We started the year on DVD with the outstanding British Indie SAXON by GREG LOFTIN starring the irrepressible SEAN HARRIS followed by three DVD releases of new independent films from North America, FINN’S GIRL by DOMINIQUE CARDONA and LAURIE COLBERT proved a winner with the press and public alike, and later the in the year the fiction of this Canadian thriller became fact when the creation of Artificial Sperm was splattered across all news headlines.
SUNKISSED an erotic, esoteric poem by PATRICK McGUINN followed in late January and then in February YOU BELONG TO ME a psychological thriller by SAM ZALUTSKY frightened the “bejesus” out of Gaydar Nation.
February ‘09 saw tragedy stick the Peccadillo office. BAM BAM, the little black cat who the Peccadillo Pictures logo is based upon passed away aged 23. Born in 1986 on Tom’s (one of Peccadillo founders) bed she was a regular part of the Peccadillo office until it moved to Hoxton in 2003, we’re pleased that she had had a really good innings but she is missed by the whole Peccadillo team.
March was a big month, we had a DVD double pack re-release of two gay “clubbing classics”, the feature film CIRCUIT by DIRK SHAFER together with the non-judgemental documentary WHEN BOYS FLY by STEWART HALPERN and LENID ROLOV. We also had a small theatrical release of the hard core art house BEFORE I FORGET, which was very well received critically and also managed an almost sell-out run at the ICA. The films director and star JACQUES NOLOT came to London to do press and to present the film at the beginning of its run. The whole Peccadillo team had a great time with Jacques – especially Hong who seemed to become the apple of Jacques eye...
We rounded off March 09 with BOYS ON FILM 1: HARD LOVE, a huge effort went into the DVD release of this first collection of short films, an awful lot of work, money and hard love from the Peccadillo team saw this collection storm to the top of the Amazon LGBT charts and also chart very nicely in HMV. The screening and party which launched this collection at the ICA in central London with the UK directors and some cast members attending was a huge success and we’re really pleased that this first collection along with volumes two and three continue to sell extremely well. There are three more planned for 2010.
Our first big DVD feature of the year A LOVE TO HIDE by CHRISTIAN FAURE was released in mid April, it was one of those frustrating releases in that we all knew it would do very well but most store buyers just saw it as a small, unknown French movie and initial orders were disappointing. Being a film that deals with the gay holocaust of the Nazi era, it isn’t exactly a sexy title and that is probably why store buyers didn’t expect much from it. But it received great reviews and those who bought the film were deeply moved and word of mouth spread rapidly across the UK and saw the film slowly become one of our bestselling titles of the year – sometimes we just have to be patient.
April also saw the world premiere of a little film called GREEK PETE by ANDREW HAIGH which was originally scheduled to be in The Studio , the smallest screen, at the BFI Southbank as part of the London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. This was an instant sell-out and so the film was moved to screen 3 and then rapidly also into screen 1, which could have sold out many times over. On the day of the premiere there was a queue for returned tickets which went out of the cinema and down the South Bank, there were several celebs in the audience and PETE along with Director ANDREW HAIGH charmed everyone in the best attendance for a Q&A that we have ever had.
Also premiering at the LL&GFF were BORN IN ’68 the three hour epic from our dear friends OLIVIER DUCASTEL and JACQUES MARTINEAU directors of COCKLES & MUSCLES and DROLE DE FELIX, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house at the end of the screening (the DVD is on sale January 2010!). DREAM BOY adapted by JAMES BOLTON from the bestselling novel by JIM GRIMSLEY also packed out BFI1 with UK film royalty in attendance; the legendary British director NICK ROEG joined the audience to watch his son MAX ROEG as the lead in the film. Both JAMES BOLTON and JIM GRIMSLEY also joined us for the screening and the next day JIM did a book reading at GAYS THE WORD bookshop in central London.
And then we had a 25th anniversary screening of this little documentary called BEFORE STONEWALL followed by a panel discussion on how things had changed for the LGBT community since the initial release of the film in 1984. The film director RICHARD KWIETNIOWSKI (LOVE & DEATH ON LONG ISLAND) chaired the panel which comprised GRETA SCHILLER the director of BEOFRE STONEWALL, along with German filmmaker MONIKA TREUT, writer and broadcaster RICHARD NEWMAN, veteran gay activist ALAN WAKEMAN and former Mayor of London KEN LIVINGSTONE who originally presented BEFORE STONEWALL at its World Premier back in 1984. It was a great discussion and we recorded it for inclusion on the DVD of BEFORE STONEWALL, a special thank you to TIM SMITH and the LL&GFF team for their help with the event.
In May the festival favourite and much acclaimed THE LAST OF THE CRAZY PEOPLE by LAURENT ACHARD based on the best-seling novel by TIMOTHY FINDLEY was released on DVD followed by BEFORE STONEWALL in June. The DVD of BEOFRE SONEWALL was released to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots and became the unlikely bedfellow with BRUNO as part of Newsnight Review on BBC 2, which gave an insightful look at current gay “culture”. The Newsnight Panel were astounded by BEFORE STONEWALL and due to their wholehearted, sincere recommendations the DVD sold out everywhere that weekend.
