James Mackay

Ten short pieces directed by ten different directors, including Ken Russell, Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, and Nicolas Roeg. Each short uses an aria as soundtrack/sound, and is an interpretation of the particular aria.

A retelling of the life of the celebrated 17th-century Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio through his brilliant, nearly blasphemous paintings and his flirtations with the underworld.

Against a plain, unchanging blue screen, a densely interwoven soundtrack of voices, sound effects and music attempt to convey a portrait of Derek Jarman's experiences with AIDS, both literally and allegorically, together with an exploration of the meanings associated with the colour blue.

A nearly wordless visual narrative intercuts two main stories and a couple of minor ones. A woman, perhaps the Madonna, brings forth her baby to a crowd of intrusive paparazzi; she tries to flee them. Two men who are lovers marry and are arrested by the powers that be. The men are mocked and pilloried, tarred, feathered, and beaten. Loose in this contemporary world of electrical-power transmission lines is also Jesus. The elements, particularly fire and water, content with political power, which is intolerant and murderous.

Derek, in chronological order, records the work and life that stands at the foot of Derek Jarman's humour and spirit of being an artist. The filmmaker and actress, Isaac Julien and Tilda Swinton respectively, have produced and narrated a film on his life whereby the use of language is perpetuated to give some type of palpable meaning to British audiences alone, and to their own personal relationship with him.

Touch is the key to everything we do, what we say, and the way we act. We listen, communicate, give and receive pleasure, with this, the most thrilling of the senses. This shows how to experience those feelings on an inner journey through your body's senses. Sara Dale, hands on healing therapist and experienced masseuse unravels the mystery of the ancient art of massage, and along with her own unique insight, shows you the benefits and the technique that lead to a fuller and more satisfying life. Sensual massage shows you how to massage your partner, and bring out the very best in your loving relationship.

The artist's personal commentary on the decline of his country in a language closer to poetry than prose. A dark meditation on London under Thatcher.

A collage of Derek Jarman's super 8 footage spanning over 20 years.

Instructional documentary produced in association with the Terrence Higgins Trust.

The Angelic Conversation is a lyrical, haunting film about a young man’s search for love in a dreamlike landscape. Its tone is set by the juxtaposition of slow moving homo-erotic images and opaque landscapes through which two men take a journey into their own desires. Offscreen, Dame Judi Dench recites a sequence of Shakespeare's sonnets that counterpoint the action. Jarman called it, “My most austere work, but also the closest to my heart.”

Shortly before the WW II, Ella Gericke takes on the identity of her husband Max after his death to work instead of him in the factory. She continues to be Max until she herself doesn’t even know who she is anymore. The story is told from her point of view as an old woman.

Using interviews with close family, friends and collaborators, The Gospel According to St. Derek bears witness to Derek Jarman’s unique approach to low-budget film-making (his near-alchemical ability to turn the base components of film-making in to artistic gold, his placing of himself at the heart of all his work and his need to be part of a repertory company-type set-up). The Gospel… also promotes Derek Jarman’s importance as one of Britain's finest film-makers and acts, therefore, as a rally call to all would-be independent film-makers. This is the ’10 commandments of St. Derek ‘(who was indeed canonised by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence) on low-budget film-making.

'The Shadow of the Sun' draws upon Derek Jarman’s interest with alchemical processes as a metaphor for reprocessing Super-8 film. Jarman once described film’s union of light and matter as “an alchemical conjunction” and experimented throughout his career with creating dream symbolism through the superimposition of image and action. Originally called English Apocalypse, the film’s final title is derived from a 17th Century alchemical text that used the phrase as a synonym for the philosopher’s stone – the highly sought substance that turns base metals into gold and silver. The film was intended as a step toward the idea of an ambient video, that like its musical counterpart, was designed to enhance an environment.

Three promotional films by The Smiths directed with an artistic and conceptual vision by the late director Derek Jarman. The result is the junction of the powerful lyrics and melodies by Morrissey and Marr combined with Jarman's expressive images. The music videos: 1) The Queen Is Dead 2) There Is a Light That Never Goes Out 3) Panic

The innovative and influential British filmmaker Derek Jarman was invited to direct the Pet Shop Boys' 1989 tour. This film is a series of iconoclastic images he created for the background projections. Stunning, specially shot sequences (featuring actors, the Pet Shop Boys, and friends of Jarman) contrast with documentary montages of nature, all skillfully edited to music tracks.

A 16mm anthology of experimental super 8 films by Derek Jarman, Michael Kostiff, Cerith Wyn Evans and John Maybury, with framing footage by Tim Burke of Brion Gysin using a dream machine. Jarman's contribution is a version of his 1977 Art and the Pose (aka Arty the Pose), refilmed at 3fps, with a musical soundtrack. Jarman planned The Dream Machine as a commemoration of William Burroughs and Gysin's 1982 visit to the UK, and received initial funding from the Arts Council in 1983, then rethought the project as a portmanteau film featuring Gysin alone. The production remained in limbo until 1986, when James Mackay obtained completion funding from the British Film Institute. (Since this film was released on VHS accompanied by Jarman's Broken English: Three Songs by Marianne Faithfull, T.G.: Psychic Rally in Heaven and Pirate Tape under the umbrella title The Dream Machine, synopses of this film have often muddled up its details with those of the earlier films. )

A male model's poses are accompanied by a photographer's narration exploring censorship, self expression and sexual desire.

In Edinburgh, Jed is a drug dealer who runs a club who's luck finally runs out when he loses the money he owes to Chan. He is also having problems with his girlfriends Anna and the two are drifting apart. Anna meanwhile has befriended a pornographer and is starting to get to know him. Friends with both Jed and Anna, Eve does what she can, but she too has problems of her own.

Abstract images of figures moving about a room. Filmed from a video monitor in Super 8 during a rehearsal of a RADA production of Beckett's "Waiting for Godot".

Reel 37 of Gérard Courant’s on-going Cinematon series.