Interview:
Jonathan Butterell,
director,
"Everybody's Talking About Jamie"
Adapted from the 2017 West End stage musical, director Jonathan Butterell’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie tells the true story of a gay English teenager who choose to make come out as a drag queen at his school prom. Played by newcomer Max Harwood, the openly gay Jamie New must overcome the prejudice and hostility he faces daily at school from students and staff in order to realize his dream to become a drag queen. In Jamie’s corner: his loving and accepting mother Margaret (Sarah Lancashire), his Muslim best friend Pritti (Lauren Patel), and mentor Hugo Battersby (Richard E. Grant), a boutique clothing store proprietor who performs as drag queen Loco Chanelle. Everybody’s Talking About Jamie will screen at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 29 at the Galaxy Theatre Austin during this year’s All Genders, Lifestyles, and Identities Film Festival’s Prism 34. Everybody’s Talking About Jamie will then open Sept. 10 in Austin and premiere Sept. 17 on Amazon Prime Video. Inspired by the experiences of Jamie Campbell and the 2011 documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, the stage production of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie debuted in 2017 in the northern English city of Sheffield—where the musical is set—before transferring to London’s West End with music by Dan Gillespie Sells and lyrics by Tom MacRae. MacRae wrote the film adaptation and, with Sells, wrote the new song “This Was Me,” about the gay rights movement and the AIDS crisis in England in the 1980s and 1990s. Sheffield native and veteran theater choreographer and director Jonathan Butterell, who co-developed and directed the stage production, makes his film debut with Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.
Aired: Aug, 26, 2021. Web sites: https://www.agliff.org/prism https://www.facebook.com/everybodystalkingaboutjamie |
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