Synopsis

Shown at the BFI London Lesbian and Gay film festival in 2013, the project takes as its starting point Framed Youth: The Revenge of the Teenage Perverts (1983), a documentary made by the London Lesbian and Gay Youth Video Project. In it, a group of queer teenagers investigate public attitudes towards gay and lesbian sexuality.

EWI: Framed Youth (1983) is one of my favourite videos of all time. It has all the energy and excitement of being young and queer with something important and urgent to share. The voices and points of view are so honest and varied; you really witness the participants giving voice and visibility to their identities. The year 2013 marked its 30th anniversary, so I approached the BFI and persuaded it to give me three days to make a film in its basement, and a slot at the film festival. Rumour has it that I was the first person ever given a slot at the festival who hadn’t actually got a film ready to show. The idea was very simple. I would screen Framed Youth for a group of LGBTQ young people, and it would act as a trigger to make a video in the present.

That year, Metro Centre – an LGBTQ youth service in Greenwich, south-east London – were doing a survey asking 16- to 25-year-olds what it means to be LGBTQ in 2013. They were really excited about the project as it was a way of bringing some of those people together.

I used certain exercises with the group that I adapted from those used by community video makers in the 70s, such as passing the camera around, and playing games that get everyone used to the camera, in order to diffuse authority as best as I could. We talked a lot about visibility, and what happens when someone doesn’t want to be on camera. One person in the group was transitioning at the time, and, at first, she didn’t want to be filmed. As a group, we discussed finding a way that her voice could be heard that she felt comfortable with, so that she didn’t perpetuate her invisibility. We invented techniques that meant everyone would be heard, but not everyone would be filmed. The camera moves around a lot, and there are lots of shots of people’s feet and hands, and so some of the time you can’t tell who is speaking.