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The British Guide To Showing Off (2011)

Director: Jes Benstock

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Synopsis

This documentary looks at ‘artist and living legend’ Andrew Logan, the creator of the very British pageant ‘The Alternative Miss World Show’ which has run since 1972. Filmed over five years, it shows the making of the 2009 show and features interviews with Brian Eno, Ruby Wax, Grayson Perry, Zandra Rhodes and Richard O’Brien. The score is by Mike Flowers.

Movie review

From Time Out London

Andrew Logan is a fine example of the great British eccentric, a gloriously idiosyncratic artist and producer whose work keys into pagan lore, extravagant handicrafts and amorphous sexuality. No wonder Grayson Perry’s a fan. This documentary offers a charming and intriguing overview of Logan’s life and career – a peculiarly harmonious mix of orthodox posh and underground radical that doubles as a social history of post-war England. The spine is the preparation for the latest incarnation of Logan’s great creation, Alternative Miss World. A delirious pageant of beauty, creativity and freaky rebellion, it began in 1972 and swiftly found a place at the heart of alternative London culture, drawing the likes of Bowie, Hockney, Zandra Rhodes and Derek Jarman – and, more recently, performers like Amy Lamé and Fancy Chance. Director Jes Benstock and producer Dorigen Hammond deploy witty animated narration and make the most of a phenomenal archive and the come-what-may charisma of Logan himself – a true one-off whose easy blurring of boundaries and championing of love and expression are worth showing off.

Author: Ben Walters

Time Out London Issue 2151: 10 – 16 November, 2011

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