Manchester Tickled Pink

From the collection of

North West Film Archive at Manchester Metropolitan University

Established in 1977, the North West Film Archive preserves moving images made in or about the North West of England for the education and enjoyment of the region’s people. Part of Manchester Metropolitan University Library’s Cultural Collections, and based within Manchester Central Library’s Archives+ partnership, we are a specialist resource dedicated to saving and growing our region’s rich filmed history.

Manchester Tickled Pink

North West Film Archive at Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester
1993-08-01
Silent
2m

Manchester is 'Tickled Pink' with this annual celebration of LGBT life.

Shot on Canal St in Manchester in 1993, this vivid record of the 'Tickled Pink' celebrations, now known as Manchester Pride, really brings the event to life. Paul Berry, the filmmaker, who briefly appears in this film - the man with the shock of bright red hair - was a talented animator who worked for Cosgrove Hall in Manchester and was Oscar nominated in 1991 for his short film 'The Sandman'.

Queer Britain

This colourful and challenging collection explores screen representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender lives over the past century.

British cinema boasts a long history of carefully coded queerness, but for much of the 20th century explicit depictions of gay life in drama or documentary were more or less taboo. Gay men were subject to vicious state-sanctioned persecution, while lesbians were socially ostracised and the transgender community ignored and misunderstood. Cinematic and small-screen breakthroughs in the 1950s and 60s played their part in the public debate. Finally acting on the recommendations of the Wolfenden Committee a decade earlier, the 1967 Sexual Offences Act partially decriminalised male homosexuality in England and Wales, between two men over 21, in private. As those caveats suggest, the legislation remained problematic. But it was a step forward, paving the way for further battles - some yet to be won. From early glimpses of 'queer' characters, this collection charts the path towards '67 and beyond, through responses to the AIDS crisis to diverse reflections on queer life today.