Wednesday, the 8th of February: The sold-out preview showing for Georgia Oakley’s debut feature at the Tyneside Cinema buzzed with the air of a premier: excited chatter, a cameraman, a photographer, people dressed to the nines, their heads adorned with chic looking hats. The month before, my mum told me about the film because it had been filmed in Newcastle and the surrounding area. That fact alone was enough to make me buy a ticket, but little did I realise how important this film was. During the lead-up, I received emails from the Cinema informing me that they’d had to change rooms as so many people wanted to buy tickets. Eventually, after two room changes, the film was to be showcased in their largest and most quintessentially “cinema” screen – The Classic – which proved to be a setting worthy of such a landmark film.
we witness the young teacher struggling to reconcile her sexuality with the State, the media, her family and even with herself
Blue Jean, written and directed by Oakley, tells the story of Jean (Rosy McEwen), a lesbian PE teacher from Newcastle. Set in 1988, Jean’s life is starkly affected by the passing of Section 28 by Thatcher’s Conservative government. The law prohibited “promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”. Throughout the film, we witness the young teacher struggling to reconcile her sexuality with the State, the media, her family and even with herself. Ultimately, we see how conformity can sometimes be more pernicious than risking everything to stand up for what is right.
Moreover, the importance of the film lies in its subject matter. Like many of us, Oakley only recently found out about Section 28, which remained effective until 2003. During the post-screening Q&A, she discussed how her newfound awareness of the law had inspired her to investigate the topic further and those directly affected by it. This led to meetings with various lesbian teachers across the country who had worked between 1988 and 2003. The film is based on the experiences of the women she met, shining a light on an event that seems to be hidden from our history classes and the big screens.
Oakley stated that her objective with Blue Jean is to leave audiences with a sense of hope and that anyone who has ever been othered in any capacity can relate to Jean’s story. Sitting in the audience, I got the sense that people who had lived through that time finally felt represented by a queer filmmaker who had made a film about the British lesbian experience – something rarely seen. The feature has been nominated for the BAFTA for “Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer” along with Aftersun (2022), another film by a queer female director.