Andrew Kötting

Directing

Andrew Kötting

Born

1959-12-16 (66)

Place of birth

Bromley, England, UK

Known for

Directing

Credits

63 titles

Andrew Kötting is a British artist, writer, and filmmaker

Known for

Offshore (Gallivant) poster
NR

Beginning in the pitch-black early hours of a September morning, the film follows a 14hr 17min cross-channel relay swim that I made along with my brothers Mark and Joey, a friend Ian Dale, the actor and comedian Sean Lock (Smart Alek and co-writer of This Filthy Earth) and the actor Tchili (This Filthy Earth and Ivul). The attempt was witnessed by the writer and wordsmith Iain Sinclair and is narrated by Eden Kötting. The film came about in 2006 (the 10 year anniversary since the release of the original film Gallivant) and the chance discovery of a boat called The Gallivant, which offered to shadow us across the Channel as a support vessel. Flotsam and jetsam in the form of conversations, field recordings and the voices of Gladys and Eden from the original film invade. The film shows scenes of explicit vomiting.

Offshore (Gallivant)

2007

Smart Alek poster
6.7

In 1972 a family are on their way for a holiday in Essex. The parents argue and the son swears, making obscene gestures. So the father throws him out, drives on and crashes the car. The grandmother flags down a car with three men in it. Too late she recognises one as the man who shot a neighbour...

Smart Alek

1993

Swandown poster
4.2

Director Andrew Kötting and writer Iain Sinclair sail a swan-shaped pedalo from Hastings to Hackney in London in the build-up to the 2012 Olympic Games.

Swandown

2012

The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz poster
6.6

The last day of creation. A stranger arrives in London. No one knows who he is or where he has come from. By the time he leaves, the entire universe will have been erased.

The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz

2000

By Our Selves poster
5.5

Andrew Kötting's film retraces John Clare's journey from Epping Forest to Northamptonshire accompanied by a straw bear.

By Our Selves

2015

No artwork available
NR

"The film attempts to invoke a sense of the past via the here-and-now. Drawing on my own extensive Super 8 archive and a growing body of Mini DV footage the film portrays a fragmented and nostalgic view of a part of the world that has proved vital to the very fabric of my existence. Amongst the sonic flotsam and jetsam lie littoral truths, half-truths and coastal myths. Both melancholic and absurd the ‘coastcard’ is a confusing missive from a place of hope. It is a reminisce and flawed celebration. Hastings as a place where both memories and people are pulled towards the sea in a strange state of ‘reverse evolution’." – Andrew Kötting

Edgeland Mutter

2009

Film credits

2010s · 17 titles

Swandown poster
4.2

Director Andrew Kötting and writer Iain Sinclair sail a swan-shaped pedalo from Hastings to Hackney in London in the build-up to the 2012 Olympic Games.

Swandown

2012

By Our Selves poster
5.5

Andrew Kötting's film retraces John Clare's journey from Epping Forest to Northamptonshire accompanied by a straw bear.

By Our Selves

2015

No artwork available
NR

This work is inspired by the BLACK APPLES OF GOWER – a book by Iain Sinclair. The film investigates the ideas of travel, memory, history and place by cutting off a horses head and sticking it over a middle aged man's face. Made in collaboration with Iain Sinclair and Anonymous Bosch with music by Buster Grey-Jung and support from Common Ground.

Black Apples

2015

No artwork available
NR

Iain Sinclair walks a section of Watling Street, the Roman road said to have much older origins, from Canterbury to London.

Unearthings – On and Off Watling Street

2017

The Whalebone Box poster
6.0

From London to the far reaches of Scotland, the journey in the form of a quest for a whalebone box, related to its place of origin.

The Whalebone Box

2019

Artefact #3: Swandown – Culled from a Waterbound Journey from Hastings to Hackney poster
7.8

Each piece was edited from material that was from the SWANDOWN shoot and named Artefacts 1-5.

Artefact #3: Swandown – Culled from a Waterbound Journey from Hastings to Hackney

2012

Artefact #4: Swandown – Culled from a Waterbound Journey from Hastings to Hackney poster
4.0

Each piece was edited from material that was from the SWANDOWN shoot and named Artefacts 1-5.

