Derek

[MichaelB]

Full specs announced:

Derek
A film by Isaac Julien
Written and narrated by Tilda Swinton

Painter, author, gay militant, aids activist and, above all, filmmaker, Derek Jarman was one of Britain’s best-loved and most original artists who touched the lives of everyone he met. Derek is a glorious, yet fitting, remembrance of one of independent film’s greatest treasures.

Derek was lovingly crafted by artist filmmaker Isaac Julien, who assembled a moving collage of rare home movies, film clips and interviews, as well as a cinematic love letter from Academy Award® winner Tilda Swinton written a decade after Jarman’s death.

The film tells the story of Jarman’s life and chronicles everyday England from the 1960s to the early 1990s. It also includes clips of Jarman’s feature-length and Super-8 films. Swinton’s letter serves as the poetic overlay, telling the truth about the life Jarman led and the cultural abyss left by his absence.

Derek has won the following international awards: Grand Jury Prize, Documentary Competition, Seattle International Film Festival; Best Documentary, Milan International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival and Special Teddy, Berlin International Film Festival

Special features
• Filmed introduction by Producer Colin MacCabe (2008, 5 mins)
• The Extended Derek Jarman interview (1991, 69 mins)
• New filmed interview with Isaac Julien (2008, 20 mins)
• Three Super-8mm short films by Derek Jarman: Pirate Tape (W.S. Burroughs Film) (1982,16 mins); TG: Psychic Rally in Heaven (1981, 8 mins); Sloane Square: A Room of One’s Own (1974-6, 9 mins)
• The Attendant (Isaac Julien, 1993, 8 mins)
• The Clearing (Alexis Bistikas, 1994, 7 mins)
• Ostia (Julian Cole, 1987, 26 mins): short film about Pasolini starring Jarman, with optional director’s commentary
• Derek Jarman paintings gallery
• Illustrated booklet with essays by Isaac Julien and B. Ruby Rich; Ossian Ward on Jarman’s paintings; film notes and biographies

Release date: 30 March 2009
RRP: £19.99 / cat. no. BFIVD797 / cert 18
UK / 2008 / colour / 76 mins + 170 mins extra material / original aspect ratio 1.78:1 (16x9)
Optional subtitles for the hearing-impaired

[Tommaso]

Wow! That looks marvellous, and the inclusion of "Ostia" might be appreciated by those who bought the CC "Salo" instead of the BFI. The Burroughs/TG Jarman shorts are not among his most significant (and are also available on the Raro discs), but "Sloane Square" is unreleased, if I'm not mistaken. However, is there any reason why "Imagining October" is still not out anywhere? Rights issues?

[zedz]

A very impressive package, and the film itself is really lovely. Julien manages to evoke and celebrate Jarman without losing his own directorial personality. Considering how dense, diverse and ferociously well-documented Jarman's life was, Julien's condensation of it into this cool, calm and collected form is very impressive.

The Jarman / MacCabe interview that animates the film is a corker, so it'll be great to see the whole thing.