Orlando

Sally Potter (b. 19 September 1949 in London) is an English film director and screenwriter.

Having left school at sixteen to become a filmmaker, Sally Potter joined the London Film-Makers’ Co-op and started making experimental short films. She later trained as a dancer and choreographer at the London School of Contemporary Dance, before founding Limited Dance Company with Jacky Lansley.

Potter went on to become an award winning performance artist and theatre director, with shows including MOUNTING, DEATH AND THE MAIDEN and BERLIN. In addition, she was a member of several music bands (including FIG and The Film Music Orchestra) working as a lyricist and singer. She collaborated (as a singer-songwriter) with composer Lindsay Cooper on the song cycle OH MOSCOW which was performed throughout Europe, Russia and North America. Her music work continued later when she co-composed with David Motion the soundtrack to ORLANDO, and produced the score for THE TANGO LESSON. Her most recent music work is as producer and co-composer with Fred Frith of the original tracks for YES and RAGE.

Potter returned to filmmaking with her short film THRILLER (1979) which was a hit on the international festival circuit. This was followed by her first feature film, THE GOLD Diggers (1983), starring Julie Christie; a short film, THE LONDON STORY (1986); a documentary series for Channel 4, TEARS, LAUGHTER, FEARS AND RAGE (1986); and a programme about women in Soviet cinema, I AM AN OX, I AM A HORSE, I AM A MAN, I AM A WOMAN (1988).

The internationally acclaimed ORLANDO (1992) brought Potter’s work to a wide audience. Starring Tilda Swinton, the film was based on Virginia Woolf’s classic novel and adapted for the screen by Potter. In addition to two Academy Award nominations, ORLANDO won more than 25 international awards, including the Felix awarded by the European Film Academy for the best Young European Film of 1993, and first prizes at St Petersburg, Thessaloniki and other festivals.

Her next film was THE TANGO LESSON, in which she also performed, with renowned tango dancer Pablo Veron. First presented at the Venice Film Festival, the film was awarded the “Ombú de Oro” for Best Film at the Mar del Plata Film Festival, Argentina, the SADAIC Great Award from the Sociedad Argentina de Autores y Compositores de Música, as well as receiving Best Film nominations from BAFTA and the US National Board of Review.

In 2000 she completed THE MAN WHO CRIED (starring Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Cate Blanchett and John Turturro), a story set just before World War II in Paris, in the world of the opera, which also premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

Sally’s film YES opened in the US and UK in 2005, after a year of touring the world-wide festival circuit. YES is the story of a passionate love affair between an American woman (Joan Allen) and a Middle-Eastern man (Simon Abkarian), the dialogue of which is written entirely in verse.

In 2007 Potter directed Bizet’s CARMEN for English National Opera at the London Coliseum, starring Alice Coote and designed by Es Devlin.

RAGE – a murder mystery set in the fashion industry as seen through the eyes of a young blogger armed with a cell-phone – is Sally Potter’s latest film and is the first feature ever to premiere on mobile phones and the internet. The cast includes Judi Dench, Steve Buscemi, Lily Cole and Jude law.

Potter maintains a blog and answers questions in the forum on her official website www.sallypotter.com and has an interactive online archive at www.sp-ark.org.