Andy Milligan Archives - Big Gay Picture Show

Starring: Berwick Kaler, Julie Shaw
Director: Andy Milligan
Running Time: 78 mins
Certificate: 18
Release Date: May 28th, 2012

Until relatively recently Nightbirds was thought to be a lost movie from cult director Andy Milligan, who’s best known (although he’s not known that much, as his cult is pretty small) for slightly bizarre horror flicks. However at least one print remained, which Drive director and Milligan aficionado Nicolas Winding Refn managed to get hold of. He then approached the BFI about giving Nightbirds the first proper release it’s ever had, as it hardly even saw the inside of a cinema when it was first made.

This proved trickier than you might expect, as Refn’s solitary print was missing several key scenes, which had literally been cut out of it to make the six-minute trailer. However working with a company that had a copy of that trailer, they’ve managed to put the movie back together and create this new Blu-ray and DVD release. The real question though, is whether it was all worth it? [Read more…]

Starring: Michael Billington, Tony Cyrus
Director: Lloyd Reckord, Andy Milligan, Bill Douglas, Peter De Rome
Running Time: 73 mins
Certificate: 18
Release Date: March 26th, 2012

Before the 1980s, depictions of gay life onscreen were rare things, so that anything from the 70s or before is unusual, intriguing and worth seeking out. With Encounters, the BFI has drawn together four short films on gay subjects made between 1965 and 1971, giving us a rare look at homosexuality during that time (and not as it was remembered afterwards, which is our usual view of gay history). Making any sort of film on a gay subject back then was a bit of an achievement and a fairly subversive act, so while there’s not a vast amount of pre-80s gay films, we’re privileged to have what we’ve got. [Read more…]

Nightbirds (Blu-ray & DVD)

Encounters: Four Ground-breaking Classics Of Gay Cinema (DVD)