Shane Meadows: Critical Essays

This is the first book on a key contemporary British film director, Shane Meadows. From his breakthrough short films in the early 1990s and feature debut TwentyFourSeven (1997) through to the BAFTA-winning This Is England (2007) and hit television spin-off, director Shane Meadows has emerged as one of the most distinctive and influential voices in contemporary British cinema. Danny Perkins, CEO of StudioCanal UK, credits Meadows as the key figure in British film’s contemporary renaissance, with This Is England doing more than any other film to change British audiences’ attitudes’ to home-grown cinema. This book will explore the full range of Meadows’ work, from its origins in local D.I.Y. media through to international festival acclaim. Over the course of its 15 chapters, it will present a comprehensive analysis of Meadows’ oeuvre to date, situating it in the context of British cinema history as well as wider cultural changes from the nineties to now. It covers the full range of his work from its origins in the 1990s to its latest developments; The substantial provides an overview of Meadows and his place within British cinema culture.Equal attention paid to the formal qualities and themes of Meadows’ individual films and the social/historical context of his films.