The 14th edition of the queer film festival Ecrans Mixtes in Lyon will showcase some of the best of British cinema and include a tribute to Derek Jarman’s work through a screening of five of his films at cinemas around the Lyon metropolitan area, and a talk on his work, to highlight the long-lasting legacy of a leading figure of the UK underground cinema.
Until his death from AIDS at the age of 52, Derek Jarman developed a body of work where a rich aesthetic vied with a radical vision of English society. He was not only a filmmaker but also a painter, decorator, poet, music video maker for The Smiths, the Pet Shop Boys, Marianne Faithfull, and many others. The Ecrans Mixtes film festival commemorates one of the most celebrated and inventive queer artists of the second half of the 20th century, 30 years on from his death. His body of work, surprising, political, explosive, sexual, poetic, and beautiful, aligns political messaging defending a number of causes with a commitment to finding new aesthetic and narrative means to tell a story.
The programme will include:
- Sebastiane – 1976. This screening will be preceded by the opportunity to listen to France Culture's French podcast: Derek Jarman, Queer Filmmaker (1942 - 1994) by Didier Roth-Bettoni, journalist and historian specialising in queer film.
- Jubilee – 1977
- Caravaggio – 1986
- The Last of England – 1987
- Edward II – 1991. This screening will be preceded by a talk led by Didier Roth-Bettoni.
The festival will also screen a major queer classic, Pride (2014), Matthew Warchus' feel good political film.
The British Council is supporting Ecrans Mixtes festival's Derek Jarman retrospective and screening of Pride.
