# Peter Hopkinson > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Peter_Hopkinson > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Peter_Hopkinson.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hopkinson > Source revision: 1299880039 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) **Peter Richard Gunton Hopkinson** (1920–2007) was a British film-maker and director. A Second World War combat [cameraman](/source/Cameraman), and documentary director, reporter and writer, he also worked at Denham Studios in the heyday of [British cinema](/source/Cinema_of_the_United_Kingdom). He was a member of [The United Nations](/source/The_United_Nations) Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). Peter Hopkinson died on 28 June 2007, aged 87. He is survived by his wife, Margaret, and two stepsons. ## Early life Born in [Ealing](/source/Ealing) in 1920, Hopkinson went straight from Lower School at [Harrow](/source/Harrow_School) to the film studies to work as a [clapper boy](/source/Clapper_boy) at age 16. He had been fascinated by film-making ever since he got a silent 35mm [projector](/source/Movie_projector) at an early age. He got a job as a clapper boy on [George Formby](/source/George_Formby,_Jr.) comedies. On leaving Ealing, Hopkinson worked as a camera assistant at Alexander Korda's Denham Studios, built on a 165 acres (0.67 km2) site near the village of [Denham](/source/Denham,_Buckinghamshire), Buckinghamshire. ## Career He worked with the American director [King Vidor](/source/King_Vidor) on [The Citadel](/source/The_Citadel_(1938_film)) (1938), based on the novel by [A.J. Cronin](/source/A.J._Cronin), and appeared briefly in [The Thief of Bagdad](/source/The_Thief_of_Bagdad_(1940_film)) (released 1940) before being called up for service in 1939. He joined the Army Film Unit under [David MacDonald](/source/David_MacDonald_(director)). When Hitler invaded Russia, Hopkinson volunteered for service overseas and was accepted, but in December 1941, aged 21, he heard of his selection as a cameraman and was sent to [Persia](/source/Persia) to make a film about getting supplies through to Russia. In [Baghdad](/source/Baghdad), the then prime minister [Rashid Ali](/source/Rashid_Ali) had allied [Iraq](/source/Iraq) with Germany, and the city had been invaded by the British. However, Hopkinson's first film reached London safely and was edited by [Roy Boulting](/source/Roy_Boulting). It was shown throughout the world as Via Persia (1942). He was finally sent to Greece in 1944 to record the British advance. He attached himself to a commando unit that fought the [Wehrmacht](/source/Wehrmacht) to an airfield at [Megara](/source/Megara), where the Germans made a stand. "Advancing down on our little handful was the rearguard of nothing less than the entire German Army Group in the Balkans," he later wrote.[1] At the battle, Hopkinson drove a Jeep around to help recover the men and munitions who had been paratrooped into the combat. He was injured in a Jeep and resolved never to drive again. At the end of the war, Hopkinson was sent by the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Association to the Soviet republics of [Belorussia](/source/Belorussia) and Ukraine, where he filmed the plight of orphaned children. Hopkinson won an award from the [Overseas Press Club](/source/Overseas_Press_Club) for "Best Reporting from Abroad on Foreign Affairs" for his film To Open the World to the Nations: [Suez](/source/Suez) (1955) made as the old order was in retreat and [Nasser](/source/Nasser) had taken over as prime minister. In 1955, he joined [NBC](/source/NBC)'s [Project 20](/source/Project_20) which planned a programme on Austria as the Allied occupying forces were departing. Hopkinson, as director/cameraman, wove his documentary around the re-opening of [Vienna](/source/Vienna)'s [Opera House](/source/Opera_House) with [Beethoven](/source/Beethoven)'s [Fidelio](/source/Fidelio). Hopkinson joined [World Wide Pictures](/source/World_Wide_Pictures) and among the films he directed was [Band Wagon](/source/Band_Wagon_(1958_film)), which won the Premier Award at the British Industrial Film Festival 1959. He continued working long past retirement age, making his last documentary for Whickers War, broadcast in 2004 ## Films, documentaries, print - Via Persia (1942) - Desert Victory (1943) - Battle for Bread (1950) - Bandwagon (1960) - To Open the World to the Nations: [Suez](/source/Suez) 1955 - African Awakening (1962, with [Wole Soyinka](/source/Wole_Soyinka) – won 1962 [Unesco](/source/Unesco)'s [Kalinga Prize](/source/Kalinga_Prize)) - Home is the Soldier (1967) - [Ghana](/source/Ghana); A report (1969) - Grey and Scarlet (1977) - Work with Water (1974) - Star Performer (1961, advertising the new Ford Thames 5/7cwt panel van) - Asian Crescent (1964) - The Smiths of London (1952) - Today in Britain (1964) - The caring Profession (1971) - Naturally It's Rubber (1964) - The Orphans of [Minsk](/source/Minsk) (commissioned 1989 by [Channel 4](/source/Channel_4) television) - Power Behind the Image (1995, [BBC](/source/BBC) Centenary Season of Cinema) - Uses and Abuses of Archive Film (1995), [Ernest Lindgren](/source/Ernest_Lindgren) Memorial Lecture) - Whickers War ([Alan Whicker](/source/Alan_Whicker), Television Documentary- 2004) - The Russians Nobody Knows (USA [newsreel](/source/Newsreel) series, [The March of Time](/source/The_March_of_Time_(film)) – (1948) - Film and Politics [\[1\]](http://www.bufvc.ac.uk/databases/newsreels/learnmore/docs/screen_of_change_chapter2.pdf)[dead link] Screen of Change, Chapter 2. - Film and Personality - Film and War - Film and [Race](/source/Race_(classification_of_human_beings)) - Film and the National Image - Film and the [Environment](/source/Environment_(biophysical)) ## Locations - United Kingdom - [Persia](/source/Persia) - Italy - [Yugoslavia](/source/Yugoslavia) - [Greece](/source/Greece) - Russia - [India](/source/India) - China - United States - [Austria](/source/Austria) ## Books ### Split Focus *Split Focus; an Involvement in Two Decades* is an introduction to documentary and the first installment of autobiography, describing the history of documentary television from its origins as cinema [newsreel](/source/Newsreel). Published by [Hart-Davis](/source/Hart-Davis), 1969. ### The Role of Film in Development (Reports and papers on mass communication) Published by [UNESCO](/source/UNESCO) 1971. ### Screen of Change (autobiography/memoir) Published by [UKA Press](/source/UKA_Press) 2007 *Screen of Change* is a memoir and historical study from film-maker **Peter Hopkinson**. The BUFVC has published chapter two 'Film and Politics', with the generous permission of the author. [\[2\]](https://web.archive.org/web/20080914051850/http://www.bufvc.ac.uk/databases/newsreels/learnmore/texts.html) ## References 1. ["Documentary maker whose record of the changing postwar world was infused with a sense of justice and optimism"](https://web.archive.org/web/20080509101220/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2093492.ece). 18 June 2007. Archived from [the original](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2093492.ece) on 9 May 2008. Retrieved 5 October 2011. [\[3\]](https://web.archive.org/web/20110717150214/http://ukauthors.com/ScreenofChangeReview.jpg) Screen of Change review British Film Institute [Sight and Sound](/source/Sight_and_Sound) [\[4\]](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound) January 2009 [\[5\]](https://web.archive.org/web/20080914051850/http://www.bufvc.ac.uk/databases/newsreels/learnmore/texts.html) SCREEN OF CHANGE, Chapter 2 'Film and Politics', published by BUFVC (British Universities Film and Video Council), with kind permission of the author. [\[6\]](https://web.archive.org/web/20110717145402/http://ukapress.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=102) Article by [Kevin Brownlow](/source/Kevin_Brownlow), [UKA Press](/source/UKA_Press) October 2007 [\[7\]](https://web.archive.org/web/20100911050032/http://www.ukapress.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=103) Screen of Change review by [Kevin Brownlow](/source/Kevin_Brownlow), [UKA Press](/source/UKA_Press) October 2007 [\[8\]](http://www.citwf.com/person497905.htm) Filmography, Film database (The Complete Index To World Film since 1895) [\[9\]](http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/B/battle_for_italy) Whickers War – The Battle for Italy, broadcast 4 August 2004, [Channel 4](/source/Channel_4) . ## Obituaries - [\[10\]](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/peter-hopkinson-457563.html)[dead link] The Independent - [\[11\]](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2007/jul/27/broadcasting.guardianobituaries) The Guardian - [\[12\]](https://web.archive.org/web/20080509101220/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2093492.ece) The Times Online ## External links - [\[13\]](http://www.bufvc.ac.uk) BUFVC (British Universities Film and Video Council) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Peter Hopkinson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hopkinson) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hopkinson?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.