 
Sebastiane / 1976
a homoerotic homage to
the legend of the Christian martyr
Jubilee / 1977
a blatantly anti-establishment
post-punk vision of England
The Tempest / 1979
an unconventional adaptation of
the Shakespearean classic
The Angelic Conversation / 1985
a celebration of homosexual love
and the beauty of youth
Caravaggio / 1986
a remarkably bold account of
the life of Michelangelo da Caravaggio
The Last of England / 1987
an uncompromising indictment
of life in Thatcherite Britain
War Requiem / 1989
a cinematic interpretation of Benjamin
Britten's musical interpretation of the
war poetry of Wilfred Owen
The Garden / 1990
a vision of the two-edged sword that
is religion and homosexuality
Edward II / 1991
a radical rendering of the life and
death of the homosexual English king
Wittgenstein / 1993
a strikingly visual account of the life
of the celebrated philosopher
Blue / 1993
a profound statement on
the AIDS epidemic
See also
In the Shadow of the Sun | Glitterbug
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Derek Jarman
1942 - 1994
the father of New Queer Cinema |
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Why a tribute to Derek Jarman? Well simply because Derek Jarman was one of the most distinguished
independent filmmakers of our time. Yet he was more than that. For he was also a renowned
author, painter, poet, gardener and tireless gay rights campaigner, whose personal and
political views of life gave rise to groundbreaking cinematic imagery.
Yet therein lies the irony, given Jarman drifted into the celluloid medium in which he became
famous for, courtesy of his art / theatre design background having secured him work
as a set designer on Ken Russell's THE DEVILS / 1971 and SAVAGE MESSIAH / 1972.
From here, there was no turning back, given Super-8 was already providing him with the ideal
format by which to experiment with the art of filmmaking itself. By 1976, Jarman had completed
his first feature film SEBASTIANE, an unashamedly homoerotic homage to the legend of the
Christian martyr and a work that in no uncertain terms spoke, albeit in Latin with
English subtitles, of homosexual love and moreover the acts associated therewith.
A year later, his blatantly anti-establishment post-punk vision of England was playing the
JUBILEE cinema circuit, followed in 1979 by his unconventional adaptation of Shakespeare's THE
TEMPEST. Yet each release was the product of endless battles to secure funding, namely the
very obstacle that contributed to a seven-year delay in bringing his remarkably bold
account of the life of Michelangelo da CARAVAGGIO / 1986, to the screen.
By this time however, Jarman had not surprisingly developed a growing unease with the traditional
film narrative, having returned to the Super-8 medium. Then again, he had never really been away
from it, given that with the most minimal of capital, let alone cast and crew, he could shoot
whatever and whenever he liked and incorporate the results into any given conceptual idea,
including such works as THE ANGELIC CONVERSATION / 1985 and THE LAST OF ENGLAND / 1987.
Only by now, many had more pressing concerns on their minds, given the onset of AIDS had
seen so many brave souls, like Jarman himself, come face to face with the reality of
being HIV positive. Rather than hide in the shadows however, Jarman came out fighting,
bravely confronting his battle with AIDS which devoid of the advances in the drug
treatments of today, was a fight he knew he could not win.
Between then and his death on the 19th February 1994 aged fifty-two, Jarman threw himself into
his work and if anything was on an artistic high, directing works as varied as WAR REQUIEM / 1989,
THE GARDEN / 1990, EDWARD II / 1991, WITTGENSTEIN / 1993 and in the same year his 35mm swan
song BLUE, an AIDS related work that in his own words, made for "a jolly good signing off film."
And that in a nutshell is the core reason as to why Derek Jarman remains highly respected and
greatly missed. For in the years that have followed his death, I can think of no other British
director who has had the sheer cinematic balls to relentlessly mix the gay narrative with a
highly focused political agenda. Consequently his legacy of films remain a vivid reminder
of that fact and of the creative genius of a man who died well before his time.
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