Artefact #4: Swandown – Culled from a Waterbound Journey from Hastings to Hackney

2012

The Sun Came Dripping a Bucket Full of Gold poster
NR

At the threshold of the last mystery you have looked into the eyes of your creature self and watched the sun come dripping a bucket full of gold.

The Sun Came Dripping a Bucket Full of Gold

2014

Bunhill Fields Artefact: Swandown – Culled from a Waterbound Journey from Hastings to Hackney poster
4.8

Each piece was edited from material that was from the SWANDOWN shoot and named Artefacts 1-5.

Bunhill Fields Artefact: Swandown – Culled from a Waterbound Journey from Hastings to Hackney

2012

Artefact #5: Swandown – Culled from a Waterbound Journey from Hastings to Hackney poster
5.3

Each piece was edited from material that was from the SWANDOWN shoot and named Artefacts 1-5.

Artefact #5: Swandown – Culled from a Waterbound Journey from Hastings to Hackney

2012

Artefact #1: Swandown – Culled from a Waterbound Journey from Hastings to Hackney poster
6.0

Each piece was edited from material that was from the SWANDOWN shoot and named Artefacts 1-5.

Artefact #1: Swandown – Culled from a Waterbound Journey from Hastings to Hackney

2012

No artwork available
NR

Eden Kötting draws bright images on transparent glass, while talking with her dad about the world and the people who run it.

This Illuminated World Is Full of Stupid Men

2014

No artwork available
5.7

A deliciously eccentric, yet touching portrait of director Andrew Kotting's daughter Eden as a young woman in their tumbledown Pyrennean farmhouse. Last seen in Gallivant (1996) as a plucky kid touring the coastline of Britain with her Big Granny, Eden, now 23, is here shown painting still lifes and singing along to the radio as the seasons ebb and flow around her. Reminiscent of Stan Brakhage's Dog Star Man, this lo-fi marvel features music by Scanner's Robin Rimbaud and a range of voices from Kotting's sound archive to explore notions of nostalgia, memory and place.

Louyre: This Our Still Life

2011

Artefact #2: Swandown – Culled from a Waterbound Journey from Hastings to Hackney poster
6.5

Each piece was edited from material that was from the SWANDOWN shoot and named Artefacts 1-5.

Artefact #2: Swandown – Culled from a Waterbound Journey from Hastings to Hackney

2012

A Walk Back to the Last London by Way of Watling Street poster
10.0

A film shot on an iPhone with a super 8 app documenting a walk made by Andrew Kötting with Iain Sinclair from Dover to London along Watling Street, sometimes in the company of John Rogers and sometimes in the company of Anne Caron-Delion.

A Walk Back to the Last London by Way of Watling Street

2017

No artwork available
NR

Filmed over the course of a week in October 2010, the film captures the everyday life of its Joubert syndrome-suffering protagonist, taking in her daily routines of work, play, and therapy, whilst also capturing her admirable joie de vivre against the backdrop of her loving family life.

Portrait of Eden

2011

London Overground poster
NR

London Overground retraces legendary London writer Iain Sinclair’s journey with film-maker Andrew Kötting around the Overground railway on foot for the book of the same name. The film follows Sinclair reprising the walk over the course of a year rather than the day’s walk of the book.

London Overground

2016

2000s · 3 titles

Behind the camera

Offshore (Gallivant) poster
NR

Beginning in the pitch-black early hours of a September morning, the film follows a 14hr 17min cross-channel relay swim that I made along with my brothers Mark and Joey, a friend Ian Dale, the actor and comedian Sean Lock (Smart Alek and co-writer of This Filthy Earth) and the actor Tchili (This Filthy Earth and Ivul). The attempt was witnessed by the writer and wordsmith Iain Sinclair and is narrated by Eden Kötting. The film came about in 2006 (the 10 year anniversary since the release of the original film Gallivant) and the chance discovery of a boat called The Gallivant, which offered to shadow us across the Channel as a support vessel. Flotsam and jetsam in the form of conversations, field recordings and the voices of Gladys and Eden from the original film invade. The film shows scenes of explicit vomiting.

