Film Studies Speaker Series: Glyn Davis (Edinburgh College of Art) "'A Panorama of Gay Life': The Making of Nighthawks"

Paul Hallam and Ron Peck's film Nighthawks (1978), which depicts the life of a gay schoolteacher in London and his nights of cruising gay bars, is now recognised as a classic of queer cinema. The film's production was especially lengthy and complicated: the duo initially intended to produce a quasi-documentary 'panorama of gay life' that attempted to represent the full diversity of British LGBTQ experience. However, budgetary wrangles and the complexities of communal filmmaking led, ultimately, to the adoption of a more traditional narrative form. Based on research into Hallam and Peck's archives, this talk will trace the film's evolution and consider how the initial vision for the film (one less 'authored', more collaboratively created) could serve as a model of future queer praxis.

Dr Glyn Davis is Chancellor's Fellow and reader in screen studies at the Edinburgh College of Art. Prior to joining the ECA, Glyn was a senior lecturer in screen studies at the University of Bristol (2005-2008) and the coordinator of postgraduate studies at the Glasgow School of Art (2008-2012). Glyn is the project leader of 'Cruising the 1970s: Unearthing Pre-HIV/AIDS Queer Sexual Cultures', funded by HERA. He has published widely on queer, cult and slow cinemas and is the author of Far From Heaven, co-author of Film Studies: A Global Introduction and co-editor of Queer TV: Theories, Histories, Politics.

This talk will take place in the Film Studies boardroom on the first floor of 99 North Street.