‘Queer Edward II’ Review: A Terrific Doc Portal to the Early ’90s that Captures — and Liberates — Derek Jarman’s Trailblazing Spirit

Sep 8, 2026 10:04am PT ‘Queer Edward II’ Review: A Terrific Doc Portal to the Early ’90s that Captures — and Liberates — Derek Jarman’s Trailblazing Spirit

Theo Rollason's lovely, lively film uses behind-the-scenes footage from the "Edward II" set to remind us not only of Jarman's impact as a filmmaker and activist, but his warm, witty, generous disposition as a man.

By Jessica Kiang

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Jessica Kiang

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Courtesy of Seamus McGarvey, Lightborn Films, Venice Film Festival

Consider, for a moment, the cupboard — maybe in the spirit of irreverence we should term it a closet — in which, for 30-odd years, lay undisturbed the footage that future star cinematographer Seamus McGarvey (“Atonement,” “Die, My Love”) shot behind the scenes of Derek Jarman‘s 1991 movie “Edward II”. Consider then, the opening of that closet and the discovery of what it contained. For a certain type of cinephile, spooling through those rushes for the first time and realizing that they essentially open up a wormhole to the past as lived in the present tense, it must have been like finding Narnia, with Jarman a puckish, charming, proudly queer Aslan.   

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