Thursday 1 December 2011

Prof David Sanjek (1952-2011)

Many of you will have heard the terrible news that our dear friend and esteemed colleague Prof Dave Sanjek passed away a few days ago on the journey back from New York to Manchester, where he was engaged in expert committee work for the Library of Congress.



(Dave hosting the Tony Palmer masterclass in 2010)

This was so unexpected - in the last fews week he was about town, as usual, for films (The Black Power Mix Tape, which he found incredibly moving since the times and places were his own), for live music (The Fall, where he was more enthused by the rhythm section than the singer), for theatre (One Man, Two Guvnors, on which he and I agreed to differ!), for food (we were gradually winning him around to Zouk, but he held fast to Red Chilli too) and for general conversation (I picked his brains Friday gone on the subject of 1970s late night New York cable television screenings of horror films for a piece I was writing - he was, as always, encyclopedic and with an enthusiasm that swept you along as well). As you'll see from the picture further down this blog, he was hosting a Graduate Programme talk only a couple of weeks ago.

Recently completed chapters concerned Captain Beefheart, the Medicine Ball Caravan and Wildman Fisher, and recent conferences he convened included Sights and Sounds: Interrogating the Music Documentary, a Northern Soul event, and a symposium on music and copyright.

Dave's passing is a great loss to us and to the wider community, and to anyone who has ever enjoyed his company, his writing, his teaching, and his friendship.

--- Benjamin Halligan  



Facebook Memorial page here

Some of Dave's recent writing, on the films Johnny Guitar
and My Man Godfrey for Senses of Cinema.


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