LIFT Co-Presentation at Inside Out: DEREK – May 2008
Inside Out Toronto Lesbian And Gay Film And Video Festival Presents
DEREK – Co-Presented with LIFT (Isaac Julien, 2008, England) Toronto Premiere
Inside Out Toronto Lesbian And Gay Film And Video Festival Presents
DEREK – Co-Presented with LIFT (Isaac Julien, 2008, England) Toronto Premiere
At the core of this documentary portrait of Derek Jarman, directed by fellow British artist Isaac Julien, are a letter and an interview. In voice-over, Jarman’s close friend and collaborator, Tilda Swinton, reads her haunting 2002 text, “Letter to an Angel.” (Jarman, one of Britain’s best-loved and most original visionaries, had by this time been dead for eight years.) The interview, shot in 1991 but previously unseen, features Jarman standing in the shadow of his impending death. Diagnosed with AIDS in 1986, he is still upbeat and defiant, but, no longer fit for the rigours of film, he goes back to his first love, painting. The letter and interview are intricately interwoven with rarely-seen home-movie footage of Jarman and his family; archival material; excerpts from Jarman‘s feature films; pop promos; Super8 work; new footage of Tilda Swinton in Dungeness (home of Jarman’s legendary garden) and London, and footage of the director exploring the Jarman archive. Via these three strands we meet Derek the Renaissance man: artist, painter, writer, gay activist, gardener and, most important, filmmaker, whose career includes such masterworks as Sebastiane, Jubilee, Caravaggio, Edward II and Blue. Jarman couldn‘t help but react to the society in which he was living, and this film honours the man and a vision that not only transformed England but changed the entire world.
Screens with:
BERLIN HAIR TODAY (Ole Bendtzen, 2008, Germany)
“Berlin Hair Today” explores Berliners’ bizarre hair, guided by a flamboyant homosexual hairdresser driving in a mobile haircutting unit.
For more information about tickets please visit: www.insideout.ca
Friday 23 May 2008 –
Non-members: Free
Members: Free
Location:
Isabel Bader Theatre
93 Charles Street West
Toronto Canada