Anthony Wall (filmmaker)
Anthony Wall is a British documentary filmmaker whose lifelong contribution to cinema has been honoured with the Special Medallion of the Telluride film festival. He was the longest-serving Series Editor of the BBC's flagship arts documentary strand Arena, voted by leading TV executives in Broadcast magazine as one of the top 50 most influential programmes of all time.
Early life
Anthony Wall was born in Hackney, East London, in 1951, and grew up in Herne Hill. He attended a Catholic grammar school before studying English at King's College, Cambridge.In 1974, he joined BBC Radio as a trainee studio manager. That same year, he joined the Morning Star as its first rock critic.
Wall moved across to television production in 1978, working in the Music and Arts department of the BBC under its head Humphrey Burton.
''Arena''
He joined the Arena production office in late 1978, when Alan Yentob was in charge of its Theatre and Art & Design strands. This was soon consolidated into a series of single films, moving away from the magazine format. Wall was instrumental in this shift, forming the core team with directors Nigel Finch and Nigel Williams, together developing a more discursive and playful approach to art documentary. With Finch as director, Wall co-devised the landmark films My Way, Chelsea Hotel and The Private Life of the Ford Cortina.As an emerging director on the series, Wall profiled Luck and Flaw, John Peel, Desert Island Discs, The Everly Brothers, Superman, Mikey Smith, Luis Buñuel and Jerry Lee Lewis.
In 1985, Wall was appointed joint series editor alongside Finch, replacing Yentob, who had been promoted to Head of Music and Arts. Together they pioneered the themed evening, beginning with Blues Night, followed by Caribbean Nights, Animal Night, Food Night and the immersive Wall-directed Texas Saturday Night. With Radio Night they took over both BBC Two and BBC Radio 4 for a unique simulcast.
A sister series, Rhythms of the World, was added to Finch and Wall's roster, reflecting the abundance of extra material shot for Arenas world music films. It was also a strand for original work, with many of its 69 films being new commissions.
When Finch died in 1995, Wall continued as series editor for a further 23 years. In place of a weekly slot, Arena had now entered a new era of occasional "specials" in the schedules, and would grow to enjoy a major presence on the international documentary stage. High-profile collaborations with Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood and Bob Dylan were broadcast in this period.
Since 2015, Wall has developed Night and Day, also known as The Arena Time Machine, an ongoing art project with film editor/director Emma Matthews. It is a series of films made entirely from the Arena archive that simply present the day and night as they proceed, each one in exact synchronicity with the date and time of the screening. They vary in length from eight to 24 hours, and have appeared in Cambridge, Brighton, New York, San Francisco, Telluride, Ireland, Sheffield and London.
Wall stepped down as series editor in 2018. He was succeeded by Mark Bell as commissioning editor.
Awards
Wall has personally been awarded three BAFTA awards, three Royal Television Society awards, an Emmy, the Prix Italia, and the Special Medallion of the Telluride Film Festival. He also accepted the Mel Novikoff Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival 2019 on behalf of Arena.Selected filmography
| Year | Films |
| 1979 | My Way |
| 1980 | Climb Every Mountain, or Nothing Succeeds Like Failure Luck And Flaw |
| 1981 | Chelsea Hotel Hazel Meets His Makers Today Carshalton Beeches, Tomorrow Croydon The Comic Strip Hero Brixton to Barbados |
| 1982 | The Private Life of the Ford Cortina Desert Island Discs Upon Westminster Bridge |
| 1983 | Jazz Juke Box Jazz Juke Box II The Everly Brothers Reunion Concert |
| 1984 | The Life And Times of Don Luis Buñuel Jerry Lee Lewis The Everly Brothers – Songs of Innocence And Experience Music of the Other Americas |
| 1986 | Maytime on the Mosquito Coast Scarfe on Scarfe |
| 1987 | How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? |
| 1988 | My Name is Celia Cruz |
| 1989 | Slim Gaillard's Civilisation |
| 1991 | Tudo da Samba - Everything That Makes for a Samba One Irish Rover Slim's Jazz Texas Saturday Night |
| 1992 | Rhythms of the World in Texas |
| 1993 | Jorge Ben in Performance |
| 1998 | Jerry Jeff Walker – Let's Go to Luckenbach, Texas |
| 1998 | The Brian Epstein Story |
| 1999 | Looking for the Iron Curtain |
| 2001 | Sykes and A Day |
| 2002 | Pinter at the BBC |
| 2003 | Dylan Thomas – Grave To Cradle |
| 2005 | Dennis Potter – It's in the Songs! It's in the Songs! Dennis Potter – Potter on TV Dylan in the Madhouse |
| 2007 | Bob Marley - Exodus '77 Dylan’s Folk - The Pure, The Bad and the Ugly |
| 2009 | Cool |
| 2010 | Harold Pinter – A Celebration Johnny Mercer – The Dream's On Me |
| 2012 | Dickens on Film |
| 2014 | Whatever Happened to Spitting Image Roger Law – Carved, Drawn and Quartered Peter Fluck – Stillness to Movement John Lloyd – The Meaning Of |
| 2015–present | Night and Day |
| 2016 | The Roundhouse – The People's Palace |