Offshore (Gallivant)

2007

Smart Alek poster
6.7

In 1972 a family are on their way for a holiday in Essex. The parents argue and the son swears, making obscene gestures. So the father throws him out, drives on and crashes the car. The grandmother flags down a car with three men in it. Too late she recognises one as the man who shot a neighbour...

Smart Alek

1993

Smart Alek poster
6.7

In 1972 a family are on their way for a holiday in Essex. The parents argue and the son swears, making obscene gestures. So the father throws him out, drives on and crashes the car. The grandmother flags down a car with three men in it. Too late she recognises one as the man who shot a neighbour...

Smart Alek

1993

Swandown poster
4.2

Director Andrew Kötting and writer Iain Sinclair sail a swan-shaped pedalo from Hastings to Hackney in London in the build-up to the 2012 Olympic Games.

Swandown

2012

Swandown poster
4.2

Director Andrew Kötting and writer Iain Sinclair sail a swan-shaped pedalo from Hastings to Hackney in London in the build-up to the 2012 Olympic Games.

Swandown

2012

By Our Selves poster
5.5

Andrew Kötting's film retraces John Clare's journey from Epping Forest to Northamptonshire accompanied by a straw bear.

By Our Selves

2015

By Our Selves poster
5.5

Andrew Kötting's film retraces John Clare's journey from Epping Forest to Northamptonshire accompanied by a straw bear.

By Our Selves

2015

No artwork available
NR

"The film attempts to invoke a sense of the past via the here-and-now. Drawing on my own extensive Super 8 archive and a growing body of Mini DV footage the film portrays a fragmented and nostalgic view of a part of the world that has proved vital to the very fabric of my existence. Amongst the sonic flotsam and jetsam lie littoral truths, half-truths and coastal myths. Both melancholic and absurd the ‘coastcard’ is a confusing missive from a place of hope. It is a reminisce and flawed celebration. Hastings as a place where both memories and people are pulled towards the sea in a strange state of ‘reverse evolution’." – Andrew Kötting

Edgeland Mutter

2009

Ivul poster
4.8

IVUL is the extraordinary story of Alex (Jacob Auzanneau), a young man who climbs on to the roof of his house and refuses to ever come back down to earth. His actions devastate his beloved family and we watch as their world falls apart. A dark and mysterious gardener (Tchili from This Filthy Earth) keeps watch over the family but is powerless to exorcise the curse that he feels has befallen them. Meanwhile the twin sisters (Manon and Capucine) provide light but sometimes macabre relief. The world of IVUL is a world of both fairytale and nightmare with the family manor house and forest landscape providing a compelling backdrop to the story.

Ivul

2010

Ivul poster
4.8

IVUL is the extraordinary story of Alex (Jacob Auzanneau), a young man who climbs on to the roof of his house and refuses to ever come back down to earth. His actions devastate his beloved family and we watch as their world falls apart. A dark and mysterious gardener (Tchili from This Filthy Earth) keeps watch over the family but is powerless to exorcise the curse that he feels has befallen them. Meanwhile the twin sisters (Manon and Capucine) provide light but sometimes macabre relief. The world of IVUL is a world of both fairytale and nightmare with the family manor house and forest landscape providing a compelling backdrop to the story.

Ivul

2010

This Filthy Earth poster
4.0

The tragic story of two sisters whose lives are disrupted by two men. Amidst a landscape of rural hardship and a community consumed with superstition, events unfurl which threaten their sibling bond.

This Filthy Earth

2001

This Filthy Earth poster
4.0

The tragic story of two sisters whose lives are disrupted by two men. Amidst a landscape of rural hardship and a community consumed with superstition, events unfurl which threaten their sibling bond.

This Filthy Earth

2001

Diddyköy poster
NR

An ironic yet reverential view of a Gypsy horse fair in the 'wilds' of the English countryside

Diddyköy

1992

Diseased and Disorderly poster
NR

Neuro-diverse artist Eden Kötting’s remarkable drawings, paintings and collages create an illusory, animated world where the rules change and everything is possible.

