
Directing
Sally Potter
Born
1949-09-19 (77)
Place of birth
London
Known for
Directing
Credits
45 titles
Charlotte Sally Potter OBE (born 19 September 1949) is an English film director and screenwriter. She is known for directing Orlando (1992), which won the audience prize for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival. She also directed The Tango Lesson (1997), The Man Who Cried (2000), Yes (2004), Rage (2009), Ginger & Rosa (2012), The Party (2017) and most recently The Roads Not Taken (2020).
Known for
6.0A look at the lives of two teenage girls - inseparable friends Ginger and Rosa -- growing up in 1960s London as the Cuban Missile Crisis looms, and the pivotal event the comes to redefine their relationship.
Ginger & Rosa
2012
6.3Various individuals think they’re coming together for a party in a private home, but a series of revelations results in a huge crisis that throws their belief systems – and their values – into total disarray.
The Party
2017
7.0England, 1600. Queen Elizabeth I promises Orlando, a young nobleman obsessed with poetry, that she will grant him land and fortune if he agrees to satisfy a very particular request.
Orlando
1992
6.1A young refugee travels from Russia to America in search of her lost father and falls in love with a gypsy horseman.
The Man Who Cried
2000
5.5The film follows 24 hours in the life of father and daughter Leo and Molly, as they weave their way around New York City, until their ordinary but stressful day takes on a hallucinatory and epic quality.
The Roads Not Taken
2020
8.5Comedian Nick Helm narrates this bold new documentary series exploring the dramatic history of British cinema. Discover how cinema held a mirror up to society from 1960 through to the 00s.
Reel Britannia
2022
Film credits
2010s · 2 titles
A video diary of Orlando (1992) that features the actors and key crew members on the film as we travelogue through many of the shoots in Uzbekistan, inter-cut with on-set interviews.
Orlando In Uzbekistan
2010
A vintage featurette about shooting Orlando (1992) in Russia. Has a narrator to guide through and plenty of behind the scenes footage of planning, meetings, scouting and more.
Orlando in Russia
2010
1990s · 2 titles
6.2On a trip to Paris Sally meets Pablo, a tango dancer. He starts teaching her to dance then she returns to London to work on some "projects". She visits Buenos Aires and learns more from Pablo's friends. Sally and Pablo meet again but this time their relationship changes, she realises they want different things from each other. On a trip to Buenos Aires they cement their friendship.
The Tango Lesson
1997
NRInterviews with women directors working in Hollywood and Europe in the early 1990s, exploring the opportunities and obstacles that face them. A program made to accompany a Channel 4 season of films directed and produced by women.
Cinefile: Reel Women
1995
Series credits
Behind the camera
6.0A look at the lives of two teenage girls - inseparable friends Ginger and Rosa -- growing up in 1960s London as the Cuban Missile Crisis looms, and the pivotal event the comes to redefine their relationship.
Ginger & Rosa
2012
6.0A look at the lives of two teenage girls - inseparable friends Ginger and Rosa -- growing up in 1960s London as the Cuban Missile Crisis looms, and the pivotal event the comes to redefine their relationship.
Ginger & Rosa
2012
6.3Various individuals think they’re coming together for a party in a private home, but a series of revelations results in a huge crisis that throws their belief systems – and their values – into total disarray.
The Party
2017
6.3Various individuals think they’re coming together for a party in a private home, but a series of revelations results in a huge crisis that throws their belief systems – and their values – into total disarray.
The Party
2017
7.0England, 1600. Queen Elizabeth I promises Orlando, a young nobleman obsessed with poetry, that she will grant him land and fortune if he agrees to satisfy a very particular request.
Orlando
1992
7.0England, 1600. Queen Elizabeth I promises Orlando, a young nobleman obsessed with poetry, that she will grant him land and fortune if he agrees to satisfy a very particular request.
Orlando
1992
6.1A young refugee travels from Russia to America in search of her lost father and falls in love with a gypsy horseman.
The Man Who Cried
2000
6.1A young refugee travels from Russia to America in search of her lost father and falls in love with a gypsy horseman.
The Man Who Cried
2000
5.5The film follows 24 hours in the life of father and daughter Leo and Molly, as they weave their way around New York City, until their ordinary but stressful day takes on a hallucinatory and epic quality.
The Roads Not Taken
2020
5.5The film follows 24 hours in the life of father and daughter Leo and Molly, as they weave their way around New York City, until their ordinary but stressful day takes on a hallucinatory and epic quality.
The Roads Not Taken
2020
5.9She is a scientist. He is a Lebanese doctor. They meet at a banquet and fall into a carefree, passionate relationship. But difficulties abound because of his heritage and her loveless marriage. She flies to Havana to sort things out on the beach and in the cabarets. She sends him a ticket, but harbors no illusions that He will join her in this Caribbean melting pot.
Yes
2005
5.9She is a scientist. He is a Lebanese doctor. They meet at a banquet and fall into a carefree, passionate relationship. But difficulties abound because of his heritage and her loveless marriage. She flies to Havana to sort things out on the beach and in the cabarets. She sends him a ticket, but harbors no illusions that He will join her in this Caribbean melting pot.
Yes
2005
4.5Rehearsals for a fundraising gala become the arena for a struggle between two men; one, the gala director and the other, a richly talented but unstable rock drummer. As their battle for expression and control escalates against a relentless rhythmic backdrop, their public and private selves explosively collide.
