Personally Speaking: A Long Conversation with Stuart Hall

Personally Speaking: A Long Conversation with Stuart Hall

2009 · 258 min · Documentary

In this stimulating and eloquent four-hour interview, conducted by the literary journalist Maya Jaggi and directed by Mike Dibb, Hall reflects on his life and career, talking personally and in depth about the trajectory of his work and how it has intersected with broader political movements. In a conversation both intimate and sweeping in scope, Hall describes his migration from Jamaica to England, his immersion in left-wing politics in London, the influence of Raymond Williams and E.P. Thompson on the evolution of his thought, and the context within which the early classic texts of cultural studies were written. Hall also shares his pessimism about the economic recession and his optimism about Barack Obama's victory. Future analysis of Hall's work, and of cultural studies in general, will need to take account of this fascinating and indispensable first-person account of his life and ideas.

Directed by Mike Dibb

Your Rating

Cast

Make it a double feature

6h 23m together

Personally Speaking: A Long Conversation with Stuart Hall

The Miles Davis Story

Both from Mike Dibb.

More from Mike DibbSee all →

Appalachian Journey

Appalachian Journey · 1991

Appalachian Journey

MovieDocumentary

Appalachian Journey is one of five films made from footage that Alan Lomax shot between 1978 and 1985 for the PBS American Patchwork series (1991). It offers songs, dances, stories, and religious rituals of the Southern Appalachians. Preachers, singers, fiddlers, banjo pickers, moonshiners, cloggers, and square dancers recount the good times and the hard times of rural life there. Performers include Tommy Jarrell, Janette Carter, Ray and Stanley Hicks, Frank Proffitt Jr., Sheila Kay Adams, Nimrod Workman and Phyllis Boyens, Raymond Fairchild, and others, with a bonus of a few African-Americans from the North Carolina Piedmont.

Ways of Seeing

Ways of Seeing · 1972

SeriesDocumentary

John Berger's Ways of Seeing changed the way people think about painting and art criticism. This watershed work shows, through word and image, how what we see is always influenced by a whole host of assumptions concerning the nature of beauty, truth, civilization, form, taste, class and gender. Exploring the layers of meaning within oil paintings, photographs and graphic art, Berger argues that when we see, we are not just looking - we are reading the language of images.

Typically British: A Personal History of British Cinema

Typically British: A Personal History of British Cinema · 1995

Typically British: A Personal History of British Cinema

MovieDocumentary

Stephen Frears and a quartet of film industry notables - representing different cinematic periods - drink tea and discuss ups and downs of British cinema.

Edward Said: The Last Interview

Edward Said: The Last Interview · 2004

Edward Said: The Last Interview

MovieDocumentary

Edward Said, Professor of English & Comparative Literature at Columbia University, was a prominent literary critic of the late 20th century and a leading spokesperson for the Palestinian cause in the US. Born to a Palestinian family in Al-Quds (Jerusalem) in 1935, he and his family were dispossessed in 1948 and settled in Cairo. Educated in the US, he lived in New York for many years. Said was a member of the Palestine National Council. After resigning from the PNC in 1991, Said wrote critically about the post-Oslo peace process, the political failures of Yasser Arafat and the PLO. Said was diagnosed with leukemia in 1991 and struggled with the disease while continuing to write and teach. He stopped giving interviews but made an exception less than a year before his death in 2003, speaking about his illness, work, Palestine, politics, life, and education. The last interview is the final testament of this passionately committed intellectual.

The Miles Davis Story

The Miles Davis Story · 2001

The Miles Davis Story

MovieDocumentaryMusic

This British documentary shows the complex layers of legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, who was a major innovator in post-bop, cool jazz, hard-bop and fusion. Davis's raw-edged trumpet tones were some of the most evocative sounds ever heard. This profile captues the magnificent and mercurial artist -- one of the most identifiable and misunderstood pop icons of the 20th century -- through rare footage and interviews.

