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JONATHAN GILI JONATHAN GILI

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JUSTGIVING

JUSTGIVING

Jonathan Gili OBE
Working Film Archive
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Jonathan Gili OBE
Working Film Archive
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We're raising money to catalogue the entire working film archive of influential British documentary film maker Jonathan Gili, so that it is accessible to the public for future generations.

 

Jonathan Francesc Gili (1943 - 2004) directed numerous and wide-ranging television documentary and features programmes, mostly for the BBC. He was awarded an OBE for his services to broadcasting, and the highest accolade from the Grierson Trust: the Trustees Award.

Gili directed television documentaries such as To the Worlds End (which brilliantly evoked multi-ethnic London), Mixed Blessings (about babies swapped at birth), BAFTA-winning Public School - Westminster (which drew an audience of 12 million) and his trio of films with Lucinda Lambton: Animal Crackers, A Cabinet of Curiosities and The Great North Road. There followed many documentaries for the Timewatch series – Tales of the Eiffel Tower, The Empire State Story, Gold Rush Memories, The Oklahoma Outlaw. He worked on a two-part BBC obituary film of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, narrated by Simon Russell Beale, recognised to be the finest of its genre.

The film archive contains a comprehensive collection of material from all the films from the 1970s to 2004: scripts, shooting schedules, manuscripts and notes, internal BBC correspondence, logistical memoranda, souvenirs accumulated on location, recce and period photographs (including negatives), research material in a variety of media forms, audio rushes, newspaper review cuttings, reaction letters from the public, correspondence from interviewees and peers, including Julian Barnes, Alan Bennett, Rachel Billington, Kevin Brownlow, Terence Davies, The Duchess of Devonshire, Jonathan Dove, Alan Jenkins, Jonathan Miller, Peter Nichols, Oliver Sachs, Simon Schama, Samuel West and Victoria Wood.

The survival of this archive is unique in the industry. BFI needs financial support to make these papers accessible to the public. They need to be catalogued and made searchable on line; and preservation work that will ensure their long-term durability.

Simon Schama: “Gili was the greatest of documentarians, who was able to work with life and make life the script.”

The just giving page is: https://www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/britishfilminstitute/jonathangili

FILMOGRAPHY

FILMOGRAPHY

DIRECTOR
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Incident (BFI Production Board) 1.5’
Stephen Frears stars as a man who arrives home after a hard days’s work. . .

Paradise Garden (Sawbuck Productions) 30’
Sidney Nolan’s drawings are accompanied by his own poems read by Orson Welles.

Wedding Day (London Weekend) 2 x 30’
2 films in this observational series, about C of E and Greek Orthodox weddings.

Soldiers (London Weekend) 3 x 30’
3 films in this observational series about the Salvation Army: an officer is ordained; a family runs a dosshouse in the East End; a married couple run the entertainments at the annual Butlins summer camp.

Public School - Westminster (BBC1) (Best Editing award at BAFTA) 65’
Major observational documentary about life in a public school which reached an audience of nearly 12 million.

The Pool of Life (Granada) (Grand Prix at 1st European Environmental Film Festival) 50’
Current affairs documentary with drama inserts, about the past, present and future of the South Docks in Liverpool; starring Bernard Hill.

Incident (BFI Production Board) 1.5’
Stephen Frears stars as a man who arrives home after a hard days’s work. . .

Paradise Garden (Sawbuck Productions) 30’
Sidney Nolan’s drawings are accompanied by his own poems read by Orson Welles.

Wedding Day (London Weekend) 2 x 30’
2 films in this observational series, about C of E and Greek Orthodox weddings.

Soldiers (London Weekend) 3 x 30’
3 films in this observational series about the Salvation Army: an officer is ordained; a family runs a dosshouse in the East End; a married couple run the entertainments at the annual Butlins summer camp.

Public School - Westminster (BBC1) (Best Editing award at BAFTA) 65’
Major observational documentary about life in a public school which reached an audience of nearly 12 million.

The Pool of Life (Granada) (Grand Prix at 1st European Environmental Film Festival) 50’
Current affairs documentary with drama inserts, about the past, present and future of the South Docks in Liverpool; starring Bernard Hill.

WRITER/PRODUCER/DIRECTOR
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WRITER
PRODUCER
DIRECTOR
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High Hopes (BBC1) 50’
Following the careers of children in showbusiness, featuring, among others, the young Dexter Fletcher.

She Married a Yank (BBC1) 55’
Stories of British women who crossed the ocean and tried to come to terms with an alien culture; and of the daughters the GIs left behind.

Year of the French (BBC2) 4 x 30’
4 films in this series about French life: a ticket inspector on the Paris-Lyon TGV; a farmer in the Lot; the 80-year-old female president of the Fleurie wine co-operative; a businessman in Lille who manufactures crowd barriers and flags.

To the World's End (BBC2) 50’
The 31 bus route provides a framework from which to explore London’s multicultural diversity; based on Carl Davis’s composition 'Variations on a Bus Route'.

The Second Oldest Profession (BBC1) 50'
The tricks and techniques of salesmen, from old-fashioned door-to-door to born-again telephone selling.

The Other Half: Angus & Tony (BBC2) 30'
One of the series with John Pitman about relationships, in this case that of novelist Angus Wilson and his partner Tony Garrett.

40 MINUTES (BBC2)

Animal Crackers, A Cabinet of Curiosities and The Great North Road
3 films with Lucinda Lambton, exploring architecture for animals; eccentric collections; and the delights of the A1.

Stop the Wedding
Stories of four marriages called of at the last minute. Reached an audience of nearly 8 million.