Diseased and Disorderly

2021

Diseased and Disorderly poster
NR

Neuro-diverse artist Eden Kötting’s remarkable drawings, paintings and collages create an illusory, animated world where the rules change and everything is possible.

Diseased and Disorderly

2021

Mapping Perception poster
5.0

A documentary examining the causes and effects of Joubert syndrome – a rare hereditary brain disorder, which affects both the motor and intellectual development of its sufferers.

Mapping Perception

2002

No artwork available
NR

This work is inspired by the BLACK APPLES OF GOWER – a book by Iain Sinclair. The film investigates the ideas of travel, memory, history and place by cutting off a horses head and sticking it over a middle aged man's face. Made in collaboration with Iain Sinclair and Anonymous Bosch with music by Buster Grey-Jung and support from Common Ground.

Black Apples

2015

No artwork available
NR

Historical voices and images relay the experiences of tuberculosis, Knightwick Sanatorium and London Fever Hospital.

Fever Hospital

2015

Kingdom Protista poster
NR

‘A few drops of pond water rich in bottom sediments, seen under a microscope can quickly confirm the existence of another world. This is the Kingdom of Protista and like all living things it needs to try to suck itself off.’

Kingdom Protista

2000

Dead Relatives poster
NR

Shot in Nunhead Cemetery, South East London with Heilco Van der Ploeug and Leila McMillan. Designed to run as a super 8 projection for the performances that we were making in and around London as BEING KARNAL. Music BEING KARNAL (Heilco Van der Ploeug and Andrew Kotting)

Dead Relatives

1983

Dead Relatives poster
NR

Shot in Nunhead Cemetery, South East London with Heilco Van der Ploeug and Leila McMillan. Designed to run as a super 8 projection for the performances that we were making in and around London as BEING KARNAL. Music BEING KARNAL (Heilco Van der Ploeug and Andrew Kotting)

Dead Relatives

1983

No artwork available
NR

Various characters appear stranded on a beach buried under large piles of their own memorabilia and self-importance.

Acumen

1991

The Film That Buys the Cinema poster
NR

A collection of films from an eclectic array of contributors commissioned to raise funds for the Bristol independent cinema The Cube.

The Film That Buys the Cinema

2014

The Whalebone Box poster
6.0

From London to the far reaches of Scotland, the journey in the form of a quest for a whalebone box, related to its place of origin.

The Whalebone Box

2019

The Whalebone Box poster
6.0

From London to the far reaches of Scotland, the journey in the form of a quest for a whalebone box, related to its place of origin.

The Whalebone Box

2019

In Far Away Land poster
NR

Back stroke butterfly, front crawl and bras, we are awash in an ocean of bubbles. Meanwhile Captain Ahab sets sail on his magic carpet in search of the whale. All is not well in the world but Eden is there, fresh from her garden, tuning into “The Far Away Land”. We are deep in the cloud of our own making but help is at hand, and everything might yet be alright.

In Far Away Land

2019

In Far Away Land poster
NR

Back stroke butterfly, front crawl and bras, we are awash in an ocean of bubbles. Meanwhile Captain Ahab sets sail on his magic carpet in search of the whale. All is not well in the world but Eden is there, fresh from her garden, tuning into “The Far Away Land”. We are deep in the cloud of our own making but help is at hand, and everything might yet be alright.

In Far Away Land

2019

Artefact #3: Swandown – Culled from a Waterbound Journey from Hastings to Hackney poster
7.8

Each piece was edited from material that was from the SWANDOWN shoot and named Artefacts 1-5.

Artefact #3: Swandown – Culled from a Waterbound Journey from Hastings to Hackney

2012

Artefact #3: Swandown – Culled from a Waterbound Journey from Hastings to Hackney poster
7.8

Each piece was edited from material that was from the SWANDOWN shoot and named Artefacts 1-5.

