Sally Potter left school at 16 to become a filmmaker, joining the London Filmmakers Cooperative before studying dance and choreography at The Place. She then formed ‘Limited Dance Company’ with Jacky Lansley.
In 1978 Sally toured Europe in FIG, an all-female improvising band formed by Lindsay Cooper and Maggie Nicols. She wrote the lyrics for music composed by Cooper for the ‘Film Music Orchestra’, whose members included Phil Minton, Irene Schweizer and Hugh Hopper, and ‘Oh Moscow’, a song cycle about the Cold War, performed on both sides of the Berlin wall.
Following the critical success of her short film “Thriller”, Sally has written and directed nine feature films, working with actors including Tilda Swinton, Julie Christie, Cate Blanchett, Johnny Depp, Riz Ahmed, Judi Dench, Cillian Murphy, Javier Bardem and Elle Fanning, and winning over 40 international awards.
Sally co-wrote the score for “Orlando” with David Motion (released by Varese Sarabande), curated and collaborated on tracks for “Yes” (released by Deutsche Grammaphon), “The Tango Lesson” (released by Sony Classical) and composed the score for “The Roads Not Taken” (released by Milan / Sony Masterworks).
In 2023 she released PINK BIKINI, her first album as a singer/songwriter continuing her collaborations with Fred Frith, Matthew Barley, Viktoria Mullova and Misha Mullov-Abbado among others.
ANATOMY, her second album as singer/songwriter, is co-produced and mixed by Marta Salogni and released by Bella Union.
LISTEN HERE TO A SELECTION OF SALLY POTTER’S MUSIC FOR FILM
