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Derek Jarman: Super 8
The British filmmaker, set designer, painter and author Derek Jarman is well-known to a wide audience, but his earliest films, made in Super-8, are only recently beginning to be retrieved. Made in the early 70s, and already proposing key Jarman themes of sexuality and Englishness, these diaristic shorts predate his first feature Sebastiane (1976) and are reproduced here as stills.
124 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2010
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January 29, 2026
This lovely little book is the catalog for Jarman's show at the Julia Stoschek Foundation in Dusseldorf. There are beautiful reproductions of stills from Jarman's films, an extended essay by Jon Savage, and a 1985 interview with Jarman from Afterimage magazine.
The interview is particularly interesting, especially in light of the savage attack on non-mainstream communities and the arts in the last year. Jarman's comments were (as usual) thoughtful and cogent, though what might be possible today with widespread control and surveillance technologies might be very different.
Some of the discussions in the interview on gay and avant-garde film, were also quite interesting. For example, there was no mention of Gregory Markopoulos; it was probably much harder to see Markopoulos' films in 1985 in Europe. Jarman also described Taxi Zum Klo as "so anguished"! While it's not a feel-good movie in the traditional sense, I would bet that more than half the gay men who saw it in the 80s looked seriously into moving to Berlin, where the movie was set.
Nevertheless, an essential item for the Jarman fan's home library.
The interview is particularly interesting, especially in light of the savage attack on non-mainstream communities and the arts in the last year. Jarman's comments were (as usual) thoughtful and cogent, though what might be possible today with widespread control and surveillance technologies might be very different.
Some of the discussions in the interview on gay and avant-garde film, were also quite interesting. For example, there was no mention of Gregory Markopoulos; it was probably much harder to see Markopoulos' films in 1985 in Europe. Jarman also described Taxi Zum Klo as "so anguished"! While it's not a feel-good movie in the traditional sense, I would bet that more than half the gay men who saw it in the 80s looked seriously into moving to Berlin, where the movie was set.
Nevertheless, an essential item for the Jarman fan's home library.
Displaying 1 of 1 review