Adam Kossoff is a British filmmaker and artist.
Early life and education
editDr. Adam Kossoff was born in London. He gained a degree in film and photography at the Polytechnic of Central London (now University of Westminster) in 1980. In 2008 he was awarded his PhD, 'On Terra Firma: Space, Place and the Moving Image', by the Royal College of Art.[1]
Career
editKossoff began his career working as a playwright, with plays performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company, Soho Theatre and at Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Kossoff then worked in the film and TV industry for a number of years, writing and directing documentaries and drama films.[2] He made several films for Channel 4 including East Enders Against the Grain (1988), on the representation of the East End of London in film, Arm in Arm Together (1990), about Anglo-Soviet relations and home front propaganda during World War 11, and Turbulence (1992), starring Kelly Marcel and Cathy Tyson, that looked at the issue of family sexual abuse.
From 2004-2021, Kossoff was a Reader in Film in the School of Art at the University of Wolverhampton.[3] He has written for various journals [4][5] and edited books, mainly focusing on issues of praxis and technics in the work of Walter Benjamin and Bernard Stiegler.[6]
Kossoff has made experimental and essayistic films that have been screened at galleries and international film festivals:
- Moscow Diary (2012), filmed on a mobile phone, retraced the footsteps of Walter Benjamin's 1926-27 Moscow Diary.[7]
- Made in Wolverhampton (2012), narrated by Sean Foley, it explored the melancholic identity and the changing nature of place and space in an English post-industrial city.[8]
- The Anarchist Rabbi (2015), narrated by Steven Berkoff, focused on the East End haunts of German-born anarchist Rudolf Rocker.[9][10][11]
- One Or The Other (2017), an essay film looking issues around the homeland and the nation state in Israel and Palestine.[12]
- Through the Bloody Mists Of Time (2020), narrated by Esther Leslie, uses a slowed down 9.5 mm film film of the 1937 Paris Exhibition featuring an imaginary voice-over dialogue between Walter Benjamin and Humphrey Jennings.
- Jackals and Arabs (by Franz Kafka) (2022) narrated by Mohammad Bakri.
- In The Loop of History (2020), an archival essay, is concerned with nationhood and history as myth in Israel-Palestine.
Selected filmography
edit- 2024 Walking Backwards
- 2022 Downstream [13]
- 2022 Jackals and Arabs [14]
- 2020 In The Loop of History [15]
- 2019 Through The Bloody Mists Of Time [16]
- 2017 One Or The Other
- 2015 The Anarchist Rabbi [17]
- 2015 How They Hate Us
- 2014 Animal Architecture [18]
- 2011 Made In Wolverhampton [19]
- 2011 Moscow Diary [20]
References
edit- ^ Kossoff, Adam. "On Terra Firma Space, Place and the Moving Image". More Books. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
- ^ Kossoff, Adam (23 July 2024). "FEINART". The Future of European Independent Art Spaces In A Period of Socially Engaged Art. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
- ^ Kossoff, Adam (23 July 2024). "FEINART". The Future of Independent Art Spaces In a Period of Socially Engaged Art. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
- ^ Kossoff, Adam. "Spatial location and the relative thinness of the image". Journal of Media Practice. 9 (3): 257–269 – via Taylor and Francis Online.
- ^ Kossoff, Adam (11 January 2011). "RUING THE RUINS". Mute. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
- ^ Kossoff, Adam (23 July 2024). "The Mobile Phone and the Flow of Things". SpringerLink. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
- ^ Prouty, Richard (24 May 2012). "Moscow Diary Redux". One Way Street Aesthetics and Politics. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
- ^ Wilson, Mark (14 March 2012). "Mmm, maps: filming locations and locations of films". Still Walking. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
- ^ Kinna, Ruth (November 2014). "The Anarchist Rabbi". ProQuest. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
- ^ Sandhu, Sukhdev (October 2014). "Sight & Sound: the November 2014 issue". BFI. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
- ^ Porton, Richard (2020). Film and the Anarchist Imagination (2nd ed.). University of Illinois Press. pp. 240–241. ISBN 978-0252085246.
- ^ Taylor, Meredith (17 April 2018). "One or the Other (2017) | East End Film Festival 2018". Filmforia. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
- ^ "ICA | Shorts Programme: Thinking Around and Outside". www.ica.art.
- ^ Kossoff, Adam (23 July 2024). "Jackals and Arabs (by Franz Kafka)". Vimeo. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
- ^ "In The Loop of History on Vimeo".
- ^ "Walter Benjamin and Humphrey Jennings: Through the Bloody Mists of Time".
- ^ "The Anarchist Rabbi excerpt on Vimeo".
- ^ "Animal Architecture by Adam Kossoff". wolverhamptonart.org.uk.
- ^ "Mmm, maps: filming locations and locations of films". Still Walking. March 14, 2012.
- ^ "MOSCOW DIARY – FIDMarseille".