Nicola Black
Encyclopedia
Nicola Jane Black is a Scottish
film and television producer
and director
. Her work includes documentaries Designer Vaginas, Bone Breakers, When Freddie Mercury Met Kenny Everett, Tribal Cop, White Jazz, Jenny Saville
- Flesh & Blood and the series Mirrorball and Banned in the UK which featured in the Channel 4 Banned season
.
Black is also the producer of Channel 4's Mesh animation scheme, producing digital animations including Covert, Daddy, Killing Time At Home and Watermelon Love.
's Caravaggio
, before moving on to television with Halfway to Paradise.
Black set up her own production company, Blackwatch Media in 1995, and her first production was the documentary on crime writer James Ellroy
's search for his mother's murderer, White Jazz
. From this, she went on to produce and direct the series Post Mortem, about genius and illness, examining the lives and works of Beethoven, Virginia Woolf
, Nijinsky
, Montgomery Clift
and Francis Bacon
.
In the late 1990s, she produced and directed the pop-promo series Mirrorball, featuring profiles on Spike Jonze
, Mike Mills
, Roman Coppola
, Michel Gondry
and Dawn Shadforth
.
Black then went on to direct and produce a series of documentaries for Channel 4
, including Designer Vaginas (2002), Bone Breakers (2002), When Freddie Met Kenny (2002), Snorting Coke With The BBC (2003), Banned in the UK and Banned Films, the latter presented by Tim Roth
(2005), both were shown as part of the Channel 4 Banned season
- which Black co-devised.
Since 2001, Black ran and produced Channel 4
's digital animation scheme Mesh, producing four digital animations a year.
In 2007, Black produced Potapych: The Bear Who Loved Vodka, which won a BAFTA Scotland
Award for Best Animated Film.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
film and television producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
and director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
. Her work includes documentaries Designer Vaginas, Bone Breakers, When Freddie Mercury Met Kenny Everett, Tribal Cop, White Jazz, Jenny Saville
Jenny Saville
Jenny Saville is a contemporary British painter; best known as one of the Young British Artists. She is known for her large-scale painted depictions of naked women.-Life and career:Saville works and lives in Oxford, England...
- Flesh & Blood and the series Mirrorball and Banned in the UK which featured in the Channel 4 Banned season
Channel 4 Banned season
There have been two Channel 4 Banned seasons. The first aired in April 1991 over three weeks and saw the broadcast of a number of films and documentaries which had previously been banned from British television or cinema...
.
Black is also the producer of Channel 4's Mesh animation scheme, producing digital animations including Covert, Daddy, Killing Time At Home and Watermelon Love.
Biography
Born in Glasgow, Black began her career as a trainee editor working on Derek JarmanDerek Jarman
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...
's Caravaggio
Caravaggio (film)
Caravaggio is a British film directed by Derek Jarman. The film is a fictionalized re-telling of the life of Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.-Plot:...
, before moving on to television with Halfway to Paradise.
Black set up her own production company, Blackwatch Media in 1995, and her first production was the documentary on crime writer James Ellroy
James Ellroy
Lee Earle "James" Ellroy is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. Ellroy has become known for a so-called "telegraphic" prose style in his most recent work, wherein he frequently omits connecting words and uses only short, staccato sentences, and in particular for the novels The Black...
's search for his mother's murderer, White Jazz
White Jazz
White Jazz is a 1992 crime fiction novel by James Ellroy. It is the fourth in his L.A. Quartet, preceded by The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, and L.A. Confidential....
. From this, she went on to produce and direct the series Post Mortem, about genius and illness, examining the lives and works of Beethoven, Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
, Nijinsky
Nijinsky
Nijinsky can refer to:*Vaslav Nijinsky , ballet dancer and choreographer*Bronislava Nijinska , dancer, choreographer and teacher*Nijinksy , starring Alan Bates Harry Saltzman as Vaslav Nijinsky*Nijinsky II, race horse...
, Montgomery Clift
Montgomery Clift
Edward Montgomery Clift was an American film and stage actor. The New York Times’ obituary noted his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men"....
and Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon (painter)
Francis Bacon , was an Irish-born British figurative painter known for his bold, austere, graphic and emotionally raw imagery. Bacon's painterly but abstract figures typically appear isolated in glass or steel geometrical cages set against flat, nondescript backgrounds...
.
In the late 1990s, she produced and directed the pop-promo series Mirrorball, featuring profiles on Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television...
, Mike Mills
Mike Mills
Michael Edward "Mike" Mills is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer who was a founding member of the alternative rock group R.E.M.. Though known primarily as a bass guitarist, backing vocalist, and pianist, his musical repertoire includes also keyboards, guitar, and percussion instruments...
, Roman Coppola
Roman Coppola
Roman Coppola is an American film director and music video director.-Early life:Coppola was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, the son of set decorator/artist Eleanor Coppola and Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola was born in the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine while his father was in Paris...
, Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry is an Academy Award winning filmmaker, whose works include being a commercial director, music video director, and a screenwriter. He is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scène. - Life and career :...
and Dawn Shadforth
Dawn Shadforth
Dawn Shadforth is a British music video and documentary director, as well as an editor and artist. Shadforth began her career as an award winning sculptor before turning her interest to music and directing...
.
Black then went on to direct and produce a series of documentaries for Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, including Designer Vaginas (2002), Bone Breakers (2002), When Freddie Met Kenny (2002), Snorting Coke With The BBC (2003), Banned in the UK and Banned Films, the latter presented by Tim Roth
Tim Roth
Simon Timothy "Tim" Roth is an English film actor and director best known for his roles in the American films,Legend of 1900, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Four Rooms, Skellig, Planet of the Apes, The Incredible Hulk and Rob Roy, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for...
(2005), both were shown as part of the Channel 4 Banned season
Channel 4 Banned season
There have been two Channel 4 Banned seasons. The first aired in April 1991 over three weeks and saw the broadcast of a number of films and documentaries which had previously been banned from British television or cinema...
- which Black co-devised.
Since 2001, Black ran and produced Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's digital animation scheme Mesh, producing four digital animations a year.
In 2007, Black produced Potapych: The Bear Who Loved Vodka, which won a BAFTA Scotland
BAFTA Scotland
BAFTA in Scotland is the Scottish branch of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Formed in 1997, the branch holds an annual awards ceremony, the British Academy Scotland Awards , to recognise achievement by performers and production staff in Scottish film, television and video games...
Award for Best Animated Film.