{{Short description|British photographer and film director}} {{Use British English|date=September 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox person | name = Duane Hopkins | image = Duane Hopkins on W!ZARD Radio Media.jpg | caption = Hopkins at the BFI London Film Festival in 2014 | birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1973|07|22}} | birth_place = Cheltenham, England | death_date = | death_place = | othername = | occupation = Film director, screenwriter, artist | years_active = 2001 – present }}
'''Duane Hopkins''' (born 22 July 1973) is an English film director and artist, best known for directing the independent film ''Better Things'' (2008).
== Career ==
Hopkins' first short film, ''Field'', made in 2001, premiered at Cannes Film Festival as part of International Critics' Week. A dark, unblinking tale of rural adolescence, ''Field'' went on to win a host of prizes at festivals internationally. Hopkins followed ''Field'' in 2003 with his second short film ''Love Me Or Leave Me Alone'', made as part of Film 4 and UK Film Council's Cinema Extreme scheme for new British filmmaking talent. ''Love Me Or Leave Me Alone'', 'a study in the articulations and limitations of first love', premiered at Edinburgh International Film Festival where it won Best British Short Film. Like ''Field'' it was highly successful; together the two films gathered over 30 international awards.<ref>http://www.casarotto.co.uk/system/media/client/cv/1821/Duane_Hopkins.pdf{{Dead link|date=July 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
Hopkins then wrote and directed his debut feature film ''Better Things''. Shot on location in the West Midlands of England, ''Better Things'' premiered at International Critics' Week in Cannes 2008, where it was nominated for the Camera D'Or.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/2008/programmeGoldenCamera.html |title=Festival de Cannes - from 16 to 27 may 2012 |accessdate=2010-09-22 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110818153939/http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/2008/programmeGoldenCamera.html |archivedate=18 August 2011 |df=dmy }}</ref> A multi-narrative tale of love, yearning and loss amongst the young and old of a small town in rural England, ''Better Things'' was widely praised by critics as a film that was both radical and nuanced. It was often noted for its use of cinematic technique and narrative approach to connect themes such as romantic need, the roots of drug addiction, and existential notions of anxiety, purposefully against a contemporary, epic rural backdrop. ''Variety'' stated: "Duane Hopkins follows his prize-winning shorts with visually distinctive first feature ''Better Things''. Beautifully shot with cast of eye-catching non-pros… gives a special twist to UK tradition of social realism by juxtaposing the natural and the constructed."<ref>https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117937185.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&query=better+things+duane+ {{Dead link|date=February 2022}}</ref> The Guardian wrote that ''Better Things'' "has a bold and brilliant insight at its heart"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/may/19/cannesfilmfestival.festivals1|title = Peter Bradshaw on an Israeli docu-drama about the atrocities of war|website = TheGuardian.com|date = 19 May 2008}}</ref> while The Independent argued that "Hopkins is a director with an introspective subtlety uncommon in UK filmmaking",<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20091208105536/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/cannes-film-festival-in-review-830174.html The Independent]</ref> and in choosing '''Better Things'' as its Film of the Month, Sight and Sound wrote "Hopkins' film depicts, or rather creates, a piece of British social landscape that we have never quite seen before".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/4704 |title=BFI | Sight & Sound | Film of the Month: Better Things (2007) |accessdate=2010-09-10 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100815111846/http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/4704/ |archivedate=15 August 2010 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> Le Monde made ''Better Things'' its film of the week, comparing Hopkins' work to "the abstract violence of Alan Clarke, and the lyrical harshness of Bill Douglas...Hopkins clearly has a lot in common with such directors: he uses a harsh metaphysical darkness and an acute sense of formal composition.".<ref>https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117937185.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&query=better+things+duane+ {{Dead link|date=February 2022}}</ref>
Hopkins has been described as being at the centre of an emergent 'British New Wave' alongside directors like Steve McQueen, with ''Better Things'' distinguished "by its technical and stylistic approaches to typical problems of British realism".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49461 |title=BFI | Sight & Sound | Cannes 2008: A royal rumpus |accessdate=2010-09-13 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100122155030/http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49461 |archivedate=22 January 2010 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> His film work has been noted for its precise compositions and technical rigour, and for its poetic cinematic rendering of realist subject matter, characters and environments.
Hopkins also works in the fields of photography and moving image art. His first solo gallery exhibition ''Sunday'', a collection of single and multi-channel moving image installations, opened at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in March 2009.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.balticmill.com/whatsOn/past/ExhibitionDetail.php?exhibID%3D122 |title=DUANE HOPKINS - Exhibitions - BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art |accessdate=2010-09-13 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091207122645/http://www.balticmill.com/whatsOn/past/ExhibitionDetail.php?exhibID=122 |archivedate=7 December 2009 |df=dmy }}</ref> ''Sunday'' deals with contemporary British youth and the relationships between identity, psychology and environment. The format of the individual pieces within the Sunday collection is that of multiple images knitted together to form multi-screen scenes, each working in different ways with atmosphere and narrative. The impression formed is suggestive of a social-realist fairy tale – the subtle interaction of realist, surreal and romantic tropes. With ''Sunday'' Hopkins was said to have "created an experience that is entirely separate from the conventions of sitting in a cinema. He generates a portrait of youth that has a matter of fact, harsh reality to it and a psychological intensity that is unnerving.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.balticmill.com/images/pdf/.../Duane%20Hopkins_Sunday38.pdf |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2010-09-22 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309211158/http://www.balticmill.com/images/pdf/.../Duane%20Hopkins_Sunday38.pdf |archivedate=9 March 2012 |df=dmy }}</ref>" ''Sunday'' was also exhibited at galleries in Liverpool<ref>http://www.openeye.org.uk/past.asp?id=13{{dead link|date=December 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> and Yokohama<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ifamy.jp/en/programs/single/220/ |title=| CREAM International Festival for Arts and Media Yokohama 2009 |accessdate=2010-09-22 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091022181539/http://www.ifamy.jp/en/programs/single/220/ |archivedate=22 October 2009 |df=dmy }}</ref> in 2009.
Hopkins produces the work of other filmmakers through Third, a company co-founded with producer Samm Haillay. With Third Hopkins has produced Daniel Elliott's Venice-winning short film ''The Making of Parts'' and Berlinale-winning ''Jade''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/15185 |title=UK Film Council - Jade wins Berlinale Silver Bear for Best Short Film; September wins BAFTA for Best Short Film |accessdate=2009-12-23 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100523065554/http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/15185 |archivedate=23 May 2010 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> In 2010 he co-produced the feature film debut of the artist Gillian Wearing, titled ''Self Made''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://screenbase.screendaily.com/films/670|title = Self Made | Films | ScreenBase}}</ref>
==Filmography== * ''Field'' (2001) * ''Love Me Or Leave Me Alone'' (2003) * ''Better Things'' (2008) * ''Bypass'' (2014)
==Moving Image Art== * ''Sunday'' (2009) (Installation Series)
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * [http://www.duane-hopkins.com/ Duane Hopkins Website] * [http://www.betterthingsthefilm.co.uk/ ''Better Things'' Official Site] * [http://www.duanehopkins-sunday.com/ Duane Hopkins' Sunday Official Site] * {{IMDb name|1109502}} * [http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=77525357501 Baltic Interview With Duane Hopkins about ''Sunday'']
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopkins, Duane}} Category:English film directors Category:British experimental filmmakers Category:Photographers from Gloucestershire Category:1973 births Category:Living people Category:Artists from Cheltenham