Alan Clarke
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- See also Alan Clark, Allan Clarke.
Alan Clarke (28 October 1935 - 24 July 1990) was a film director, producer and writer, born in Birkenhead, Cheshire, England.
Much of Clarke's output was for television rather than cinema, and featured from 1969 onwards in The Wednesday Play, and Play for Today. His subject matter tended towards social realism, especially with respect to deprived or oppressed communities.
A number of his works achieved notoriety and widespread criticism from the more reactionary end of the media spectrum; such as Scum (1977), dealing with the subject of borstals (youth prisons). His television film Made in Britain (aka, Tales Out of School: Made in Britain screened in 1982), concerning a skinhead's working relationship with the authorities, featured a screenplay by David Leland. He directed Rita, Sue and Bob Too in 1986.
His final film, 1989's Elephant (40 mins.), dealt with "the troubles" in Northern Ireland and featured a series of unrelated, motiveless shootings. The film took its name from Bernard MacLaverty's description of the troubles as "the elephant in our living room" - a reference to the collective denial of the underlying social problems of the region.