This August BFI Southbank will host Don Letts Presents: Punk on Film, a season of films curated by film director, DJ and musician Don Letts. The season will bring together a broad range of documentary, archive footage and feature films that draw attention to the diversity of the punk movement, how it has been depicted on film, and its huge influence on filmmakers past and present.
Films being screened during the season will include Don Letts’ Grammy award-winning doc The Clash: Westway to the World (2000), Jubilee (Derek Jarman, 1978) and Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer (Mike Lerner, Maxim Pozdorovkin 2013). The season will include a World Punk Day on Sunday 7 August, featuring screenings of Afro Punk (2003) which follows black punks in the USA, Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam (2009) about the birth of the Muslim punk scene, and Punk in Africa (2012) which explores the spread of punk across that continent.
Don Letts Presents: Punk on Film is part of Punk.London a year-long festival that celebrates punk, a counter-cultural movement that has had a profound and lasting impact on the face of music, film, culture, art and fashion.
• Further info on this and “Punk.London” at the BFI website and the Press Releases: August 2016 at BFI Southbank and Don Letts Presents: Punk on Film at BFI Southbank.
Jubilee will play at the BFI London On Film 2015 season next month. “London’s stories brought to life through a century of extraordinary filmmaking.”
Jubilee (UK, 1978) + Punk Can Take It (UK, 1979)
Queen Elizabeth I and her occult aide Dr John Dee time travel to a dystopian London in Derek Jarman’s homage to punk.
Monday 28 September: 20:30 – NFT2 | Tuesday 29 September: 18:00 – NFT3 | Thursday 01 October: 18:15 – NFT2
Directed by Derek Jarman. With Jenny Runacre, Nell Campbell, Toyah Willcox (106 min, Digital). Jarman re-imagines London’s punk years as a future dystopia where big business rules and marauding killers dominate the streets. Queen Elizabeth I and her occult aide Dr John Dee, who time-travel using esoteric magic, give witness to the shocking depravity, while abrasive punk rock numbers are delivered by Jayne County and Adam Ant alongside a Brian Eno score.
• Continue reading/further info at the BFI website.
Toyah, at the BFI’s Derek Jarman Retrospective last month, discusses working with Jarman on The Tempest, in which she plays Miranda, and considers the director’s legacy. Click below to watch the video at the BFI website.
Toyah was also interviewed at the BFI about Jarman’s Jubilee. More info on that here.
A short interview with Toyah, from the BFI, discussing Jubilee, Jarman and her character in the film, Mad: “I wanted to be a tidal wave.” Actor Toyah Willcox discusses her role as pyromaniac punk Mad in Derek Jarman’s Jubilee (1978). Click below to watch.
