Derek Jarman (1942-1994, United Kingdom) was a leading avant-garde British filmmaker whose visually opulent and stylistically adventurous body of work stands defied the established literary and theatrical traditions of his national cinema. With influences ranging from the eccentric writing-directing team Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger to seminal gay aesthetes Jean Cocteau and Kenneth Anger, Jarman advocated a personal cinema more dedicated to striking imagery and evocative sounds than to the imperatives of narrative and characterization.