OUT at Clapham: My Beautiful Laundrette + Q&A [15]

2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Saturday, July 24, 2021

Picturehouse

On 24 July, Wandsworth LGBTQ+ Forum in partnership with Studio Voltaire, Clapham Picturehouse and supported by Lambeth Council, will present a very special screening of an all-time British cinema classic, My Beautiful Laundrette.

We are delighted that following the screening, we will be joined for a Q&A with the film’s cast and crew: Stephen Frears (Director) Hanif Kureishi (Writer) and Gordon Warnecke (Actor), hosted by David Robson (Out at Clapham).

This event will also be the official launch of the My Beautiful Laundrette Rainbow Plaque campaign which needs to raise £2,500 to pay for design and installation costs. The plaque will be installed on Wilcox Road, SW8 in Lambeth (August 2021 TBC) at the site of where Powders laundrette was filmed back in 1985.

“In Stephen Frears’ ground-breaking and hugely successful drama, Omar (Gordon Warnecke), the son of a Pakistani immigrant to the UK, embarks on a venture to renovate his uncle’s laundrette with the help of his childhood friend, ex-National Front member Johnny (Daniel Day Lewis). My Beautiful Laundrette remains ground-breaking in its bold exploration of issues of sexuality, race, class and generational difference. Originally shot in 16mm for Channel 4 on a low budget, it was met with such critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Film Festival that it was distributed to cinemas and eventually became an international success.

Heralded as one of Britain’s most commercially and critically successful films of 1986, it earned Hanif Kureishi an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay as well as launching the career of Daniel Day-Lewis. My Beautiful Laundrette’s international success helped establish Channel 4’s fledgling feature film production arm, Film on Four, and confirmed a move away from television single drama. In 1999 The British Film Institute ranked My Beautiful Laundrette the 50th greatest British film of the 20th century.” BFI

£2 from every ticket will go to the My Beautiful Laundrette Rainbow Plaque Campaign.