Southbank Centre in London, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the photographs of Reasonable Adjustment graffiti were taken by Edgar as an art student in the 1990s.[3][unreliable source?
]

In 2022, Edgar made the visual arts experimental film We Are Invisible We Are Visible, for Tate Galleries, which involved him filming at 22 galleries across the UK on the same day - 2 July 2022, which marked the 102nd anniversary of the 1st International Dada Exhibition. This film launched at Tate St Ives on Friday 23 September 2022.[37]

Make Film Equal

In 2018, Edgar ran the successful crowdfunding campaign #MakeFilmEqual [38] The campaign part funded a documentary entitled The Social Model to highlight the plight of underrepresented disabled film talent and the work of 104 films.[38] Directed collaboratively by the 104 films collective, the film received a positive review from Disability Arts Online[39] and has screened widely at film festivals. Following a premiere at the Belfast Film Festival it played at the Together and Fragments Film Festivals in London and the Picture This Film Festival in Calgary where it won the Thomas Poulsen Award.[40][41][42][43]

Filmography (as director)

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Young, Graham (8 May 2014). "Justin Edgar: Birmingham has become my film set and I love it". Birmingham Post. Trinity Mirror Midlands. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d e Young, Graham (15 September 2001). "The Life Mag - Interview - Justin Edgar - My big break". Evening Mail.
  3. ^ a b "Reasonable Adjustment – The Disabled Armed Resistance Movement". Disability Arts Online. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  4. ^ "Big Steps". The Big Issue. 27 August 2007.
  5. ^ http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/10010557/ [dead link]
  6. ^ Leheny, Iain (2013). "Edinburgh International Film Festival website". edfilmfest.org.uk. Edinburgh Film Festival.
  7. ^ "We are the Freaks". The List. The List. 25 April 2014.
  8. ^ Lodge, Guy (12 July 2013). "Variety". www.variety.com. Variety.
  9. ^ Hunter, Allan (24 June 2014). "We are the Freaks review". screendaily.com. EMAP.
  10. ^ Blair, Andrew (1 July 2013). "We are the Freaks review". www.denofgeek.com. Dennis Publishing.
  11. ^ "Edinburgh to host 'Okja', 'Daphne', Sean Connery movies, Michael Powell classic". Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  12. ^ "The Marker | Review". The Wee Review | Scotland's arts and culture magazine. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  13. ^ "Film - The Marker". Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  14. ^ "The Marker on Netflix". Netflix.
  15. ISBN 0-415-28838-X
    .
  16. ^ "Justin Edgar". IMDb.
  17. ^ a b Cooper, Sarah (18 June 2013). "Screen Daily". www.screendaily.com. EMAP.
  18. ^ "IMDB". www.imdb.com. 30 January 2014.
  19. ^ Ide, Wendy (22 January 2016). "Screen Daily". www.screendaily.com. EMAP.
  20. ^ "IMdb listing for Notes on Blindness". IMDB. IMDB. 10 April 2016.
  21. ^ Grater, Tom (4 February 2017). "Screen Daily - How 'Notes On Blindness' became a contender". Screen Daily.
  22. ^ "Notes on Blindness on IMDB". IMDb.
  23. ^ "Oscar-nominated film director in ME plea to MSPs". HeraldScotland. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  24. ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  25. ^ Edgar, Justin (9 February 2018). "Isn't it time disabled actors and directors were allowed to make their own films?". The Guardian.
  26. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Film Programme, Shirley Henderson, Maxine Peake". BBC. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  27. ^ "BFI presents 100 years of disabled people in film". Channel 4 News. 2 February 2019. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  28. ^ Mitchell, Wendy (17 January 2013). "The Diversity Opportunity". Screen Daily. Emap. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  29. ^ Wiseman, Andreas (14 November 2013). "TV and film fail on diversity". Broadcast Now. Emap. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  30. ^ "BBC Two - Festival of Funny: Shorts, Verisimilitude". BBC. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  31. ^ Waugh, Rosemary. "The Uncertain Kingdom , directed by Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Jason Bradbury and Stroma Cairns | Film review". Time Out Worldwide. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  32. ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  33. ^ Calnan2023-02-14T12:15:00+00:00, Ellie. "Film4 showcases disabled and neurodivergent talent with short film collection (exclusive)". Screen. Retrieved 14 May 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  34. ^ "2023 Official Awards Brochure". www.bafta.org. 23 February 2022. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
  35. ^ Justin Edgar: Reasonable Adjustment. YouTube. Together! 2012 CIC.
  36. ^ "Justin Edgar - Reasonable Adjustment - The Disabled Armed Resistance Movement". Unlimited. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  37. ^ Tate. "We Are Invisible We Are Visible: A film by Justin Edgar – Display at Tate St Ives". Tate. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  38. ^ a b "#MakeFilmEqual". Indiegogo. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  39. ^ "Together! Disability Film Festival screens The Social Model". Disability Arts Online. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  40. ^ "The Social Model". Belfast Film Festival. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  41. ^ "The Social Model | Together! 2012". Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  42. ^ "Fragments Festival: The Social Model". Genesis Cinema. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  43. ^ "2019 Festival". Picture this... film festival. Retrieved 8 May 2019.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Justin_Edgar&oldid=1185628874"