Out Spotlight XXXIV

Truly distinctive, original and even idiosyncratic talents in British film Derek Jarman was not only a pioneer in queer cinema, he is considered the founding father of what came to be known as the New Queer Cinema, a loose grouping of filmmakers — among them Todd Hayne “Poison", Tom Kalin "Swoon”, and Isacc Julien, “Looking for Langston” — who emerged in the late ’80s. A new documentary by Julien screened this past Sundance Film Festival is a tribute the life and work of Jarman.

Derek Jarman born in England in 1960, Jarman trained as a painter before turning to movie making, amassing a reputation as one of Britain's most controversial filmmakers. He appreciated the communal approach to filmaking. Tilda Swinton, who worked with Jarman, and is executive producer of the documentary said, “I think he made films primarily for the company,” “Working with him was to work alongside him.”

Jarman saw himself as a queer artist following in the footsteps of Jean Cocteau and Pier Paolo Pasolini, and like his forebears, was an inveterate polymath - a notable painter, set-designer, writer, gardener and political activist - who nevertheless remains best remembered for his films.

He made his debut in "overground" narrative filmmaking with the groundbreaking Sebastiane (1976), arguably the first British film to feature positive images of gay sexuality, and the first film entirely in Latin. The story of life the life of Saint Sebastian. He followed up with his second film, Jubilee (1978), like its predecessor, was a success de scandal. Commonly credited as “Britain's first official punk movie”, it was also Jarman's first “Renaissance” film. It begins with the mystic John Dee summoning an angel to show Queen Elizabeth I the England of her namesake, Elizabeth II, which has been reduced to a near apocalyptic state of anarchy. However, there is little actual interaction between the past and present in the film, and the Renaissance sequences provide a framing device which serves to juxtapose this “golden age” with the decaying state of modern Britain. Including The Tempest, Caravaggio, Waiting for Waiting for Godot, The Angelic Conversation, and Edward II. His film War Requiem was brought Sir Laurence Olivier out of retirement and it was the last film appearance by the film legend. In public and in films like “The Last of England”(1988), he railed against what he saw as the ruinous greed and soullessness of Britain in the ’80s. His last work was Blue At the time when he made the film Blue, he was blind and dying of AIDS-related complications. Blue consists of a single shot of saturated blue colour filling the screen, as background to a soundtrack composed by Simon Fisher Turner featuring original music by Coil and other artists, where Jarman describes his life and vision. When it was shown on British television, Channel 4 carried the image whilst the soundtrack was broadcast simultaneously on BBC Radio 3, a collaborative project unique for its time.

His final testament as a film-maker was the film Glitterbug made for the Arena slot on BBC Two, and broadcast shortly after Jarman's death. Compiled and edited from many hours of super 8 footage shot with friends and companions throughout his career it is a moving collage of memories, people and moments lost in time, accompanied by a specially commissioned soundtrack from Brian Eno.

On December 22, he was diagnosed HIV positive, and was notable for later discussing his condition in public. He passed away in 1994 from complications of AIDS.

While his work is as not as well known in the United State, much have his work has been seen by millions in the music videos he did for such performers as the Sex Pistols, Annie Lennox, Marianne Faithful, Pet Shop Boys, The Smiths, Brian Ferry and even Wang Chung.


These names: gay, queer, homosexual are limiting. I would love to finish with them. We're going to have to decide which terms to use and where we use them. For me to use the word ''queer'' is a liberation; it was a word that frightened me, but no longer.

“All men are homosexual, some turn straight. It must be very odd to be a straight man because your sexuality is hopelessly defensive. It's like an ideal of racial purity.”

Annie Lennox tribute to Jarman for the Red Hot & Blue, AIDS fundraising album. It includes home movies shot by Jarman's father. Lennox also sang this in his movie Edward II.