Simon Hartog was a British filmmaker who worked as both director and producer.
14 Facts About Simon Hartog
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Simon Hartog helped develop an independent film industry in the United Kingdom, founding London Film-Makers' Co-op in the 1960s, key to the avant-garde; working on independent documentaries, and founding the production company, Large Door Ltd.
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Simon Hartog was born in England but lived in Chicago, Illinois from the age of eight with his mother, after his parents divorced.
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Simon Hartog always retained what the British perceived as an American accent, but, after many years in England as an adult, he no longer sounded entirely American to people from the United States.
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Simon Hartog took a higher degree in politics at the LSE and studied film-making at the Centro Sperimentale, the Italian film school.
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Simon Hartog was a founder-member of the London Film-Makers' Co-op, the key organisation in the development during the 1960s of an independent British avant-garde.
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On his return to the UK, Simon Hartog initiated and inspired a collective of young feature filmmakers in Spectre Productions.
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Simon Hartog was active in the Independent Filmmakers' Association, a pressure-group that campaigned for an independent and innovative Channel 4.
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Just before his death, Simon Hartog completed Beyond Citizen Kane, his film on the development of TV in Brazil, concentrating on the role of Rede Globo, the largest media conglomerate in the country.
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Simon Hartog died during the final editing of the film, which Ellis completed, and before the programme was broadcast in 1993 in the UK.
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Simon Hartog continued to try to prevent the film's screening in Brazil, where it was never broadcast on TV.
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Simon Hartog was a unique figure in what passes for British film culture.
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Simon Hartog was a perennial outsider who spent most of his life dreaming up alternatives to the mainstream orthodoxies, but nonetheless took a serious academic interest in the political and economic structures of the film industry.
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Simon Hartog was one of the very few British film-makers with an informed and passionate commitment to non-British cinemas, especially those of Africa, the Middle East and South America.