Andy Dougan

Andy joined the Academy in 2003 after a long career as an award-winning journalist and broadcaster. He is responsible for the Critical and Contextual Studies strands of the DFTV course as well as contributing to the Factual Film Making strands. After some thirty years reviewing and writing about films he encourages students to bring that same critical perspective to what they watch and what they make. Only by being genuinely reflective and analytical about their own work can they improve and move on as practitioners.

Andy was born in Glasgow and educated at St Mungo’s Academy and then Glasgow University. He began his career as a journalist in 1976 working for the Glasgow Evening Times, The Herald, BAFTA, and many other leading publications in the UK and overseas. He is the author of a dozen books including works on Richard Attenborough, Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, and Martin Scorsese.

With a self confessed weakness for westerns his philosophy of teaching film is based on exposing those who believe that cinema starts with Peter Jackson to the film makers who inspired Jackson and his contemporaries. He sets great store by Orson Welles’ comment on being asked how he had prepared for Citizen Kane. ‘I studied the masters,’ Welles replied, ‘and by that I mean John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford.’ If it was good enough for Orson Welles it will do no harm to DFTV students.