Listen again: 25th February 2014

Kate Crutchley, a key figure at the Oval House in the 1980s

Baylen Leonard sits in for Rosie. He chats to director Bavo Defurne, who is down the line in Ostend. Bavo tells us about his first feature film ‘North Sea Texas’, a coming-of-age drama set in a small town on the Belgian coast and based on the 2004 children’s novel ‘Nooit gaat dit over’ by Andre Sollie. Bavo reveals where the title ‘North Sea Texas’ comes from and the significance of a box of treasures. He also points out that the film ‘takes place in our hearts’, which makes it universal. The DVD is out now.

Susan Croft, Director of Unfinished Histories talks about the exhibition ‘Re-Staging Revolutions’, which is dedicated to Kate Crutchley. She was a key figure in the alternative theatre movement and died in July 2013. While working at the Oval House in the 1980s, she encouraged Black and Asian theatre, experimental work as well as gay and lesbian theatre. Susan explains the relevance of her work for the community as it was often the first time that the LGBT community felt represented on stage. The exhibition includes posters of the different projects and is part of an extensive research by Unfinished Histories. It can be seen at the Camden Local Studies and Archives in High Holborn until 8^th May.

Darren Cooper from Out Now Consulting offers us an insight into a global research survey of gays and lesbians to find out more about the pink pound, changing attitudes and lifestyles around the world. He says, the survey started four years as a European project and has expanded to a global level, where now 21 countries take part. Among others, it is to help marketing companies regarding the preferences of LGBT consumers.  Everyone is welcome to take part in the survey by Out Now Consulting, which runs until 2020.

Founding editor of GayStarNews Tris Reid-Smith keeps us up to date with the week’s LGBT news stories. They include the passed bill in Uganda that makes homosexuality a criminal offense: people repeatedly caught in gay sex acts face life imprisonment. He also highlights the visibility or respectively non-visibility of LGBT activism in Russia during the Olympics.

For rights reasons the music is not on the podcast, but that’s what you could hear on the show:

1) Little Auk: ‘Paper Wings’ from soundtrack of North Sea Texas

2) Georgette Dee: ‘Gras und Hüpfer’ from the album “Kupfermond”

3) Kacey Musgraves: ‘Follow your Arrow’ from the album “Same Trailer Different Park”

4) Marlene Dietrich: ‘Look Me Over Closely’ from the album “Der Blonde Engel”