Queerama

Queerama

Daisy Asquith

UK
2017
Documentary
71’
desired! – film lust & queer

Queerama is a film traversing a century of gay experiences, created from the treasure trove of the BFI archive. Daisy Asquith and her collaborators have dug out a wealth of found footage ranging from unknown newsreel and amateur film from the 20s and 30s, and the sub textual references in 40s cinema, to the AIDS crisis in the 80s and 90s, and the developments of recent years – a century of change.

» The documentaries from the early 60s were possibly the most extraordinary discovery. They are funny and shocking now but they are also the earliest example I could find of anyone actually listening to the voices of gay men and lesbians rather than just portraying them as bad guys, tragic figures or sick in the head. They also betray very disturbing attitudes from the 50s and 60s, which regarded gay people as a problem, both medical and social. The courage and dignity of the participants in the documentaries is extraordinary. They were out of the closet and in love before decriminalisation. […] Subtextual [queerness] is important, because actually gay people for most of this century had to seek queerness out themselves, uncover it, imagine it, create it within texts that were either not intentionally queer at all, or perhaps kept their queerness well hidden.«
– Daisy Asquith

Director

Daisy Asquith

Editing

Kenny McCracken, Alan Mackay, Daisy Asquith

Music

John Grant, Goldfrapp, Hercules & Love Affair

Production

Catryn Ramasut, ie ie productions

Contact

Syndicado Film Sales

Daisy Asquith

Daisy Asquith is a documentary filmmaker with 20 years experience making films for the BBC, Channel 4, BFI, Irish Film Board and Sheffield Docfest among others. She is a part-time Senior Lecturer at Goldsmiths, convenes the MA in Screen Documentary and takes pride in bringing diverse voices into the industry. She has won many awards for her work including the Royal Television Society Best Documentary Series twice (The Decision and 15), a Grierson Award, and a BAFTA nomination. Queerama is her third feature and she has almost finished her fourth – Greatest Motherfucker, a feature documentary about the musician John Grant.


Films by Daisy Asquith
After the Dance 2015 | Velorama 2014 | Crazy about One Direction 2013 | Britain’s Holocaust Survivors 2013 | Liz Smith’s Summer Cruise 2009 | Kimberley: Young Mum 2009 | Clowns 2008 | The Oldest People in the World 2007 | Whatever: A Teenage Musical 2004 | 15 2001 | The Decision 1998