Short Film Program
The Dream Machine Derek Jarman, Michael Kostiff, John Maybury, Cerith Wyn Evans, GB 1986; Cinematography: Tim Burke. 16mm, color, 35 minImagining October Derek Jarman, GB 1984, 16mm, color and bw, 27 min
The Queen is Dead: Three Songs by The Smiths Derek Jarman, GB 1986, 35mm, color and bw, 13 min
Broken English: Three Songs by Marianne Faithfull Derek Jarman, GB 1979, DCP (from Super 8), color and bw, 15 min
Jarman's music‑video work brought in much‑needed cash and allowed him to dabble with emerging technologies. Sometimes the results were song suites, individual shorts which formed a coherent whole: his stylish, politically charged triptych accompanying tracks by the iconic Marianne Faithfull; his trio of videos for The Smiths which were much more widely seen than his features, and endure as rough‑edged masterpieces of the form. His contribution to anthology project The Dream Machine rejigs his 1976–77 short Art and the Pose by refilming it at 3 fps and adding music. Imagining October records a trip behind the Iron Curtain – from the Eisenstein Museum in Moscow to fire temples in Azerbaijan – reflecting on politics and conflict in a frosty epoch of the Cold War. The latter's acclaimed score is by Jarman's friend and regular collaborator Genesis P‑Orridge, working with Dave Ball of Soft Cell fame. (N.Y.)