Peter Watkins

Peter Watkins Trailers

The War Game at Cinecity TrailerThe Making of Culloden TrailerIntroduction to Punishment Park Trailer

Peter Watkins (born 29 October 1935) is an English film and television director. He was born in Norbiton, Surrey, lived in Sweden, Canada and Lithuania for many years, and now lives in France. He is one of the pioneers of docudrama. His movies, pacifist and radical, strongly review the limit of classic documentary and movies. He mainly concentrates his works and ideas around the mass media and our relation/participation to a movie or television documentary. Nearly all of Watkins' films have used a combination of dramatic and documentary elements to dissect historical occurrences or possible near future events. The first of these, Culloden, portrayed the Jacobite uprising of 1745 in a documentary style, as if television reporters were interviewing the participants and accompanying them into battle; a similar device was used in his biographical film Edvard Munch. La Commune (Paris, 1871) reenacts the Paris Commune days using a large cast of French non-actors. In 2004 he also wrote a book, Media Crisis, an engaged essay about the media crisis, the monoform and, foremost, the lack of debate around the construction of new forms of audiovisual media.

Most Popular Peter Watkins Trailers

Total trailers found: 23

Privilege Trailer (1967)

28 February 1967

Britain's biggest pop singer, Steven Shorter, receives unwavering adulation and possesses total control over his rabid fans, which includes nearly the entire population.

Culloden Trailer (1964)

15 December 1964

Culloden, Scottish Highlands, April 16th, 1746. It was one of the most mishandled and brutal battles ever fought in Great Britain.

The Gladiators Trailer (1969)

25 June 1969

Some time in the future, East and West have stopped maintaining standing armies and nuclear weapons. Instead, to settle their differences they pit different teams of crack combat specialists against each other.

The Forgotten Faces Trailer (1961)

01 September 1961

“The Forgotten Faces (1961), a film reconstruction of the Hungarian revolution of 1956, won Watkins another amateur Oscar, and to this day, the film is praised in England as "one of the most memorable amateur films ever made".

The Media Project Trailer (1991)

31 December 1991

A group of people working in film and television are gathered at a dinner party to discuss Australian media coverage of the Gulf War.

Punishment Park Trailer (1971)

01 October 1971

In this fictional documentary, U.S. prisons are at capacity, and President Nixon declares a state of emergency.

The Diary of an Unknown Soldier Trailer (1959)

02 January 1959

A short story narrated by an unknown British soldier who reveals his hopes, fears, and disillusionment while heading into battle against the German army.

The War Game Trailer (1966)

13 April 1966

A docudrama depicting a hypothetical nuclear attack on Britain. After backing the film's development, the BBC refused to air it, publicly stating "the effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting.

The Trap Trailer (2012)

11 April 2012

Set in the underground living quarters of a scientist working at an international nuclear waste station near the west coast of Sweden.

La Commune (Paris, 1871) Trailer (2003)

03 July 2003

We are in the year 1871. A journalist for Versailles Television broadcasts a soothing and official view of events while a Commune television is set up to provide the perspectives of the Paris rebels.

Edvard Munch Trailer (1974)

12 November 1974

Edvard Munch's childhood is overshadowed by death: he suffers the loss of his sister and mother, while enduring serious illness himself, almost dying.

The Seventies People Trailer (1975)

24 September 1975

The Seventies People is a 1975 television docu-drama that was produced by Danmarks Radio. The film explores the high suicide rate in Denmark, the many factors behind it and how the average citizen deals with the stress of life, work, school and family.

The Freethinker Trailer (1994)

03 September 1994

The film portrays the Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter August Strindberg's life 1849-1912.

The Universal Clock: The Resistance of Peter Watkins Trailer (2001)

07 September 2001

This feature documentary is a portrait of Peter Watkins, an Oscar®-winning British filmmaker who, for the past 4 decades, has proved that films can be made without compromise.

It Happened Here Trailer (1966)

12 May 1966

World War II, 1940. When the Nazi hordes invade and occupy Great Britain, the English citizens are soon divided between those who choose to submissively collaborate and those who are willing to fight.

The Journey Trailer (1987)

24 February 1987

Peter Watkins' global look at the impact of military use of nuclear technology and people's perception of it, as well as a meditation on the inherent bias of the media, and documentaries themselves.

Evening Land Trailer (1977)

21 February 1977

Denmark is in deep crisis: the country is hit by general strike, during the holding of a NATO summit in Copenhagen.

The Web Trailer (1956)

01 January 1956

A reconstruction of the Allied landing in occupied France during the Second World War.

The Making of Culloden Trailer (2006)

03 July 2006

Peter Watkins recounts the short-lived, happy period making his classic documentary Culloden and discusses, as he sees it, the tragic decline television has taken since it was made.

The War Game at Cinecity Trailer (2026)

07 July 2026

When Peter Watkins’ banned nuclear war masterpiece "The War Game" reached Toronto in 1967, it found an unlikely home at Cinecity, a new cinema determined to challenge audiences.

Introduction to Punishment Park Trailer (2004)

01 January 2004

An introductory video to Punishment Park featuring Peter Watkins.

The Role of a Lifetime Trailer (2003)

01 January 2003

The Role of a Lifetime raises questions about the ethical and social responsibilities of the artist and about the relationship between cinematic representation and historical record.

The Controllers Trailer (1963)

01 January 1963

This 1963 film from the Central Office of Information looks at air traffic controllers in the control rooms at Prestwick and London airports.