Queer Edward II, the first feature as director for Theo Rollason, takes viewers onto the set of Derek Jarman's 1991 film Edward II, The Hollywood Reporter said in its coverage. The documentary world-premiered at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival and is now playing at the 70th BFI London Film Festival, which begins Oct. 11.
It is a Lightborn Films production in association with March 13th and John Gore Studios. After Hours and Cinephil are handling sales.
Footage Left Unseen for Decades
The material at the film's core was shot by Seamus McGarvey, whom Jarman invited to film behind the scenes. McGarvey later became known for work on Atonement, The Hours, Nocturnal Animals and The Greatest Showman. The roughly 30 hours he captured stayed unseen for decades, until Rollason was asked to look through the tapes.
According to THR, the result includes appearances by Tilda Swinton and costume designer Sandy Powell, plus a set visited by a pack of beagles and drag nuns on a smoke break. It also covers a run-in between queer rights activists and Cliff Richard, who was rehearsing for a tour on the same studio lot.
Rollason told the outlet that they did not start out as director. At the time they worked as an archivist, and they were invited to view the tapes. They began cutting scenes together to show what the material could become. That sample reel grew to 40 minutes, then an hour, and by then amounted to a draft. Rollason then pitched it as a film and brought in a small team. Rollason had made fiction shorts but had not planned to make a documentary.
A Past That Feels Close
Rollason said the footage struck them as contemporary almost at once, including conversations on set that never reached Jarman's final cut. That, they said, shaped the film: it stays within its late 1980s and early 1990s period while still aiming to feel current.
The director said the focus on queer rights grew from realizing how recent that history is. Beyond the AIDS crisis, Rollason pointed to harsh legislation and extreme homophobic attitudes lasting into the 1990s. Section 28, introduced under Margaret Thatcher's government and mentioned in the film, restricted local authorities from promoting homosexuality. It was repealed in 2003, when Rollason was at school.
Rollason also drew a parallel to the present. In their telling, public opinion grew more accepting before turning back in the mid-1980s, largely as a byproduct of AIDS-related scaremongering. They said the way trans people are discussed today resonates with how LGBT people were talked about then, and suspect both groups were made scapegoats for other issues. The activist protests shown in the film raise a background question about how to respond when conditions worsen.
Rollason said they hope the film works as more than a record of one moment, calling it "a reminder of what collective resistance can look like – and what role art has to play."
Why It Matters
The project pairs a rarely seen account of how a Jarman film was made with a director's argument that its period is not as distant as it may seem. Rollason says they included only enough history to send viewers off to read more.
Reporting sources: The Hollywood Reporter, “‘Queer Edward II’ Gives an Inside Look at Derek Jarman’s Film and Timely Historical Snapshot of a Queer Rights Backlash”.