Gareth Jones

Gareth Jones is a British film and television director and screenwriter. He is the owner and joint CEO, with Fiona Howe, of the independent production company Scenario Films.

Early life and education Gareth Jones was born in London, son of the BBC Foreign Correspondent Ivor Jones and Jane Ann Sterndale Bennett. He is the grandson of the actress Athene Seyler and great-great-grandson of the composer William Sterndale Bennett.

He was educated at Westminster School and St John's College, Cambridge where he read modern languages. After graduation in 1973, he trained for a year at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

In 2011 he was awarded his PhD from Cambridge University for his thesis Rites of Recuperation: Film and the Holocaust in Germany and the Balkans.

Career 1970s–1980s Jones first joined Prospect Theatre Company, where he worked with Kenny McBain, directing Shakespeare, Brecht, Strindberg, and Chekhov.

He was director of productions at the bilingual Welsh/English touring company Theatr yr Ymylon. Between 1977 and 1980, he worked as a freelance theatre director for the Royal Court Theatre with Stuart Burge, and for Theatr Clwyd, where he directed his own plays My People (based on the short stories of Caradoc Evans) and Solidarity During the 1980s he published two novels, Lord of Misrule and Noble Savage.

After training as a television director at HTV Wales, he joined Granada Television at the invitation of producer Bill Podmore. There, he directed Coronation Street and the comedy drama series Brass, starring Timothy West, Caroline Blakiston and Barbara Ewing, the second series of which he also produced.

From 1984 to 1987, he worked as a freelance writer/director for BBC television drama. He wrote the series Fighting Back, starring Hazel O'Connor, and the five-part drama Shalom Salaam, a Jewish-Muslim love story starring Mamta Kaash, Toby Rolt, Ayub Khan-Din and Charlotte Cornwell, which he also directed.

Jones' other television directing credits include The Trial of Klaus Barbie (1987), which was based on court transcripts and screened shortly after the verdict of the Gestapo leader's trial; Watch with Mother and Seeing in the Dark for BBC Drama; and Seduction – Tell Me More for Channel 4, for which he also shot and co-wrote the three-part documentary Born of the One Father (Au Nom du Même Père) in 1980–81.

1990s–present Jones has worked as a screenwriter in Europe, where his credits include television movies such as Forbidden Zone (Verbotene Zone, 1995) and Not Without You (Nicht Ohne Dich, 2001) for German broadcaster ZDF, The Gift of Life (Un Cadeau: la Vie) for France 2, Joseph, Mary Magdalen, Thomas and Saul of Tarsus for Mediaset in Italy, and the award-winning feature film (2000), starring Ulrich Tukur.

Since 2007, he has run the feature film development initiative Babylon. This aims to promote cultural diversity within the independent film sector in Europe, and to provide an international platform for emerging filmmakers.

Jones wrote and directed a trilogy of feature films known collectively as the D-Trilogy, Desire (2009), Delight (2013) and Delirium (2016). Delight was screened at the 35th Moscow International Film Festival

Awards and nominations Year Award Category Title Result 1983 British Press Guild Award Best Light Entertainment Brass Won 1989 FIPA, Cannes Best Actress Shalom Salaam Won 1989 FIPA, Cannes, SACD Award Best Screenplay Shalom Salaam Won 2000 40th International TV Festival Monte Carlo Nymphe d'Or Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace Won 2000 DAG Writer's Award, Germany Gold Medal, Most Challenging German Film Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace Won 2000 New York Festival Bronze World Medal Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace Won 2009 17th Raindance Film Festival 2009 Best UK Feature Desire Nominated 2013 German Script Prize 2013 Best Script A Slice of Sea Nominated 2013 35th Moscow Film Festival 2013 Golden St George, Best Film Delight Nominated

Filmography

Year(s) Title Role Channel/Distributor Duration 1980 Crown Court Writer Granada Television 3 x 30 mins 1981 Coronation Street Director Granada Television 14 x 30 mins 1983 Brass (Series 1) Director Granada Television 13 x 25 mins 1984 Brass (Series 2) Producer/Director Granada Television 13 x 25 mins 1985 Albion Market (Pilot) Director Granada Television 2 x 30 mins 1985-6 Albion Market Producer Granada Television 70 x 30 mins 1986 Fighting Back Writer BBC Television 5 x 60 mins 1987 The Trial of Klaus Barbie Director BBC Television 1 x 90 mins 1988 Shalom Salaam Writer/Director BBC Television 5 x 60 mins 1988 Watch with Mother Director BBC Television 1 x 75 mins 1989 Seeing in the Dark Director BBC Television 1 x 75 mins 1990 Seduction: Tell Me More Director Channel 4 1 x 20 mins 1991 Born of the One Father (Au Nom du Même Père) Director Channel 4/TF1 3 x 50 mins 1994 Forbidden Zone (Verbotene Zone) Co-Writer ZDF/ARTE 1 x 90 mins 1995-6 Open Sundays (Sonntags Geöffnet) Co-Writer RTL 13 x 50 mins 1999 The Gift of Life (Un Cadeau la Vie) Co-Writer France 2 1 x 90 mins 1999 Joseph (Giuseppe) Writer Mediaset 1 x 90 mins 2000 St Paul (San Paolo) Writer Mediaset 2 x 90 mins 2000 (Maria Maddalena) Writer Mediaset 1 x 90 mins 2000 (Bonhoeffer – Die letzte Stufe) Writer ARD/Theatrical 1 x 90 mins 2001 Thomas (Tommaso) Writer Mediaset 1 x 90 mins 2001 Not Without You (Nicht Ohne Dich) Co-Writer ZDF 1 x 90 mins 2009 Desire Writer/Director Scenario Films/Theatrical 1 x 90 mins 2013 Delight Writer/Director Scenario Films/Theatrical 1 x 100 mins 2016 Delirium Writer/Director Scenario Films/Theatrical 1 x 100 mins

Theatre and radio Year Title Role Venue/Broadcaster Description 1980 My People Writer/Adaptor/Director Theatr Clwyd/Tour Theatre Play 1981 Solidarity Writer/Director Theatr Clwyd Theatre Play 1981 Solidarity Writer BBC Radio 3 Theatre Play 1981 Lord of Misrule Writer/Novel BBC Radio 4 9-part Dramatization 1982 The Drovers' Roads Writer/Director/Presenter BBC Wales Radio Documentary 1982 Night Must Fall Director Theatr Clwyd Theatre Play

Selected publications

Year Title Role Publisher Description 1980 Lord of Misrule(aka The Disinherited) Author Farrar, Straus & Giroux US/Gollancz/Penguin UK Novel 1985 Noble Savage Author Weidenfeld & Nicolson/Sphere UK Novel 2006 The Optimists Author Kinokultura, November 2006, ed Iordanova Film Criticism/Academic 2006 Sarajevo – Trauma Revisited Author Beyond Camps and Forced Labour, ed Steinert and Weber-Newth (Osnabrück: Secolo, 2007) Film Criticism/Academic 2007 The Cinema of the Balkans Author Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 27, Issue 2 Film Criticism/Academic 2007 An Inner Exodus: The Many Diasporas of Balkan Cinema Author Cineaste, Vol XXXII, No 3 Film Criticism/Academic 2010 Future Imperfect; European Cinema in Motion: Migrant and Diasporic Film in Contemporary Europe ed. Berghahn and Sternberg Author Palgrave Macmillan, 2010 Film Criticism/Academic