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Stewart Mackinnon

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Stewart Mackinnon
OccupationFilm producer
Years active1976–present

Stewart Mackinnon is a Scottish film and television producer, founder and former CEO of Headline Pictures. He produced the film Quartet,[1] the international Emmy winning television film Peter And Wendy, and the Amazon Studios series The Man in the High Castle.[2] In 2020, he founded Circle Pictures.

Artist

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Mackinnon studied at the Edinburgh College of Art where he was awarded an Andrew Grant Scholarship before moving to London to attend the Royal College of Art where he won the Drawing Prize and contributed to and co-edited the RCA magazine Ark in the 1970s.[3][4][5]

Mackinnon designed the artwork for the British TV movie The War Game[6] and went on to draw illustrations for Oz, Nova, Time Out, the Edinburg Review, Spare Rib, Ambit, The Times, Sunday Times and Management Today,[7][8] and was featured in the Radical Illustrators issue of Illustrators magazine (no.38) published in 1981 by the Association of Illustrators in which co-editor George Snow singled out Mackinnon as “perhaps the greatest single influence on today’s Radical Illustrators.”[9]

Producer

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In the 1970s and 80s Mackinnon directed and produced a number of films including the Brechtian film Because I am King[10][11] and Ends and Means written by Andy McSmith.[12]

Mackinnon went on to found Trade Films[13][14] which produced films and television such as The Miners' Campaign Video Tapes,[15] When the Dog Bites, Woodbine Place, Border Crossing, an interview with Paul Rotha,[16][17] and the Northern News Reel,[18] which was distributed to trade unions and members of the Labour movement around the UK.[19] Working closely with Murray Martin (Amber Films) and other independent film makers, Stewart was closely involved in devising the Workshop Declaration (1982) in partnership with the film union ACTT and Channel 4. The Workshops worked with their local communities, women's organisations and ethnic minority communities, and by 1988, some 44 workshops had had films funded and screened by Channel 4. So began a decade of experiment with progressive and aesthetically avant-garde documentaries and dramas screened on British television, which continued until 1990.[20] Trade Films also established the first film and television archive in the North East of England, the Northern Film and Television Archive.

In 1988[21][22] Mackinnon co-founded the Northern Screen Commission with Sir Peter Carr, the North East Media Development Council (NEMDC - a policy forum), the North East Media Development Agency (NEMDA - the operational arm) and the North East Media Training Centre (NEMTC)[23] which also provided a course for deaf students.[24]

Mackinnon went on to found Common Features,[25] which produced films such as This Little Life, winner of the BANFF Award[26] and the Dennis Potter Award.[27][28]

In 2005 Mackinnon founded Headline Pictures. The company has developed and produced film and television including The Man in the High Castle for Amazon Studios written by X-Files creator Frank Spotnitz, based on the novel by Philip K. Dick; the feature film Quartet, directed by Dustin Hoffman; and feature film The Invisible Woman directed by Ralph Fiennes.[29]

In 2020, Mackinnon and Jere Sulivan founded Circle Pictures, a company to produce feature films and television drama.[30]

Selected filmography

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References

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  1. ^ "Quartet". Box Office Mojo.
  2. ^ "Stewart Mackinnon". IMDb.
  3. ^ "Stewart Mackinnon: Ruptured and Remade". Design Observer. 4 December 2011.
  4. ^ "Manifesto" (PDF). Ark No.51. 1973. p. 6.
  5. ^ "A Manifesto for Illustration". Visual Communication - Communication Design Department Blog / Glasgow School of Art. 19 January 2010.
  6. ^ "WAR GAME 1965 Peter Watkins, Kathy Staff, Michael Aspel UK 20x30 POSTER". Web Archive. Archived from the original on 25 August 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  7. ^ "Stewart Mackinnon: Ruptured and Remade". Design Observer. 4 December 2011.
  8. ^ "The other day in publishing history: 'Oz' Underground magazine editors jailed for obscenity, 1971". Past Tense. 7 August 2016.
  9. ^ "Radical Illustrators" (PDF). Illustrators Magazine. 1981.
  10. ^ "Because I am King (1980)". BFI. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018.
  11. ^ Willet, John (2015). Brecht in Context. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 210. ISBN 978-1474243087.
  12. ^ "Ends and Means (1983)". BFI. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018.
  13. ^ "Trade Films". Companies House.
  14. ^ "Stewart Mackinnon: Ruptured and Remade". Design Observer. 4 December 2011.
  15. ^ British Universities Film & Video Council
  16. ^ "Paul Rotha, 1982". BFI. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018.
  17. ^ "Trade Films". BFI. Archived from the original on 10 June 2018.
  18. ^ "Northern News Reel no.9". BFI. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018.
  19. ^ Anderson, Alison (2013). Media, Culture And The Environment. Routledge. p. 196. ISBN 978-1317756552.
  20. ^ Stuart Jeffries (12-09-2018) The revolution was televised: why didn’t the radical TV of the 1980s last? The Guardian
  21. ^ "Chronology of Disability Arts" (PDF). Arts Council England. p. 29.
  22. ^ "1988 FAQ". Shape Arts.
  23. ^ Moran, Albert (2005). Film Policy: International, National and Regional Perspectives. Routledge. p. 219. ISBN 1134859988.
  24. ^ "Chronology, Disability Arts 1976-1989". Disability Arts Online. Archived from the original on 4 December 2021. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  25. ^ Press Office (18-12-2006) Great Ormond St entrusts film & tv rights to Peter Pan In Scarlet to BBC Films, UK Film Council & Headline Pictures BBC Press Office
  26. ^ (17-06-2004) Film company's prestige award[permanent dead link‍] The Journal
  27. ^ Fiona Fraser (31-05-2002) New Common Features production for BBC2 C21
  28. ^ "This Little Life Awards". IMDb.
  29. ^ Geoffrey Macnab (03-01-2013) Headline Pictures co-founder Stewart Mackinnon talks to Screen Screen Daily
  30. ^ Clarke, Stewart (14 November 2019). "'The Man in the High Castle' Producer Stewart Mackinnon Launches Circle Pictures". Variety. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
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