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Sebastiane + ScreenTalk with composer Simon Fisher Turner and curators Lillian Crawford and Simon McCallum (18)

Queer 70s

,Cinema 1
Two naked men smiling and hugging each other in the sea.

Derek Jarman’s homoerotic reimagining of the life and death of Saint Sebastian draws parallels between the legend of the martyr and contemporary gay persecution.

In his first feature, Jarman started as he meant to go on, with an erotic take on the legend of martyred Saint Sebastian, exiled to a remote garrison where he becomes the object of lust to the menacing male guards. The tale is told in Latin with English subtitles, lingering on male bodies through an unapologetically gay gaze.

British cinema had never seen anything like it. It’s a real one-of-a-kind, a potent clash of beauty and vulgarity, with a glorious Brian Eno score and packed with male nudity. Jarman would go on to become one of Britain’s most exciting filmmakers, directing Jubilee (1978), Caravaggio (1986) and The Last of England (1987). 

Tagged with: Cinema Queer 70s

In Latin with English subtitles

Following the film, there will be a ScreenTalk with composer Simon Fisher Turner and curators Lillian Crawford and Simon McCallum about the film and Jarman’s legacy.

Film information

Release year: 1976

Country: UK

Director: Derek Jarman, Paul Humfress

Runtime: 1 hour 26 min

Simon Fisher Turner’s life as a film composer stems from his association with Derek Jarman in the 1980s and 90s. His scoring credits for Jarman include Caravaggio, The Last of England, The Garden, Edward II and Blue, the director’s final film.

Lillian Crawford is a freelance writer and curator. She is co-founder of Stims Collective and regularly hosts Relaxed Screenings at the Barbican. Her writing on Jarman can be found at Plinth and Little White Lies, and in her forthcoming PhD thesis on Screen Two. 

Simon McCallum is a producer and curator at the BFI National Archive, a regular programme contributor to BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival and curated the BFI Southbank season Gross Indecency: Queer Lives Before and After the ’67 Act. The BFI looks after many of Derek Jarman's sketchbooks, which include poetry, drawings, film storyboards, thoughts, plans and photographs.

‘Like Genet, its mixing of the high-blown and poetic with the rough corporeality of man-on-man action creates a gorgeously evangelistic vision of homosexuality‘
Jonathan Kemp, QUEERGURU

Queer 70s

Cinema 1