Artefact #3: Swandown – Culled from a Waterbound Journey from Hastings to Hackney

2012

Edith Walks poster
5.4

Edith Walks is a 60 minute 66 second feature film inspired by a walk from Waltham Abbey in Essex via Battle Abbey to St Leonards-on-Sea in East Sussex. The film documents a pilgrimage in memory of Edith Swan Neck. The 108 mile journey, as the crow flies, allows the audience to reflect upon all things Edith. A conversation in Northampton between Alan Moore, Iain Sinclair and Edith Swan Neck is also a key element to the unfolding 'story'. With images shot using digital super 8 iPhone's and sound recorded using a specially constructed music box with a boom microphone the film unfolds chronologically but in a completely unpredictable way. The numerous encounters and impromptu performances en route are proof, as if needed, that the angels of happenstance were to looking down upon the troop, with EDITH as their hallucination

Edith Walks

2017

Donkeyhead poster
NR

"This film, like everything else nowadays, is magic. I don’t know where he originated from but he’s been sound in our family for years and years and years."

Donkeyhead

1998

Là-bas (Down There) poster
8.0

Taking as its departure point the 1993 opening of the Channel Tunnel, Là Bas is a playful burlesque on cultural difference, eccentricity and passion. Using different locations, Kötting knits together an imaginary tunnel, with tickets sold like a seaside attraction, through which one walks between England and France (the interior shots of the tunnel are of the Greenwich foot tunnel), and which is subject to random and sudden closure like many other British forms of transport.

Là-bas (Down There)

1994

No artwork available
NR

Inspired by the overwhelming force of 2G and the ensuing befuddlement, the work might be read as a tongue-in-cheek homage to Yuri Gagarin, the people of Star City and the pioneering artists who attempted to create work on a plunging aircraft. Kötting provides an insight into the madness of experimentation in the extreme environment of a zero gravity flight on a Russian military base, where Gagarin’s face smiles down at you from almost every building. A wobbly B-film rocket follows a similar trajectory to the parabolic flight path, reaching for the stars before plummeting nose cone first back into the hard Earth, echoing the Russian’s more brutal approach to re-entry landings than the NASA ocean splashdowns. The rocket’s flight links a kaleidoscope of grainy archive images from Moscow, Star City and the parabolic flight on which Kotting participated. The film was also commissioned by The Cornerhouse for projection on a large outdoor screen in Manchester in 2005.

Too G

2005

No artwork available
NR

Shot at an old butchers in Lee Green, South East London with Leila McMillan. We lived above the abandoned shop and had newly discovered each other and many of the delights that love might bring. Designed to run as a super 8 projection for the performances that we were making in and around London as BEING KARNAL. Music BEING KARNAL (Heilco Van der Ploeug and Andrew Kotting)

Skinned Alive

—

No artwork available
NR

Shot at an old butchers in Lee Green, South East London with Leila McMillan. We lived above the abandoned shop and had newly discovered each other and many of the delights that love might bring. Designed to run as a super 8 projection for the performances that we were making in and around London as BEING KARNAL. Music BEING KARNAL (Heilco Van der Ploeug and Andrew Kotting)

Skinned Alive

—

Artefact #4: Swandown – Culled from a Waterbound Journey from Hastings to Hackney poster
4.0

Each piece was edited from material that was from the SWANDOWN shoot and named Artefacts 1-5.

Artefact #4: Swandown – Culled from a Waterbound Journey from Hastings to Hackney

2012

Artefact #4: Swandown – Culled from a Waterbound Journey from Hastings to Hackney poster
4.0

Each piece was edited from material that was from the SWANDOWN shoot and named Artefacts 1-5.

Artefact #4: Swandown – Culled from a Waterbound Journey from Hastings to Hackney

2012

The Buzz of the Past poster
NR

An introduction to Jarman's 'The Garden'.

The Buzz of the Past

2022

Self Heal poster
NR

A sad tale that waxes lyrical, replete with the diabolical bastardisation of various Greek myths.

Self Heal

1987

Self Heal poster
NR

A sad tale that waxes lyrical, replete with the diabolical bastardisation of various Greek myths.

Self Heal

1987