Ross Devenish

Agent:  Julian Friedmann

Biography: Ross directed the eight-part adaptation of BLEAK HOUSE which won three BAFTAs.  NOW THAT THE BUFFALO'S GONE won a Blue Riband Award.  He was one of the two directors engaged on GOAL! about the World Cup Competition being held in England in 1966.  GOAL! received the Robert Flaherty Award from BAFTA. Now writing as well, he has written an adaptation of Zakes Mda's WAYS OF LIVING as a modest budget South African film.

Ross Devenish studied film-making in London.  He started his career with documentaries, filming behind the Royalist lines in the Civil War in the Yemen, secretly entering and filming the mercenaries trapped in the besieged town of Bukava in the Congo after a failed coup, and the next year filming in Vietnam during the 1968 Tet Offensive.  He then spent the best part of a year in the United States making a film about the native Americans, called NOW THAT THE BUFFALO'S GONE.

Deciding to concentrate on his interest in drama, he began working with the dramatist Athol Fugard.  He directed three films with scripts by Fugard, including THE GUEST and MARIGOLDS IN AUGUST, in his native South Africa.  THE GUEST won a Bronze Leopard at Locarno and MARIGOLDS IN AUGUST a Silver Bear in Berlin. He now lives in Cape Town.