“My shows are about Sex, Drugs and Rock n’ Roll. It’s for the excitement and the goosebumps. I want heart attacks. I want ambulances.” (Alexander McQueen)
‘Lee’ Alexander McQueen’s rags-to-riches story is a modern-day fairy tale laced with the gothic. An unremarkable working-class boy from East London, he harnessed his demons and went on to become a global one man fashion brand and one of the most iconic artists of the century. How did this punk rebel overturn the silver-spoon world of Paris haute couture, ushering in the heady, revolutionary era of ‘Cool Britannia’? And why, at the height of acclaim and power, did he shockingly put an end to it all?
Mirroring the savage beauty, boldness and vivacity of his design, this film is an intimate revelation of McQueen’s own world, both tortured and inspired, which celebrates a radical and mesmerising genius of profound influence.
Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2018 - Spotlight Documentary - World premiere
The Tate Gallery recently staged a retrospective of the surrealist Leonora Carrington (1917- 2011), famously the lover of Max Ernst. Novelist Chloe Aridjis, who knew the artist from her native Mexico, was made guest curator of the exhibition. Set between the real-life curation of the Tate show and something more fantasised, FEMALE HUMAN ANIMAL sees Chloe increasingly disappointed by her milieu - and increasingly haunted by Carrington’s strange artworks.
When an elusive, brooding man seems to offer more, Chloe begins to pursue him, but is she hunter, or hunted? Enabled by Carrington’s own defiantly mysterious mythology, she descends into a world of obsession.
Shot on a rare '80s video camera with a unique look, and deftly weaving fact and fiction, the film offers a darkly romantic fantasia of a woman who goes beyond societal norms, putting on screen the lurid unconscious of our new sexual politics.
Official Selection BAFICI Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival 2018 - World premiere
Anemio is a non-binary Nigerian teenager, unable to express their gender identity to their conservative family. The only place they feel at peace is the local marine aquatics shop they work in, comforted by the formless and hermaphroditic marine life. So when social pressures escalate, they transform into an anemone.
Essex boy Jim is so beautiful you’d think a Greek sculpture had just come to life. But, with no future in the cultural desert that is his small town and the prospect of fame, fortune and cultural stimulation beckoning in Soho, like many before him, Jim journeys to London.
On his first night, Jim is robbed and left penniless. He spends the night in an intricately made DIY cardboard box home with a homeless kid who suggests he join ‘The Raconteurs’ – a coterie of male escorts whose unique selling point is their encyclopedic knowledge of the arts.
What follows is Jim’s comic descent from unsuccessful escort, to artist’s muse and art authenticator – a journey complicated by a rare psychosomatic condition called ‘Stendhal Syndrome’ which renders him painfully oversensitive to art. Jim’s encounters with paintings by artists such as Caravaggio cause fainting and hallucinations. But while this condition threatens to bring about his downfall it might also open up new opportunities if Jim is willing to grab them.
Official Selection BFI Flare London LGBTQ+ Film Festival 2018 - World premiere
Jason Barker’s debut feature documentary A DEAL WITH THE UNIVERSE is a very personal chronicle of becoming a parent. Drawing on the filmed diaries made over the last ten years that document both Jason’s transgender journey as well has his parental journey. This film is groundbreaking in terms of it’s intimate insights into gender identity and new parenthood.
A short documentary about the only helpline in the UK for gay farmers. Through a series of recorded telephone conversations and reconstructive visuals, the film uses the helpline as a lens through which to view the experiences of LGBTQ people in the British farming community. In a world that prizes traditional masculinity and in which ideas of ancestry are fundamental, being gay can be isolating. Candid, intimate and shocking, the film offers a snapshot of a group of people bound together by circumstance, but so often disconnected from each other.
Official Selection CPH:DOX 2018 - International premiere
It's nearly time for the county pig fete, but an old farmer is having trouble with his piglet... British comedy with Sir Ian McKellen, David Bradley, Mark Bonnar and Rebecca Front.
Haunted by the death of her classmate, Martha returns, ten years on, to their old meeting place. But as the memories of their relationship come flooding back, she must confront the tragic mystery that put an end to it.
A searing documentary of a lost cultural icon. A story of art, sport, sexuality, and rebellion.
Watch any figure skating and it falls into two camps: before and after John Curry. From what was a macho, technical sport whose judges punished deviation, blossomed – through John Curry’s stubborn beauty – ice-dancing.
After winning gold at the Winter Olympics for a rebelliously balletic routine, audiences and reviewers alike were enthralled by his genius. But Curry’s story is about more than skating. On the night of the final, Curry became the first openly gay Olympian at a time when homosexuality was barely legal. From bullying and prejudice, to relief in the gay underworld, to his untimely death from AIDS, Curry’s story dovetails with the experiences of a generation.
This is the story of a man whose body was a battleground. From love affairs, to violence in sex clubs, to its ‘unmanly’ elegance on the ice, every act was rebellion. John Curry was no activist, but an artist expressing his authentic self – yet in a world where his existence was taboo, his life was unavoidably political.
Official Selection CPH:DOX 2018 - International premiere
When 38-year-old Amy suffers a bang to the head, she wakes up thinking that she is 16 and the year is 1999. She now is forced to face her life 'in the future' and confront what happened in her past.
Essentially, this is a film about the generation of the late millennials. It is a bold exploration of common issues among this age group. The themes examined include that of depression and anxiety, drug abuse, addiction to social media and sex obsession. A little funny, and a little sad.
“How can you be criminalised for being born the way you are?” asks George Montague, a 96 year old WWII veteran, beginning this documentary. His words echo through the film.
“ARE YOU PROUD?” meets key campaigners and investigates the organisations and events that have contributed to substantial progress within the western LGBTQ+ liberation movement, focussing on the history of Pride in the UK. It celebrates that progress, whilst exploring the controversial questions over the continuing relevance of the Pride march, and highlights the international battles still to be fought.
Combining archive footage, interviews, vox pops and reportage, the film guides us through the history of the Gay Pride movement in the UK. We meet founders of the Gay Liberation Front, founding members of Stonewall (The UK’s leading LGBTQ+ lobbying organisation), the organisers of various Pride marches across the UK, groups such as Black Pride, Trans Pride Brighton and Queer Picnic. The film celebrates the progress that has been made, we are also reminded of “the fact that there are an increasing number of people out there who feel emboldened in hating queers.”
