Gareth Jones (director)


Gareth Jones is a British film and television director and screenwriter, owner of independent production company Scenario Films.

Background

Gareth Jones was born in London in February 1951, son of BBC Foreign Correspondent Ivor Jones and Jane Ann Sterndale Bennett. He is the grandson of the actress Athene Seyler and great-great-grandson of the composer William Sterndale Bennett. He was educated at Westminster School and St. John's College, Cambridge where he read Modern Languages. After graduation in 1973, he trained for a year at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama before joining Prospect Theatre Company, where he worked with Kenny McBain, directing Shakespeare, Brecht, Strindberg and Chekhov.
He was Director of Productions at bilingual Welsh/English touring company Theatr yr Ymylon, and between 1977 and 1980 worked as a freelance theatre director for the Royal Court Theatre with Stuart Burge, and Theatr Clwyd where he directed his own plays My People and Solidarity During the 1980s he published two novels Lord of Misrule and Noble Savage.
After training as a television director at HTV Wales, he joined Granada Television at the invitation of producer Bill Podmore for whom he directed Coronation Street and comedy drama series Brass starring Timothy West, Caroline Blakiston and Barbara Ewing, the second series of which he also produced. From 1984-7 he worked as a freelance writer/director for BBC television drama, writing drama series Fighting Back starring Hazel O'Connor and 5-part drama Shalom Salaam, a ground-breaking Jewish-Muslim love story starring Mamta Kaash, Toby Rolt, Ayub Khan-Din and Charlotte Cornwell, which he also directed.
Other television directing credits include The Trial of Klaus Barbie which was based on court transcripts and screened shortly after the verdict, Watch with Mother and Seeing in the Dark for BBC Drama, and Seduction – Tell Me More for Channel 4 for whom he also shot and co-wrote 3-part documentary Born of the One Father in 1980–1.
Jones has worked as a screenwriter in Europe, where his credits include television movies such as Forbidden Zone and Not Without You for German broadcaster ZDF, The Gift of Life for France 2, Joseph, Mary Magdalen, Thomas and Saul of Tarsus for Mediaset in Italy, and award-winning feature film Bonhoeffer - Agent of Grace, starring Ulrich Tukur.
Most recently, Jones has written and directed a trilogy of feature films known collectively as the D-Trilogy, Desire, Delight starring Jeanne Balibar, and Delirium.
Since 2007 he has run feature film development initiative Babylon, aimed at promoting cultural diversity within the independent film sector in Europe, and to provide an international platform for emerging filmmakers.
In 2011 he was awarded his PhD from Cambridge University for his thesis Rites of Recuperation: Film and the Holocaust in Germany and the Balkans.
Jones lives in London with his spouse and business partner, producer and composer Fiona Howe, and their two children. He has two elder children, both university academics, by an earlier marriage.

Career

Film and Television Credits

YearTitleRoleChannel/DistributorDuration
1980Crown CourtWriterGranada Television3 x 30 mins
1981Coronation StreetDirectorGranada Television14 x 30 mins
1983Brass DirectorGranada Television13 x 25 mins
1984Brass Producer/DirectorGranada Television13 x 25 mins
1985Albion Market DirectorGranada Television2 x 30 mins
1985-6Albion MarketProducerGranada Television70 x 30 mins
1986Fighting BackWriterBBC Television5 x 60 mins
1987The Trial of Klaus BarbieDirectorBBC Television1 x 90 mins
1988Shalom SalaamWriter/DirectorBBC Television5 x 60 mins
1988Watch with MotherDirectorBBC Television1 x 75 mins
1989Seeing in the DarkDirectorBBC Television1 x 75 mins
1990Seduction: Tell Me MoreDirectorChannel 41 x 20 mins
1991Born of the One Father DirectorChannel 4/TF13 x 50 mins
1994Forbidden Zone Co-WriterZDF/ARTE1 x 90 mins
1995-6Open Sundays Co-WriterRTL13 x 50 mins
1999The Gift of Life Co-WriterFrance 21 x 90 mins
1999Joseph WriterMediaset1 x 90 mins
2000St Paul WriterMediaset2 x 90 mins
2000 WriterMediaset1 x 90 mins
2000Bonhoeffer - Agent of Grace WriterARD/Theatrical1 x 90 mins
2001Thomas WriterMediaset1 x 90 mins
2001Not Without You Co-WriterZDF1 x 90 mins
2009DesireWriter/DirectorScenario Films/Theatrical1 x 90 mins
2013DelightWriter/DirectorScenario Films/Theatrical1 x 100 mins
2016DeliriumWriter/DirectorScenario Films/Theatrical1 x 100 mins

Awards and Nominations

YearAwardCategoryTitleResult
1983British Press Guild AwardBest Light EntertainmentBrassWon
1989FIPA, CannesBest ActressShalom SalaamWon
1989FIPA, Cannes, SACD AwardBest ScreenplayShalom SalaamWon
200040th International TV Festival Monte CarloNymphe d'OrBonhoeffer - Agent of GraceWon
2000DAG Writer's Award, GermanyGold Medal, Most Challenging German FilmBonhoeffer - Agent of GraceWon
2000New York FestivalBronze World MedalBonhoeffer - Agent of GraceWon
200917th Raindance Film Festival 2009Best UK FeatureDesireNominated
2013German Script Prize 2013Best ScriptA Slice of SeaNominated
201335th Moscow Film Festival 2013Golden St George, Best FilmDelightNominated

Theatre and Radio Credits

YearTitleRoleVenue/BroadcasterDescription
1980My PeopleWriter/Adaptor/DirectorTheatr Clwyd/TourTheatre Play
1981SolidarityWriter/DirectorTheatr ClwydTheatre Play
1981SolidarityWriterBBC Radio 3Theatre Play
1981Lord of MisruleWriter/NovelBBC Radio 49-part Dramatization
1982The Drovers' RoadsWriter/Director/PresenterBBC WalesRadio Documentary
1982Night Must FallDirectorTheatr ClwydTheatre Play

Published Works

YearTitleRolePublisherDescription
1980Lord of MisruleAuthorFarrar, Straus & Giroux US/Gollancz/Penguin UKNovel
1985Noble SavageAuthorWeidenfeld & Nicolson/Sphere UKNovel
2006The OptimistsAuthorKinokultura, November 2006, ed IordanovaFilm Criticism/Academic
2006Sarajevo - Trauma RevisitedAuthorBeyond Camps and Forced Labour, ed Steinert and Weber-Newth Film Criticism/Academic
2007The Cinema of the BalkansAuthorHistorical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 27, Issue 2Film Criticism/Academic
2007An Inner Exodus: The Many Diasporas of Balkan CinemaAuthorCineaste, Vol XXXII, No 3Film Criticism/Academic
2010Future Imperfect; European Cinema in Motion: Migrant and Diasporic Film in Contemporary Europe ed. Berghahn and SternbergAuthorPalgrave Macmillan, 2010Film Criticism/Academic