The London Story

Charlotte Sally Potter is an English film director and screenwriter. She grew up in North London. Her mother was a music teacher and her father was an interior designer and a poet. When asked about her ideological background, which influenced her work as a filmmaker, she responds, "I came from an... atheist background and an anarchist background, which meant that I grew up in an environment that was full of questions, where nothing could be taken for granted." Potter began making amateur films, at age 14, with an 8mm camera that was given to her by an uncle. She eventually dropped out of school, at age 16, to pursue filmmaking. From 1968-1970 she worked as a kitchen worker and a picture researcher for BBC in order to support herself and her work, after joining the London Film-Makers' Co-op, where she began making experimental short films, including Jerk and Play . She later trained as a dancer and choreographer at the London School of Contemporary Dance, making both film and dance pieces, including Combines , before founding Limited Dance Company with Jacky Lansley.
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