Steve McQueen (director)
Steve McQueen is a British director known for his impactful films that explore complex themes like race, identity, and the human condition. Born on October 9, 1969, in Ealing, England, to immigrant parents from Trinidad and Grenada, McQueen faced early challenges including dyslexia and a lazy eye, which affected his educational experience. Despite these obstacles, he developed a passion for the arts, leading him to study at prestigious institutions such as Goldsmiths, University of London, and Tisch School of the Arts in New York, although he eventually left Tisch due to its focus on technical elements over creative expression.
McQueen gained recognition for his innovative short films in the 1990s and early 2000s, culminating in the acclaimed feature film "Hunger" (2008), which dramatizes the 1981 hunger strikes in Northern Ireland. His subsequent works, including "Shame" (2011) and "12 Years a Slave" (2013), solidified his reputation as a filmmaker capable of addressing difficult historical subjects with sensitivity and artistry. The latter won the Academy Award for Best Picture, marking a significant achievement in McQueen's career.
In addition to his films, McQueen has produced impactful art installations and documentary series like "Small Axe" (2020) and "Occupied City" (2023). His exploration of themes related to the African diaspora and societal issues has garnered him numerous accolades, including a Commander of the Order of the British Empire honor and a Knight Bachelor award. McQueen continues to create thought-provoking works, reinforcing his position as a significant figure in contemporary cinema and art. He lives with his wife, Bianca Stigter, and their two children.
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Steve McQueen (director)
Director
- Born: October 9, 1969
- Place of Birth: Ealing, England
Education: Hammersmith and West London College; Goldsmiths, University of London; Tisch School of the Arts
Background
Director Steven Rodney McQueen was born on October 9, 1969, in Ealing, England, a working-class area outside of London. His parents had immigrated to England from Trinidad and Grenada. He attended Drayton Manor High School in Ealing, where he excelled at soccer and got along well with his peers, although he struggled with schoolwork because he has dyslexia. Due to a lazy eye, he wore an eye patch, which he believes stigmatized him early on, causing him to be placed in slower classes in school.
McQueen became interested in the arts as a child, despite his father’s wishes that he focus on becoming an electrical engineer. McQueen took advanced-level art classes at Ealing’s Hammersmith and West London College, and he was later accepted into the Chelsea College of Arts in London to study painting. He then moved on to the Goldsmiths College of Art of the University of London, where he first began experimenting with film on a Super 8 camera. He graduated from Goldsmiths in 1993.
McQueen took his passion for film to the United States, where he enrolled in New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in New York City. He dropped out after three months, however, because he was discouraged by the school’s emphasis on the technical rather than the creative aspects of film.
Film Career
McQueen directed several short, experimental films during the 1990s and early 2000s, which he used to address controversial themes such as race, homosexuality, and aggression. The black-and-white silent short film Bear (1993) depicts two naked men, one of whom is McQueen, circling each other in an aggressive yet seductive manner. Just Above My Head (1995) features the top of McQueen’s head as he walks up a street and is a reference to American writer James Baldwin’s novel Just Above My Head (1979), which confronts the issues of homosexuality, individuality, and racism.
The Museum of Modern Art in New York commissioned his short film Deadpan (1997), which is an homage to comedic actor Buster Keaton’s silent film Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928). In Deadpan, a barn’s gable wall collapses on top of McQueen, who emerges unharmed because he was standing where a window would be. The short received critical acclaim, and McQueen won the 1999 Turner Prize, which is awarded to a British visual artist under the age of fifty.
In 2006, McQueen became an official war artist and spent six days in Basra, Iraq, documenting the Iraq War. This experience inspired his project Queen and Country, which depicts the portraits of 155 dead British soldiers on sheets of stamps. McQueen campaigned for them to become official stamps, but the British Royal Mail denied the petition. He explained that it was not a political statement but a way for the effects of war to enter people’s everyday lives.
McQueen then wrote and directed his first feature-length film, Hunger (2008), which presents a dramatization of the 1981 hunger strikes in the Maze Prison of Northern Ireland. Bobby Sands, a volunteer with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), led the strikes in the hope of regaining political prisoner status. After sixty-six days of striking, Sands died.
