Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, gardener, and gay rights activist.
17 Facts About Derek Jarman
2.
Derek Jarman's father was a Royal Air Force officer, born in New Zealand.
3.
Derek Jarman had a studio at Butler's Wharf, London, in the 1970s.
4.
Derek Jarman was outspoken about homosexuality, his public fight for gay rights, and his personal struggle with AIDS.
5.
On 22 December 1986, Derek Jarman was diagnosed as HIV positive and discussed his condition in public.
6.
Derek Jarman's illness prompted him to move to Prospect Cottage, Dungeness, in Kent, near the nuclear power station.
7.
Derek Jarman is buried in the graveyard at St Clement's Church, Old Romney, Kent.
8.
Derek Jarman made his mainstream narrative filmmaking debut with Sebastiane, about the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian.
9.
Derek Jarman followed this with Jubilee, in which Queen Elizabeth I of England is seen to be transported forward in time to a desolate and brutal wasteland ruled by her twentieth-century namesake.
10.
Derek Jarman spent seven years making experimental Super 8mm films and attempting to raise money for Caravaggio.
11.
Derek Jarman made a side income by directing music videos for various artists, including Marianne Faithfull, The Smiths and the Pet Shop Boys.
12.
Blue consists of a single shot of saturated blue colour filling the screen, as background to a soundtrack composed by Simon Fisher Turner, and featuring original music by Coil and other artists, in which Derek Jarman describes his life and vision.
13.
Derek Jarman directed the 1989 tour by the UK duo Pet Shop Boys.
14.
Derek Jarman was the stage director of Sylvano Bussotti's opera L'Ispirazione, first staged in Florence in 1988.
15.
Derek Jarman is remembered for his famous shingle cottage-garden at Prospect Cottage, created in the latter years of his life, in the shadow of Dungeness nuclear power station.
16.
Derek Jarman was the author of several books including his autobiography Dancing Ledge, which details his life until the age 40.
17.
Derek Jarman provides his own insight on the history of gay life in London, discusses his own acceptance of his homosexuality at age 16 and accounts of the financial and emotional hardships of a life devoted to filmmaking.