16 Facts About Adam Curtis

1.

Kevin Adam Curtis was born on 26 May 1955 and is an English documentary filmmaker.

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2.

Adam Curtis's style has been described as involving, "whiplash digressions, menacing atmospherics and arpeggiated scores, and the near-psychedelic compilation of archival footage", narrated by Curtis himself with "patrician economy and assertion".

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3.

Adam Curtis was born in Dartford in Kent, and raised in nearby Platt.

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4.

Adam Curtis's father was Martin Curtis, a cinematographer with a socialist background.

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5.

Adam Curtis won a county scholarship and attended the Sevenoaks School.

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6.

Adam Curtis completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in human sciences at Mansfield College, Oxford.

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7.

Adam Curtis began a PhD and taught in politics, but ultimately became disillusioned with academia and decided to leave the profession.

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8.

Adam Curtis applied to the BBC and was hired to make a film for one of its training courses, comparing designer clothes in music videos to the design of weapons.

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9.

Adam Curtis was a film director on Out of Court, a BBC Two legal series, from 1980 until 1982.

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10.

Adam Curtis is inspired by the sociologist Max Weber, who, he argues, challenged the "crude, left-wing, vulgar Marxism that says that everything happens because of economic forces within society".

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11.

Adam Curtis cites the USA trilogy, a series of three novels by John Dos Passos that he first read when he was thirteen, as the greatest influence on his work:.

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12.

Adam Curtis makes extensive use of archive footage in his documentaries.

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13.

Adam Curtis has acknowledged the influence of recordings made by Erik Durschmied and is "constantly using his stuff in my films".

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14.

In 2005, Adam Curtis received the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

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15.

Adam Curtis's critics have accused him of exaggeration and distortion, even wilful misrepresentation.

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16.

Adam Curtis administered a blog subtitled 'The Medium and the Message' hosted by the BBC and updated between 2009 and 2016.

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