Look at Me
2022
4.5Rehearsals for a fundraising gala become the arena for a struggle between two men; one, the gala director and the other, a richly talented but unstable rock drummer. As their battle for expression and control escalates against a relentless rhythmic backdrop, their public and private selves explosively collide.
Look at Me
2022
6.2On a trip to Paris Sally meets Pablo, a tango dancer. He starts teaching her to dance then she returns to London to work on some "projects". She visits Buenos Aires and learns more from Pablo's friends. Sally and Pablo meet again but this time their relationship changes, she realises they want different things from each other. On a trip to Buenos Aires they cement their friendship.
The Tango Lesson
1997
6.2On a trip to Paris Sally meets Pablo, a tango dancer. He starts teaching her to dance then she returns to London to work on some "projects". She visits Buenos Aires and learns more from Pablo's friends. Sally and Pablo meet again but this time their relationship changes, she realises they want different things from each other. On a trip to Buenos Aires they cement their friendship.
The Tango Lesson
1997
5.6An avant-garde examination of the relationship between women and money in society. Mixing musical, silent melodrama, and philosophical treatise into a post-punk, heady brew.
The Gold Diggers
1983
5.6An avant-garde examination of the relationship between women and money in society. Mixing musical, silent melodrama, and philosophical treatise into a post-punk, heady brew.
The Gold Diggers
1983
6.0This glasnost-era documentary, which incorporates footage from films from the 1920s through the 1980s, looks at the history of women in Russian cinema through the eyes of Russian women directors, actors, and scriptwriters. The film’s title refers to a WWII slogan about women doing the work of absent men in the fields and at home. Featuring Kira Muratova, Natalia Ryazantseva, Inna Churikova, Nonna Mordyukova, and others.
I Am an Ox, I Am a Horse, I Am a Man, I Am a Woman
1988
3.5A schoolboy uses his cellphone camera to shoot intimate interviews with people working at a New York fashion house and secretly posts them on the internet. Result: a bitterly funny expose of an industry in crisis, during a week in which an accident on the runway becomes a murder investigation, and denial leads to devastation.
Rage
2009
3.5A schoolboy uses his cellphone camera to shoot intimate interviews with people working at a New York fashion house and secretly posts them on the internet. Result: a bitterly funny expose of an industry in crisis, during a week in which an accident on the runway becomes a murder investigation, and denial leads to devastation.
Rage
2009
6.0A mysterious woman recruits a Cabinet doorman and an ex-civil servant for a plot to bring down the British government.
The London Story
1986
6.0A mysterious woman recruits a Cabinet doorman and an ex-civil servant for a plot to bring down the British government.
The London Story
1986
A family embarks on an expedition to scatter the ashes of an archaeologist. As they pitch camp at one of the archaeologist's sites, sibling rivalries and buried tensions arise.
Alma
—
A family embarks on an expedition to scatter the ashes of an archaeologist. As they pitch camp at one of the archaeologist's sites, sibling rivalries and buried tensions arise.
Alma
—
A family embarks on an expedition to scatter the ashes of an archaeologist. As they pitch camp at one of the archaeologist's sites, sibling rivalries and buried tensions arise.
Alma
—
4.6Film shot one frame at a time, of three faces, including a brother and sister, which merge to become one, followed by a short sequence of minimalist gesture.
Jerk
1969
Why do we cry? Can men cry too? When are tears acceptable and when are they not?
Tears
1986
Examines laughter, its representation in film and its day to day function. Well known people from various backgrounds discuss the issue and what it means to them.
Laughter
1986
Explores rage, its function and its representation in film. Why does rage occur, how does it differ between people and how do children feel about it? Also questions if rage can ever be a constructive emotion.
Rage
1986
People who have experienced fear - those involved in the peace movement, a child, a politian and a film director - discuss the psychological and physical aspects of this emotion.
Fear
1986
Silent footage of dancers is visually manipulated in a variety of ways.
Hors d'oeuvres
1971
Children playing on the street.
Play
1970
6.4What happens after the curtain falls on the death of Mimi, tragic heroine of Puccini's La boheme. In Thriller, Mimi teams up with the opera's comic heroine Musetta to investigate her own death.
Thriller
1979
6.4What happens after the curtain falls on the death of Mimi, tragic heroine of Puccini's La boheme. In Thriller, Mimi teams up with the opera's comic heroine Musetta to investigate her own death.
Thriller
1979
A re-framing both of Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel Orlando, and of Potter’s film of the same name. Through song and dance, the new film will explore Orlando’s 400 year journey, with questions of class, race, sex, Britain’s imperialist history and what it means to be British now. In a departure from the original novel and film, a Black narrator and chorus will operate as a guide for the audience, bringing to light stories that were not told in the book and its adaptation.
Orlando, Now
—
One of the earliest events to combine dance on film projected in juxtaposition with live performances by the same dancers. The films included rehearsals of the sequences being danced in their final form on stage; portraits of individual dancers, and different interpretations of the same segment of choreography by different dancers intercut with images of them preparing to come on stage. Also included blown-up Polaroid close-up portraits of dancers.
Combines
1972
One of the earliest events to combine dance on film projected in juxtaposition with live performances by the same dancers. The films included rehearsals of the sequences being danced in their final form on stage; portraits of individual dancers, and different interpretations of the same segment of choreography by different dancers intercut with images of them preparing to come on stage. Also included blown-up Polaroid close-up portraits of dancers.
Combines
1972

