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. The documentary portrait Derek, written and narrated by his close friend and muse Tilda Swinton, is a 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 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. The film will be released on UK DVD by the BFI on 30th March 2009 at the RRP of £19.99. Presented in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio with optional subtitles for the hard of hearing, the disc will have the following 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.
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