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James Mackay played a key role in shaping the British avant-garde cinema scene. In the late 1970s and early 1980s he played a crucial role as program director of the London Filmmakers' Coop and curated film programs at prestigious festivals such as the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Berlinale. Mackay's collaborations with Derek Jarman in the 1980s and early 1990s resulted in iconic films such as Imagining October, Angelic Conversation, The Last of England, The Garden and Blue. He has also produced films by Ron Peck, John Maybury and Nina Danino as well as music videos for well-known artists such as The Smiths, Bob Geldof and the Pet Shop Boys. Since 2000, Mackay has focused on curating moving image works for galleries and festivals, including the Microcinema series at the Cambridge Film Festival. He is a member of the Prospect Cottage Residencies Panel and an advisor to the Luma Foundation.
The evening promises to be a tribute to Derek Jarman's artistic legacy and features rare insights from James Mackay himself

DUNGENESS
GB 2021 | Basilisk Communications | short film | 15 min | English OV

Derek Jarman's garden around his "Prospect Cottage", an old fisherman's cottage that he renovated and filled with art on the English coast.

Derek Jarman works in his garden in Dungeness. He is surrounded by a barren coastal landscape, with a huge nuclear power station in the background. Images of flowers, gravel, the sea and the sky. Episodes of a Passion story follow: a pair of lovers, two men, are arrested. The Twelve Apostles appear as old women sitting at a table and playing glass music. A Madonna is harassed by masked paparazzi, Judas advertises for credit cards. An angry, sorrowful and at the same time dazzling production about homophobia and the radically conservative politics of church and state.