Simon Hartog

Simon Hartog was born in England but lived in Chicago. He died in 1992.
He came back to Europe in the 1960s. He took a higher degree in politics at the LSE and studied film-making at the Centro Sperimentale, the Italian film school. There he met his longtime companion and wife, Antonella Ibba. His first taste of filmmaking in Britain was on Peter Watkins’ The War Game. He worked for a time as a producer/director for Panorama, making programmes on Ronald Reagan, the May 1968 evenements in Paris and censorship. He left the BBC to go freelance. Hartog was a founder-member of the London Filmmakers’ Co-operative. His had a passionate interest in the Third Cinema of Africa and South America. He initiated and animated a collective of young feature filmmakers in Spectre Productions. He was active in the Independent Filmmakers’ Association pressure-group that campaigned for a genuinely independent and innovative Channel 4. He joined John Ellis (media academic) and Keith Griffiths in founding the production company Large Door Ltd, which made the channel’s world cinema programme Visions for three years.