Hunger debuted at the Cannes Film Festival on May 15, 2008, and received critical acclaim, winning the Camera d’Or award for the best first feature film. The film appeared on many top-ten lists for the year and received numerous awards and nominations, including a nomination for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for Outstanding British Film. Many critics applauded a seventeen-minute take in the film, one of the longest in cinema history.
McQueen reunited with Hunger star Michael Fassbender for his next film, Shame (2011). Fassbender plays a successful New York executive struggling with sex addiction. The majority of critics praised the film, which went on to win and be nominated for numerous awards, including another BAFTA Award. McQueen was appointed commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2011.
For his next film, McQueen adapted the autobiography of Solomon Northup, a free African American during the time of slavery in the United States who was abducted and sold into slavery in the South. Critics praised 12 Years a Slave (2013) for its acting, direction, and unflinching look at the brutality endured by enslaved people. The film was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Picture and the Directors Guild of America Feature Film Award and won the BAFTA Award for best film.
In the years that followed, McQueen continued to direct shorts, including Ashes (2014) and Mr. Burberry (2016) and developed the miniseries "Codes of Conduct" for HBO, which was canceled in 2016 before it aired. McQueen went on to cowrite the film adaptation of Lynda La Plante's 1983 television miniseries Widows, as a Chicago heist thriller starring Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez, and Cynthia Erivo; he also directed and produced the major-studio picture into which he injected commentary on racism, social class, sexism, corruption, and police brutality. Widows (2018) was screened at the London and Toronto Film Festivals, received critical acclaim, and earned just under $76 million worldwide.
McQueen also scripted, directed, and produced the five-part anthology series Small Axe, which was filmed in 2019. The films, which began debuting weekly in November 2020, tell stories in the West Indian community of London in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The series debuted on BBC One and Amazon Prime Video. This project allowed him to bring several long-planned short works to fruition. He was awarded the Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in 2020.
McQueen’s career went on to include the 2021 documentary series Uprising and the 2023 four-hour documentary Occupied City. The latter juxtaposes modern sites in Amsterdam with narration about what happened at these locations during the Nazi occupation. His next film was Blitz, a movie about people in Britain during World War II. The movie, which stars Saoirse Ronan, was screened in 2024.
McQueen continued to follow an artistic muse beyond the walls of theater. He created a new project for the Dia Art Foundation that opened in its museum in Beacon, New York, in May 2024. Titled Bass and occupying the basement, as McQueen requested, it included sixty rectangular light boxes cycling through the light spectrum among the pillars of the basement. Speaker stacks played improvisational bass music recorded by five musicians. He said he was inspired both by light—including the physics and perceptions of light and color—and by African diaspora history, notably the bleak, dark Middle Passage.
Impact
McQueen likes to take his time making films and is a sought-after director for actors and others in the industry. With his first three feature films, he garnered numerous accolades from critics and award associations. His short films and artwork have been exhibited around the globe. In a relatively short amount of time, he has proven himself a crossover talent who successfully transitioned from the art world to the film industry.
Personal Life
McQueen and his wife, Dutch historian and journalist Bianca Stigter, have two children.
Bibliography
Galloway, Stephen. "Steve McQueen Returns: 'I Never Thought I Was Anything Other Than Brilliant.'" The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Oct. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/steve-mcqueen-tackling-social-injustice-widows-1152651. Accessed 13 Nov. 2019.
Horn, John. "12 Years a Slave Has Meant Sacrifice and Rewards for Director Steve McQueen." Los Angeles Times. Tribune Company, 21 Feb. 2014. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
Kino, Carol. "Intense Seeker of Powerful Elegance." New York Times. New York Times, 28 Jan. 2010. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
Mitter, Siddhartha. "Steve McQueen, on a Different Wavelength." The New York Times, 10 May 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/05/10/arts/design/steve-mcqueen-filmmaker-art-dia-beacon-bass.html. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
Palmer, Alun. "Steve McQueen: Struggle to Succeed of Golden Globe Winner Tipped to Be Britain’s Most Successful Movie Director." Mirror. MGN, 15 Jan. 2014. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
Sooke, Alastair. "Venice Biennale: Steve McQueen Interview." Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 29 May 2009. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
"Steve McQueen (III)." IMDb, 2024, www.imdb.com/name/nm2588606/. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
Weiner, Jonah. "The Liberation of Steve McQueen." Rolling Stone, March 2014: 44–47. Print.