British Council Logo UK Films Database
Project Detail

Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach

Synopsis

Documentary focusing on the work, both on screen and off, of director Ken Loach. Revolving around the 'battles' linked to his long filmography- ranging from the campaign to combat homelessness prompted by the 1966 film 'Cathy Come Home', to a right-wing press backlash over the Palme d’Or win for 'The Wind That Shakes The Barley' in 2006, to a fight with the censors over the language in 'Sweet Sixteen'.
A provocative and revealing account of the life and career of one of Britain’s foremost filmmakers, produced as he turns eighty, looking back at over fifty years of filmmaking.

Details

Year
2016
Type of project
Features
Running time
90 mins
Director
Louise Osmond
Producer
Rebecca O'Brien
Director of Photography
Roger Chapman
Composer
Roger Goula Sarda
Principal cast
Ken Loach
Assistant Producer
Jack Thomas-O'Brien

Genre

Woman Director

Categories

Documentary

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

BBC Films

BBC Broadcasting House
7th Floor, Zone A
Portland Place
London
W1A 1AA

Sixteen Films

2nd Floor
187 Wardour Street
London
W1F 8ZB

Sales Company

Dogwoof

Ground Floor
19-23 Ironmonger Row
London
EC1V 3QN

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

Suggest amendments

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

Dark Horse Dark Horse

Director: Louise Osmond

Year: 2015

An inspirational and occasionally heart-stopping true story of a group of friends from a working men's club in Wales who decide to take on the elite 'sport of kings' and breed themselves a racehorse. Against all the odds, their young foal, raised on nearby waste-land, goes on to become a champion. Until one day disaster strikes… Official Selection Toronto 2015 - TIFF Docs

Sport Woman Director
Baku oilfields circa 1970 The Contract of the Century

Director: Christina D. Bartson

Year: 2027

An all-archival film which tells the story of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline - one of the most ambitious energy projects of the 21st Century - and the scientists, activists, and farmers that came close to stopping it. Part ghost story, part road trip film, the feature documentary examines how the ghosts of the empire haunt the present, as the world burns.

Climate / Environment
Image of a vicar holding up the eucharist. Matter of Britain

Director: Peter Treherne

Year: 2026

MATTER OF BRITAIN was an English country village’s performance of the Holy Grail myth. In that myth, King Arthur’s knights quest for the Holy Grail in order to heal their wasted land. The performance took place over 12 months from 2023 to 2024 in multiple locations across the parish of Mayfield, East Sussex. Over 300 members of the community took part as questing knights, angelic choirs, guiding anchorites and tempting devils. The performance was documented and subsequently made into an ethnographic fantasy that has screened at the Museum of Modern Art, CPH:DOX, Cinéma du Réel and Open City Documentary Film Festival. The work was supported by an Arts Council England Project Grant, the Lund Trust, High Weald AONB, East Sussex Arts Partnership, the University of Reading and the Museum of English Rural Life.

Art / Artists Climate / Environment Docufiction Experimental Fantasy