Will You Dance With Me?

Derek Jarman's sensuous immersion in 1980s club culture was shot whilst he was documenting London nightclubs for his friend Ron Peck's gangster film. He ended up filming an East London gay bar in Mile End, capturing a single night as he moved through the dance floor with his camera.

The VHS image renders the club as a ghostly environment: strobe lights leave lingering traces and bodies seem to dissolve and reappear in the rhythm of the night. The film preserves a fleeting moment of queer freedom on the cusp of the AIDS crisis. It was released posthumously in 2014, 20 years after Jarman's death.

Director: Derek Jarman | 1984 | 78 min | UK | No dialogue