Derek Sunday June 29 [ 4:30 pm [ Castro $7 mem bers I $8 general I DERE29C
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It's only fitting that Isaac Julien and Tilda Swinton wou ld collaborate on a docu menta ry about pioneering queer fi lmmaker Derek Jarman -Swi nton as his great friend and frequent leading lady and Jul ien as a gay Brit who, like Jarman, started out in the world of fine arts and later made films. Both contributors eschew the predictable route of the biographical documentary, creating an iconoclastic tribute to this boundary-breaking di rector. Rather than sim ply discuss what it was like to work with him, Swinton (who also produced Derek) reads a letter in voiceover, highlighting his talents and mourning the state of today 's filmmaking. Julien uses her remarks as punctuation to a linear chronology of Jarman's life na rrated by the man hi mself, primarily from a lengthy 1990 interview and clips from his films. Jarman recalls pivotal cinematic experiences-including The Wizard of Oz, La Dolce Vita and Scorpio Rising and reminisces about his school days, his parents' marriage, first sexual experiences and the various people he met at the Slade art school (including David Hockney) . Brief discussions of his own work ensue, accentuated by clips from Sebastiane, The Tempest, Caravaggio and others, culminati ng with his last film, Blue, made as he was dyi ng of AI DS. The result is a loving, concise documentary that stands not only as an edifying elegy and tribute to Jarman and his work, but also a cri de coeur for a time when queer cinema insisted on being defiantly outside of the mai nstream. - ROD ARMSTRONG -
DEREK d i r Isaac Julien 2008 UK 76 min
24
SAN F R A N C I SCO I N TE R N AT I O N A L LGBT F I L M ďż˝ E S T I VAL