John Sheppard; documentary filmmaker
Hyfler/Rosner
Gus Macdonald
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2009/oct/29/john-sheppard-obituary
John Sheppard with gymnast Olga Korbut, subject of his
memorable documentary Olga
John Sheppard, who has died of cancer aged 69, was an
outstanding programme-maker who helped redefine current
affairs television. He produced investigations for World in
Action and directed well-crafted documentaries which ranged
across anthropology, music, sport and war.
His courage took him into front-line action with guerrillas
in Africa, GIs in Vietnam, and both sides in the Middle
East. For the anthropological series Disappearing World, he
patiently and respectfully recorded the lives of threatened
people in remote and demanding locations. His cool, crisp
editing also produced memorable documentaries on the Doors
and the Beatles.
The son of a London policeman and a wages clerk, John was
educated, with the help of local council funds, at Latymer
upper school in Hammer-smith and Worcester College, Oxford,
where he studied modern history. His work with Oxford
University Film Society commended him to the BBC, where he
became one of the trainee directors taken on to help launch
BBC2 in 1964. This ended a brief but vivid career as Nathan
Creek, writer of five pulp westerns.
John's flair for ad-lib studio direction led to work as Ned
Sherrin's lieutenant on Not So Much a Programme, More a Way
of Life (1964-65), and on a combative discussion series
chaired by Malcolm Muggeridge. Moving to ITV in 1966,
"easily seduced by the prospect of twice as much money", he
revelled in directing live music on Ready, Steady, Go!
The following year, he signed up for the relaunch of World
in Action as a new kind of film-based current affairs, and
subsequently enjoyed the broad embrace of Granada
television, where he made some of his best work. Between
1967 and 1973, he produced or directed more than 40
programmes, visually enhancing its investigative journalism.
He first heard guns fired in anger in the Middle East during
the six-day war. This led to a pursuit of action. The most
reckless example was crossing the Jordan at night with an
al-Fatah unit to attack an Israeli observation post. When
firing broke out, a bullet shattered the camera battery and
passed in and out of the buttock of his cameraman, George
Jesse Turner. The languid Sheppard, a prime target himself
at 6ft 5in, observed that George was now the only person he
knew with three holes in his backside.
In 1968 he spent weeks with the rebel army fighting to
secure independence for Portuguese Guinea (now
Guinea-Bissau), documented in the ground-breaking A Group of
Terrorists Attacked. When the film won an award at the
Golden Prague television festival, no irony was permitted
behind the iron curtain and the award gave the title as A
Group of Partisans Attacked. Sheppard was later intrigued to
hear that Granada's proprietor, Lord Bernstein, had arranged
a private screening in London at the request of an old
friend, Charlie Chaplin.
Back in England that year, he was centrally involved in the
intense, almost wordless World in Action record of the
anti-war riot outside the American embassy. He went twice to
Vietnam, covered les �v�nements in Paris, and directed The
Doors Are Open, an account of Jim Morrison's band's great
gig at the Roundhouse, which made John the subject of awed
inquiry by later generations.
Along with a felicitous eye for bringing together story
elements, his particular pleasure was montage, usually
driven along with aptly chosen music. Filming a portrait of
Olga Korbut, darling of the Munich Olympics in 1972, was
tricky in Soviet times, but his documentary, Olga, became a
gently crafted allegory of the Brezhnev era, and an
aesthetic joy to watch.
For the rigorous and much-admired anthropological series
Disappearing World, John led expeditions to Tuva in Siberia,
the Hindu Kush, Burma and Indonesia. His admirable
willingness to make complex stories more filmic saw him
called in by Brian Lapping to explain British machinations
in central Africa for the series End of Empire.
His programme Sgt Pepper: It Was 20 Years Ago Today,
transmitted around the world on 1 June 1987, exactly 20
years on from the album's original issue, gathered rave
reviews. The American radical Abbie Hoffman said: "It's
about the only thing I'm ever going to recommend to anybody
about the 60s, a simply brilliant documentary."
John's work won accolades and prizes for which he never
canvassed and scrupulously shared credit. His wry charm and
laidback style was not best-suited to the hustling and
pitching that the advance of independent production brought
in the 1990s. He preferred to describe himself not as
"retired" but as "disused", and latterly worked with an old
friend from Vietnam days, the photographer Tim Page, to
found the Indochina Media Memorial Foundation to teach
journalism to a new generation.
Other activities included refurbishing the tomb in Fulham of
Granville Sharp, the largely forgotten "father of the
anti-slavery movement", about whom John wrote a scholarly
monograph. He sat on committees of the Hammersmith and
Fulham historic buildings group and surveyed the borough's
public sculptures, and also served on the Hammersmith
hospitals arts committee. The final homage to his beloved
London was walking its streets to update the book London
Plaques, due to be published next year.
John's first wife and daughter predeceased him. He is
survived by his wife Olga, and their children, Larissa and
Ivan.
. John Sheppard, producer and director, born 24 June 1940;
died 19 October 2009