The Day I Met The Queen
Stories about people’s encounters with the Monarch.

The Quest for Sergeant Miller
An airman is shot down over Norther France shortly after D-Day; forty years later, his son reconstructs his journey and meets the people who’d helped his father escape.

Mixed Blessings (BBC Prix Italia entry; Jury's Special Commendation at 1st European Documentary Biennale)
Two babies are swapped at birth in a Nottingham nursing home; it takes twenty years to sort the situation out.

Chocolate!
Exploring people’s obsession with chocolate, filmed in Bourneville and Paris.

All About Ambridge
The saga of radio’s longest-running soap opera.

Fire in the Blood (BBC1) 50'
Episode 1 of the series with writer Ian Gibson about the New Spain, exploring his relationship with his adopted country.

The Seven Deadly Sins (BBC2) 7 x 10'
Series of 10-minute films putting forward the good side of the Sins, using different genres for each. Includes Stephen Oliver’s last opera; an early appearance by Simon Schama; a Harvard law class conducted by Alan Dershowitz; a passionate plea from one of the Pope’s Latin secretaries; and a drama set in a bleak future where the enjoyment of food is outlawed.

Saint of the Day (BBC2) 7 x 2'
Series of 2-minute films telling the stories of the saints of the week leading up to Easter, with the voices of Neil & Glenys Kinnock, Rabbi Lionel Blue, Alan Coren and Julie Covington.

Coming Home (BBC1) 75’ and 30'
Major film commissioned to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of D-Day, telling stories of servicemen and evacuees returning at the end of the War. It includes a half-hour section, later shown separately as 'The Evacuees', about four boys from the East End of London who were sent to Wytham Abbey near Oxford, where they led an idyllic existence, and then had to return home to Poplar and face real life.

TIME WATCH (BBC2) 50'

Typhoid Mary
Mary Mallon was a ‘good plain cook” in and around New York during the early part of the last century. She was also a typhoid carrier: she infected many people, and occasionally she killed them.

Pocahontas: Her True Story
The story of Pocahontas told by her descendants.

Gold Rush Memories (Golden Spire at the San Francisco International Film Festival)
The discover of gold in the Yukon inspired thousands of men and women to spend a year climbing through ice and snow, only to find the goldfields already staked out. The commentary was the first ever read by Sam West.

The Oklahoma Outlaw
Elmer McCurdy was an unsuccessful train robber who was shot dead in 1907, and had a far more successful career as a mummified corpse in sideshows and exploitation movies than he ever had while alive.

The Pilgrim Obsession
The Founding Fathers of America turned from immigrants into icons.

Tales from the Oklahoma Land Runs (Western Heritage Best Documentary Award at the Cowboy Hall of Fame)
The virgin land of Oklahoma is divided up into square parcels. Anyone who wishes is allowed to line up round the edges, at the sound of gun,race into the territory to claim their plot.

Tales of the Eiffel Tower (Grierson Award special mention)
The construction of the famous monument, and the bizarre incidents that have taken place on it.

Remember the Alamo
The storming of the Texas fortress and the myths it inspired.

The Empire State Story
At one time the world’s tallest building, the Empire State has always held a grip on the American imagination.

Debutantes
The class of ‘39, and how the Second World War forced this fun-loving generation had to face up to reality.

Jubilee Day
Looking back on The Queen’s Silver Jubilee twenty-five years on.

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (BBC1 & 2) 2 x 75'
The BBC’s official tribute to Queen Elizabeth. Part 1 was transmitted on the day she died; Part 2 on the day after. The story of her long life is told with humour and warmth through the eyes of her friends and courtiers, with music specially composed by Jonathan Dove and commentary read by Simon Russell Beale.

Historians of Genius (BBC4) 3 x 50'
Series presenting three of Britain’s greatest historians in their own words, but in modern dress. Sam West is Macaulay, telling the story of the Monmouth Rebellion from his History of England; Simon Russell Beale is Gibbon, describing the lurid behaviour of the last Emperors to rule in Rome, as told in his Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire; and Bill Paterson is Carlyle, chronicling the degeneration of the French Revolution from idealistic coup to out-of-control bloodbath.

OBITUARIES

OBITUARIES

THE GUARDIAN
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THE
GUARDIAN
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Obituary on The Guardian's website
(clicking on the link will take you to The Guardian's site)
Written by Patrick O'Connor.

THE INDEPENDENT
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THE
INDEPENDENT
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Obituary on The Independent's website
(clicking on the link will take you to The Independent's site)
Written by Nicolas Barker.

THE TIMES
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Obituary on The Times' website
(clicking on the link will take you to The Times'site (paywall))
Written by Valerie Grove

WATCH ONLINE

WATCH ONLINE

FILMS ON IPLAYER
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FILMS
ON
IPLAYER
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TIME WATCH
The Empire State Story
(clicking on the link will take you to the Iplayer site)
This documentary delves into the history of this iconic building through a series of interviews with people connected to the building in a variety of ways.

40 MINUTES
Animal Crackers
(clicking on the link will take you to the Iplayer site)
Lucinda Lambton guides us through the architectual artifacts of a curiously British passion for animals over the centuries.

CONTACT DETAILS AND CREDITS

CONTACT DETAILS AND CREDITS

EMAIL
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Email us at jonathangilisite@gmail.com

DESIGN AND CODING
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Design by Oliver Gili, a homage to the print designs of Jonathan Gili.
Coding by Oliver Gili, powered by W3Schools CSS, and using a heavily modified template provided by W3Schools.