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Stuart Marshall

Directing

Biography

Marshall was a founder member of London Video Arts in 1976, and was a committed advocate of British video art, as a practitioner, curator and theorist. He curated the first UK/Canadian Video Exchange in 1984 and his videos and writings were amongst the first to explore the relationship between video, television and the media. With later works such as Bright Eyes, he explored, and challenged, misrepresentations of homosexuality during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, at a time when lesbian and gay lifestyles and sexuality were under attack as a result of Clause 28 and the media-encouraged prejudice surrounding the spread of AIDS. Towards the end of his life, working with Maya Vision, Marshall made a number of Channel 4 commissioned documentaries concerning gay identity and he continued to be a passionate campaigner for gay rights.

Known For

Over Our Dead Bodies

This documentary traces the response to AIDS of gay activist groups in America and Britain. The film itself is also activist, giving platform to ACT UP, Queer Nation and Outrage, organisations fighting to keep AIDS and all the issues surrounding the disease in the public consciousness. Interviews are intercut with footage of meetings, demos and kiss-ins. The messages come hard and fast, with serious allegations levelled at church, state and health bodies. British lesbians and gays are criticised for failing to use grief and anger as political weapons for change. The opinions and statistics that dominate the film provoke a detached, intellectual response; only the few personal stories, and the scenes of demos where AIDS patients are manhandled by butch NYPD officers, encourage emotional involvement.

Over Our Dead Bodies

1991Movie