Derek Jarman's Rare 1984 Film 'Imagining October' Streams Online Through July 2020

Derek Jarman's 1984 film 'Imagining October' is available for online viewing through July 13, 2020 via Amanda Wilkinson Gallery. Created from footage shot during a 1984 trip to Moscow and Baku, Azerbaijan, the work reinterprets the 1917 Russian Revolution through a queer perspective. Jarman traveled to the Soviet Union in October 1984 alongside filmmaker Sally Potter and theorist Peter Wollen, invited by the Union of Cinematographers through the British Film Institute. The half-hour film features grainy Super-8 footage of Moscow's Seven Sisters and Kremlin bathed in red light, accompanied by a soundtrack from Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and David Ball. Scenes include homoerotic soldier tableaux featuring artist Peter Doig, Azerbaijani street scenes, and intertitles referencing Soviet suppression. Jarman originally intended to conceal his sexuality during the trip, but publicly acknowledged his homosexuality during a seminar when an audience member described his work as 'camp.' The film draws parallels between Soviet censorship and contemporary British repression, referencing the 1984 raid on London's Gay's The Word bookshop by UK Customs and Excise. Tony Peake's 1999 biography notes that Jarman filtered politics through personal identity, with his private life becoming public debate. While conditions have changed in both countries since the film's creation, it remains a document of artistic navigation through power relations during the Cold War thaw.