Derek Jarman's film portrait of American writer William S. Burroughs was shot in September 1982 during his first visit to England to attend the legendary Final Academy events at the South London Ritzy Cinema. These were Burroughs-themed art and performance nights curated by Psychic TV. Jarman’s film shows Burroughs on Tottenham Court Road signing autographs with fans and inside a shop buying alcohol. The industrial soundtrack by Psychic TV features a sample of Burroughs repeating "boys, school showers and swimming pools full of 'em'". Additional footage shot by Jarman during Burroughs' visit is reported to have been confiscated by Scotland Yard in 1991 and remains lost. Jarman and Psychic TV would continue to collaborate (“magic bound us together” Jarman wrote), with Jarman directing the music video for Catalan and staring as the spokesperson in the Psychic TV video A Spokesman for the Temple of Psychick Youth.

William S. Burroughs

Peter Christopherson

FM Einheit

• Derek JarmanDirector

Release date

January 1, 1983

Status

Released

Original language

English

Runtime

17m

Genres

Documentary

• 

  Världens sämsta hästtjej

  2009

• 

  Connor McDavid: Whatever it Takes

  2020

• 

  Namibia: Cuba’s Female Boxing Revolution

  2016

• American Red and Black: Stories of Afro-Native Identity

  2016

• Postmodernism: The Substance of Style

  2011

• 

  Rage, Sex, and Jazz: I Spit on Your Graves by Vernon Sullivan

  2022

• 

  Still Processing

  2021

• Schwäne und ihre Jungen

  1961

• Kleine Freunde in Not

  1959

• 

  Diego Rivera: I Paint What I See

  1992

• 

  Uncommon Sense

  2017

• It's Your Health

  1949