In July we organised our own mini Queer Film Festival at the ICA titled POUT, with a selection of old and new titles, those who missed GREEK PETE and DREAM BOY at the LL&GFF got their chance to see the films again in the cinema, PETE attended the screening of GREEK PETE and was interviewed in the Q&A by RICHARD NEWMAN, we’re sure you all remember form BIG BROTHER – and we’d like to say a big thank you to RICHARD for all his support this last year. The screening of DREAM BOY was presented by JIM MACSWEENY from GAYS THE WORD and KEN LIVINGSTONE very kindly re-introduced BEFORE STONEWALL to a new audience at the CURZON SOHO.
The same month DREAM BOY came out on DVD and was an immediate hit and has remained in our top five DVD titles ever since.
August is traditionally a low selling month for DVD’s and with much fan fare BOYS ON FILM 2: IN TOO DEEP was released to an unsuspecting public. This compilation is much darker in tone than its predecessor and was a little bit of another gamble on Peccadillo’s behalf - presenting a collection of not so happy gay short films, including a couple of shorts that have considerable shock value! It didn’t race to the very top of the Amazon chart but remained in the top ten for several months, and constantly returns. It was such a big hit in HMV they asked to get a one month exclusive on the third volume.
GREEK PETE got a mini theatrical release in early September, which saw sold out cinemas all over the UK, it was just a single screening everywhere apart from the SHORTWAVE CINEMA in Bermondsey, London and the FILM HOUSE in Edinburgh. The film received great press, with several reviewers being a little coy in the things that they said, the FINANCIAL TIMES gave the film four stars and really raved about it and the legendary director KEN RUSSELL gave GREEK PETE and entire page in THE TIMES, the DVD was then released at the end of September and can only be described as a smash hit. DREAM BOY became available on the VIRGIN MEDIA VoD platform and became an instant download hit.
October was the busiest month of the year! HERE COME THE GIRLS, our first collection of shorts by lesbian filmmakers was officially launched at the beginning of October along with BOYS ON FILM 3: AMERICAN BOY at the IRIS PRIZE in Cardiff and then again at the end of October at the ICA in London. BRENT CORRIGAN from IN THE CLOSET one of the films from BOF3, joined us in Cardiff where he was very much the centre of attention, he then came to London to do press for the DVD release and dinner in the House of Commons...
The IRIS PRIZE was a blast and we got together with many of our directors from all over the World (who were attending the festival) and BRENT at a little Italian Restaurant in Cardiff for dinner followed by the launch party the next day at the newly refurbished CHAPTER CINEMA. As always a very big thank you to BERWYN, GRANT and the whole festivals team for an outstanding event.
The truly fabulous British director PRATIBHA PALMAR hosted our ORIENTATIONS event at the ICA for the London launch of the two shorts collections, we screened a selection from both compilations to a very mixed audience, and discovered that gay men can really enjoy lesbian films and that lesbians can enjoy gay films too. Filmmakers CAMPBELL EX and ABBE ROBINSON joined us for the screening and PRATIBHA even managed a JANET JACKSON wardrobe malfunction as she kicked the event off!
The LONDON FILM FESTIVAL had the UK premiere of EYES WIDE OPEN by HAIM TABAKMAN, we were pleased to have HAIM and his partner to attend both screenings. EYES WIDE OPEN will be in cinemas May 2010.
And to completely finish off the Peccadillo team we also had two DVD releases especially for Halloween, you could say that THE GAY BED AND BREAKFAST OF TERROR was the trick with the re-release of POLTERGAY being the treat, October ended with a GAY B&B of Terror Halloween Party at GHETTO in central London - a truely horrible time was had by all!
During October BOYS ON FILM 3: AMERICAN BOY was an HMV exclusive, but became available everywhere else in early November, BUG CRUSH from this collection was a big hit at the ICA screening, but had people running in terror from the cinema in Jersey when it played as the final part of a compilation of Peccadillo shorts.
Our final DVD release of 2009 was ALL OVER ME an exclusive for Amazon in December and available everywhere else in early January 2010.
During 2009 four of our films were on TV, BEYOND HATRED on MORE FOUR, COCKLES & MUSCLES on BBC2 and FOUR MINUTES on CHANNEL FOUR. Watch out for XXY in early 2010 on BBC4 and BBC HD, we’ll let you know a date as soon as we have it.
What a year it has been. From what seemed like the brink of oblivion at the beginning of 2009 we reach the end and can safely say that 2009 ended up being our most successful year to date, Kahloon and Tom even managed to get a holiday together for the first time in four years, leaving Hong and Simon in charge of the office! So 2009 is a troublesome year that has very fond memories.
We’d like to say a very sincere thank you to all of you who have supported Peccadillo Pictures through 2009 and the previous years. A very big thank you to all of you who have attended our various events and parties and those who have taken part in our competitions and corresponded with us. Your views and suggestions are always welcome and we’re honoured to have such a vocal audience.
We hope that you will join us through 2010 as delivery of our films changes considerably, we have our first HD releases on Blu-Ray and 2010 sees a massive move by Peccadillo onto download and streaming platforms, as well as being available on iTunes and Virgin Media you will also be able to download Peccadillo titles to your PS3 and X-BOX players in Standard as well as High Definition.
We have a very strong line-up of titles for the cinema including a gay love story set within the Orthodox Jewish Community, a road movie with identical twins, a lesbian retelling of RUN LOLA RUN, a thriller set within the US gay Porn industry, the misadventures of a young Swiss guy down on his luck in Hong Kong and finally the legendary French actress ISABELLE HUPPERT in her first lesbian screen role, and that only takes us to July.
Join us in 2010 for the best yet!
