Derek Jerman

"Negative World Status"

"No Reason For Existence"

"Obsolete" - Quotes from film Jubilee (1977) by Derek Jerman

Political issues affecting 80's

Derek Jerman - was one of the most outspoken and ahead of his time gay rights activist. He was open gay public figure, which was quite rare back then. Moreover, he was multitalented English artist, film director, author and gardener.
His Jubilee movie was one of the first punk movies ever made (Wikipedia) and it is reflecting what society was coming to and had become. I did not get the chance to watch an entire movie, but I watched parts of it.
He featured groups like Adam and Ant, Toyah Willcox, Jordan, Wayne County, and The Electric Chairs.

Here I attach just a piece I found on YouTube. This is his grounbreaking movie called Sebastiane (1976) movie. It is considered to be one of the first positive movies with gay theme:

In one of his interviews he said that, Politics and Parliament didn't want to see his as part of British future.

There another movie called Caravaggio, is quite pessimistic with the hints on modern (at the time) Great Britain. As he described it "Britain is a pessimistic place except in the magazines and newspapers".

War Requiem is an anti war film and is one of the most difficult ones, as he describes. The idea behind was to make a war where there was no enemies, and as if the actual was was accidental. The theme of this film is "humanity". He portraying ordinary people, no matter which nationality etc. No bad characters an no labels e.g. Germans are bad, enemies. Here is one of his interviews, which is backed up with some short pieces of his work. It takes time to start:

Derek Jerman also directed the 1989 tour by Pet Shop Boys: