Reclaim the Frame: Queeriosities from the Archive + Intro 18

We invite you to get curious as we rediscover tantalizing tales from the archives. With this curated programme of short films we say goodbye to what is expected of us when it comes to intimacy, partnership and sensuality. Whether forgotten or rarely screened, we explore a multitude of desires and depictions of sexuality reflective of their times, and of an always existing community.

A continuation of Birds’ Eye View’s previous touring programme ‘Queerious’ which explored desire on screen from the 80s to the present day, this selection digs deep in to archives across the UK and beyond, bringing stories of sexual awakenings and realisations, love and lust through a feminist lens from the 1930s to now. Freed from the restrictions of mainstream filmmaking, this collection of hidden gems from the archives is a celebration of desires which invites us to question, learn and enjoy our sexual selves.

We're lucky enough to have Toni Lee from Birds Eye View: Reclaim the Frame at the event for an extended intro. Toni is a filmmaker, researcher, organiser, and programmer for Leeds Queer Film Festival, with an interest in community based and collaborative documentary making and cinema grounded in justice, and love.

Queeriosities From The Archive is supported by the BFI Film Audience Network with National Lottery funding as part of Changing Times, Curious, a UK-wide Screen Heritage programme led by Film Hub North.

Please note: This special screening has a short pre-recorded introduction and so there will no trailers or adverts before the film begins. The event will start at the time stated so plan your arrival accordingly.

The Films:

1. ROSEBUD (1991) UK 14 min.

Director: Cheryl Farthing

Kay moves into a new flat and finds herself unexpectedly intrigued by the open sexuality of the lesbian couple next door. An erotic tale of voyeurism and fantasy, and about seeing, and being seen.

2. WAITING WOMAN (1991) UK. 7 min

Director: Nikki McKay

Women move and dance in the landscape, in line drawn animation. From Midlands based artist, animator, and former dancer Nikki McKay, whose work in colour and the female form to create a language of mood and movement draws inspiration by Tamara de Lempicka, Henri Matisse and contemporary dance. 

3. MISS NORAH BLANEY (1932) UK 9 min 

Director: Unknown 

“Masculine women and feminine men, which is the rooster, which is the hen - it's so hard to tell 'em apart these days!” Popular musical hall singer and pianist Norah Blaney performs a ditty about the gender-bending ways of modern young things, putting an innuendo-laden queer spin on popular (heterosexual) hits, for the camera in this early sound film.

4. 8MM LESBIAN LOVE FILM (1992) USA. 4 mins.

Director: GEORGE CORZINE. 

A joyous pop music video celebrating lesbian desire on celluloid, with a tune so catchy you’ll be singing it all day! 

5. WITHOUT VERTIGO AN INNOCENT DESIRE TO FLY (1993). UK. 6 min

Director: Nikki McKay

A woman’s body moves through a landscape, walking, morphing into other forms, dancing, and flying in the air, in another of Nikki McKay’s studies on positive images of womanhood. We see the body as both a line drawn animation and as part of a live action film utilising computer effects.

6. SEX CHANGE (1980) UK. 7min 

Director: ATV Today

Wife and husband Cathy Brown and Chris Johnson speak to interviewer Wendy Nelson about how they met, fell in love and started a family. This ATV news piece offers a rare record for the time of a trans couple telling their own story, as they are filmed going about daily life at home and walking with their daughter in the park. Please note this film contains phrasing and a line of questioning from the interviewer regarding the couple’s transition which is outdated, and which has since (mostly) evolved. The chance to hear Cathy & Chris’s story, in their own words, however, feels just as important 42 years later. 

7. IN THE PINK BLUES (1993). UK 2 min. 

Director: Nikki McKay

Line drawn animation of a naked woman dancing across a blank background, the colour of the background changing from pink to blue.

8. MAN (2016) Sweden/UK 12 min

Director: Maja Borg

A journey of physical transformation through the wilderness of pregnancy echoed by the sole remaining recording of Virginia Woolf’s voice and told through hand-processed super 8mm film combined with watercolour-negative animation. Timelapses of a pregnancy shot frame by frame, day by day are bookended by a series of self-portraits where the filmmaker is satirising their own use of particular attire, generally read as masculine, becoming revelatory when posed in the context of the pregnant body.

9. APARTMENTS (1977) Australia. 10 mins

Director: Megan McMurchy

Two women living in the same apartment block are drawn to each other. Each is unaware of the other's desire for her, but a shared erotic fantasy develops between them. Megan McMurchy invites us in…