Mamoun Hassan


Mamoun Hassan is a screenwriter, director, editor, producer and teacher of film who held prominent positions in British cinema during the 1970s and 1980s, frequently backing experimental work. He was head of production of the British Film Institute and later managing director of the National Film Finance Corporation.

Biography

Mamoun Hassan was born in Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia. He was head of production of the British Film Institute from 1971, in which post he continued the BFI's "radical" policy of supporting low-budget experimental films; he assisted the director Bill Douglas by securing crew and funding to make The Bill Douglas Trilogy, and financially supported the production of Winstanley. After leaving the BFI he taught at the National Film and Television School at Beaconsfield, then in 1979 he became managing director of the National Film Finance Corporation. In this position he backed the film Babylon, and again helped Douglas in the production of Comrades. Despite the "brave funding choices" and renewed creativity of the NFFC under Hassan, it was abolished in 1985. Since then he has worked as a film producer, screenwriter, consultant, lecturer and teacher in the field of cinema.

Filmography