Jarman, Derek ___ 1942-1994 ___ British ___ painter, director

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Jarman's childhood was spent in various places, wherever his RAF father was posted, including Merryfield in Somerset. He also lived for a while with his family in Italy. He studied at King's College, London and the Slade School of Art. He worked on production design for Ken Russell's 'The Devils' (released in 1970), and then made his debut as a director with the groundbreaking 'Sebastiane' in 1976 (which, some suggest, is the first British film to feature positive images of gay sexuality). This was followed by 'Jubilee', very much in the punk style of the time, and an unconventional adaptation of 'The Tempest'. After years of funding difficulties, he completed his most widely known film 'Caravaggio'. In 1986, he was diagnosed HIV positive, and was one of the first public figures in Britain to talk about his condition. His illness prompted him to move to Prospect Cottage, Dungeness, where he created a shingle garden close to the nuclear power station. His last film, 'Blue', which uses text from his diaries, was made when he was already blind and while he was dying of AIDS related complications.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1989-1990 ___ self love/sex health art film nature

WEB TEXT LINKS
one extract
a bit about

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
 

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Modern Nature: The Journals of Derek Jarman
Smiling in Slow Motion: Diaries, 1991-94
 

July 2005, July 2008
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.