Film Series
Queer Pagan Punk: The Films of Derek Jarman
Following a retrospective at the BFI this spring, BAMcinématek presents the work of iconoclastic British filmmaker and crusading gay rights activist Derek Jarman, who not only redefined queer cinema, but reimagined moviemaking as a means for limitless personal expression. Marrying sound and image in radical new ways, his poetic, passionate, and visually ravishing films are visionary works of art that, 20 years after his death, are still being unraveled.

Derek Jarman’s nihilistic vision of post-punk apocalyptic ultra-violence in 1970s England.

A French convent is overcome with sexual frenzy in this ultra-controversial shocker.

Jarman offers an audacious punk rock take on the Bard’s tale of magic and revenge.

Derek Jarman’s daringly original take on Christopher Marlowe’s stage play.

This shorts program brings together portraits of William S. Burroughs and Jarman himself.

Jarman explores occult rituals and Soviet Russia in these trancey shorts.
Jarman’s voluptuously romantic essay film is a ravishing feast for the senses.

Jarman’s face-melting cinematic collage is a snarling punk doomsday message for Britain.

Jarman’s feverish imagery is set to Benjamin Britten’s devastating War Requiem.

Made as he was dying, Jarman’s heart-wrenching final film is an elegiac farewell to life.

Jarman’s radical queer-punk aesthetic is on display in this program of music videos.

Jarman’s biography of Caravaggio is an evocative portrait of Rome’s dark underbelly.

Jarman transforms the saga of Saint Sebastian into an erotic paean to the male nude.

Derek Jarman crafts an idiosyncratic look at the life of the groundbreaking philosopher.

Godard, Altman, and Jarman all contributed to this operatic omnibus film.

Jarman channeled his anguish over AIDS into this scorching visual essay.