About Time

About Time · 1985

MovieDocumentaryTV Movie

Film Essay based on “And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief As Photos” by John Berger.

Keith Jarrett: The Art of Improvisation

Keith Jarrett: The Art of Improvisation · 2005

Keith Jarrett: The Art of Improvisation

MovieMusicDocumentary

A documentary portrait of one of the world's superstars of Jazz, pianist Keith Jarrett, exploring his life and work.

Kirk Douglas

Kirk Douglas · 1972

Talking with Michael Parkinson and members of the audience at the National Film Theatre, London. An informal discussion illustrated with extracts from some of his most famous films: Champion (1949), Ace in the Hole (1951), Paths of Glory (1958), Lonely are the Brave (1962), In Harm's Way (1965), The Arrangement (1970).

Studs Terkel's Chicago

Studs Terkel's Chicago · 1985

Studs Terkel's Chicago

MovieDocumentary

This documentary features acclaimed Chicagoan broadcaster and Pulitzer Prize winner Studs Terkel talking about the value of oral history and the voice of ordinary working Americans.

The Beginning of the End of the Affair

The Beginning of the End of the Affair · 2000

The Beginning of the End of the Affair

MovieDocumentary

Oliver Walston investigates his mother Catherine's 20-year relationship with the writer Graham Greene, which gave rise to Greene's famous novel The End of the Affair, twice adapted as a feature film. The documentary follows the second film during its production, where screenwriter/director Neil Jordan and stars Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore offer their personal perspectives on the novel's continuing resonance.

Barbara Thompson: Playing Against Time

Barbara Thompson: Playing Against Time · 2012

Barbara Thompson: Playing Against Time

MovieDocumentaryMusic

For over forty years, virtuoso saxophonist/composer Barbara Thompson has been Britain's most brilliant and best-known female jazz musician. But in 1997, the same year that she received an MBE for her services to music, disaster struck. Barbara was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. This is the story of Barbara's inspiring and creative struggle with this disease, whose physical effects are particularly cruel, and visible, in the life of an improvising jazz musician.

The Making of Jean Luc Godard's 'One Plus One'

The Making of Jean Luc Godard's 'One Plus One'

The Making of Jean Luc Godard's 'One Plus One'

A short film Mike Dibb directed for the BBC in July 1968 in Cowdray Park, where Godard was shooting a sequence with the Rolling Stones for ONE PLUS ONE. It was broadcast on BBC2 within the framework of the arts magazine RELEASE on the 30 November 1968 to coincide with the screening (which has become famous…) of ONE PLUS ONE at the London Film Festival.

The Nomad

The Nomad · 1967

MovieDocumentary

An interview with film director Roman Polanski, recorded for BBC TV in 1967.

One to One: Jean-Luc Godard Speaks

One to One: Jean-Luc Godard Speaks · 1968

One to One: Jean-Luc Godard Speaks

MovieDocumentary

Short film, going behind-the-scenes of shooting for One Plus One (1968) in London, featuring an interview with Godard sitting beside a tree. Many crew members from this shoot were then borrowed by him, playing the press in the film's Eve Democracy sequence. Originally broadcast on the BBC programme 'Release' (30th Nov. '68).

Parting Shots from Animals

Parting Shots from Animals · 1980

Parting Shots from Animals

MovieDocumentary

“Parting Shots from Animals” was inspired by essays by John Berger and developed in collaboration with Chris Rawlence. Shot entirely in the UK, it consists of a diverse series of arresting ‘films within a film’, each presented as if made about us from the perspective of the animals whose lives we may appear to celebrate, but continue to exploit and to destroy. While John Berger doesn’t appear in the film and wasn’t directly involved in it’s making, he narrates to great effect the text he co-wrote to accompany the film’s provocative opening sequence.

The Country and the City

The Country and the City · 1979

The Country and the City

MovieDocumentary

A translation to film of Raymond Williams’ 1973 book of the same title which traces images of ‘nature’ and ‘town’ through 200 years of English literature.

More Like This

Couldn't load this row right now.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter