John Samson (filmmaker)

John Samson (1946–2004) was a Scottish independent filmmaker.

Samson was born in Ayrshire and grew up in Paisley. After leaving school at the age of 16 he worked as an apprentice in Clydeside; here he became involved with the trade unionist movement. He also joined the Anarchist movement, and participated in a number of strikes and demonstrations. He left his apprenticeship and enrolled in the Glasgow School of Art in 1963;[1] later, after learning photography and the guitar, he began making documentary films. His first film, Charlie, gained him a scholarship to the National Film School.[2]

Samson was not a prolific artist, producing only five films over an eight-year career. He won a BAFTA and a Peabody in 1984 for The Skin Horse, and produced a documentary on the darts player Eric Bristow entitled Arrows.[3] His other films were Britannia, a study of train enthusiasts, Dressing for Pleasure, which examines fetishism, and Tattoo a film about tattoo artistry.[4] Samson's films did not generally use narration.[1]

References
  1. "Where others gawked, John Samson looked with genuine curiosity". The Economist. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
  2. "John Samson Retrospective". London International Documentary Festival. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
  3. Sandhu, Sukhdev. "John Samson: To Film It Is To Change It". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 9 March 2014. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
  4. Patience, Jan. "Films from the fringes of society". The Herald. Retrieved 7 March 2018.


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