Peter Watkins (1935-2025)

[hearthesilence]

OVID is streaming his six-hour epic LA COMMUNE (PARIS, 1871), alongside THE UNIVERSAL CLOCK, directed by Geoff Bowie, filmed behind-the-scenes on the set of LA COMMUNE, courtesy Icarus Films

[DeprongMori]

OVID is streaming his six-hour epic LA COMMUNE (PARIS, 1871), alongside THE UNIVERSAL CLOCK, directed by Geoff Bowie, filmed behind-the-scenes on the set of LA COMMUNE, courtesy Icarus Films

The Universal Clock - The Resistance of Peter Watkins is always available free to stream through Canada’s National Film Board site or app.

The Universal Clock - The Resistance of Peter Watkins

This feature documentary is a portrait of Peter Watkins, an Oscar®-winning British filmmaker who, for the past 4 decades, has proved that films can be made without compromise. With the proliferation of TV channels, documentaries are enjoying an unprecedented boom fuelled by audiences seeking an alternative to infotainment. But now documentary filmmaking, too, finds itself constrained by the imperatives of television. However, there is a rebel resisting this uniformity of the spirit. Pre-eminent among today's documentary filmmakers concerned about this mind-numbing standardization, Peter Watkins has never strayed from either his principles or the cause.

[hearthesilence]

Privilege is still in-print in the U.S. and Kino usually includes it in its sales for about $10. It may be the same exact master used by the BFI's Flipside edition (which is out OOP) - not as good as the BFI edition but in terms of PQ, it's supposedly pretty close even though the bit rate isn't quite as high.

This is currently on sale for $4.99 (a huge markdown from its list price of $29.95) as part of Kino's "Winter Wonderland" sale.