Queer Edward II: Theo Rollason’s Reconstruction of Derek Jarman’s 1991 Pioneering Movie

Setting:

In Spring 1991, queer life is under renewed attack in Britain, and filmmaker Derek Jarman is adapting Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II into a radical protest film.

Drawing on never-before-seen footage shot by Seamus McGarvey on Jarman’s set, Queer Edward II is about the refusal to separate art from life, politics from pleasure.

When I was first approached to look through unseen rushes shot on the set of Edward II – which had been sitting in a cupboard for over 30 years – I hoped there might be enough material for a short.

Instead, I was astonished to find a comprehensive record of Jarman’s idiosyncratic filmmaking style, capturing everything from rehearsals to intimate conversations to production office dramas.

What really struck me, however, was the set’s embrace of the 1990s political climate, particularly regarding gay rights.

That Derek Jarman was a political artist is apparent from the films themselves.

Less clear to me was his active involvement with the movement, his decision to become the first public figure in the UK to disclose his HIV status, and his association with OutRage! in particular.

As a queer filmmaker born just after Jarman’s death, I saw clear opportunity to use the Edward II set as a springboard to discuss what I wish I’d known: just how high the stakes were for the community at this historical moment, and Jarman’s centrality to the struggle that followed.

My perspective is shaped by a belief that queer history is too often depoliticized and reduced to respectable narratives of progress, rather than the messy, confrontational movements that made that progress possible.

With anti-trans rhetoric and attacks on queer rights again intensifying, I hope that the film can function as a snapshot of a historical moment, and as a reminder of what collective resistance can look like – and what role art has to play.