"To be honest, I'm not a documentary-maker. I'm a journalist. I like stories."
Kevin Adam Curtis (born 26 May 1955) is an English filmmaker, famous for his documentaries on "power and how it works in society".
His films typically centre around less-explored aspects of 20th-century and early-21st-century history, often focusing on sociology, psychology, philosophy and political history, and discussing political and philosophical movements and ideas that were in play behind the scenes of mainstream media and political theater of the time.
In addition to his full-length documentaies, Curtis has made three short films for Charlie Brooker's Newswipe.
His works include:
- Pandora's Box (1992)
- The Living Dead (1995)
- The Mayfair Set: Four Stories About the Rise of Business and the Decline of Political Power (1999)
- The Century of the Self (2002)
- The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear (2004)
- The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom (2007)
- It Felt Like a Kiss (2009), with Damon Albarn
- All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (2011)
- Everything is Going According to Plan (2013), a collaboration with Massive Attack.
- Bitter Lake (2015)
- HyperNormalisation (2016)
- Can't Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World (2021)
- Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone (What It Felt Like to Live Through the Collapse of Communism and Democracy) (2022)
Tropes common in his work:
- Author Tract: Generally averted, as he prefers to present the facts and let the viewer draw their own conclusions from there, though he goes out of his way in HyperNormalisation to emphasize that politics is fundamentally about lying and creating illusions.
- Capitalism Is Bad: Much of his work documents the corrosive influence of capital on government and society, though he's not very sympathetic to communism either.
- Central Theme: Has said that all his films are fundamentally about power. Specifically, his films from The Power of Nightmares onward are about the ways that politicians lie and twist the truth to shape public reality.
- Drone of Dread: Very common with the music he picks for his films.
- Individualism vs. Collectivism: Can't Get You Out of My Head explores this, noting how the Russian and Chinese attempts at creating a better world through revolution and collectivisation were eventually subverted by its leaders, and as a result ultimately failed on several levels, ending up at least partially discrediting the idea of collectivism on the world stage. On the other hand, Curtis argues that the Western world, and particularly USA's full-on embrace of market liberalism and individualism would prove not to be the key to creating a better world either, noting that the promotion of individualism had a notable corrosive effect on the social cohesion of western societies, as unfettered individualism will always to some degree rely on the individual viewing the people around them as competitors and opponents, rather as a part of their local community. This worldview bred distrust and paranoia and lead people living under it to feel scared and alone, resulting in large parts of their populations attempting to alleviate their fears, uncertainty, and angst either through substance abuse or the retreat into a dream world about an idealised past that never existed in the first place. But these kinds of literal and figurative self-medication really only dealt with the immediate symptoms; meanwhile, the underlying discontent amongst the lower and middle class kept on growing, eventually resulting in widespread anger towards politicians and institutions, thus creating unrest and fertile ground for the popularisation of extremist political movements like the neo-fascist movements in Europe and conspiracy theories like QAnon in America.
- No Export for You: Due to how much footage Curtis uses in his montages, it's nigh difficult for his films and series to be released internationally.
- Signature Style: With few exceptions, the majority of his films are composed almost entirely of Stock Footage with his narration laid over it, giving them a very raw, almost scrapbook sort of feel. He also prefers to use modern trip hop and electronic music for his soundtracks.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Uses this just as often as Drone of Dread, notably in the intro to HyperNormalisation, where he uses an upbeat trip hop song over footage of riots and the Syrian Civil War.
- Stock Footage: His films are generally comprised almost entirely of this, though he sometimes uses original interview footage.
