Blue

Written poetically and surrealistically, Jarman's text moves through myriad scenes, some banal, others fantastical. Stories of quotidien life--getting coffee, reading the newspaper, and walking down the sidewalk--escalate to visions of Marco Polo, the Taj Mahal, or blue fighting yellow. Facing death and a cascade of pills, Jarman presents his illness in delirium and metaphors. He contemplates the physicality of emotions in lyrical prose as he grounds this story in the constant return to Blue--a color, a feeling, a funk. Jarman writes, "For Blue there are no boundaries or solutions."

Originally released as a feature film in 1993, the year before Jarman's death due to an AIDS-related illness, Blue is a daring and powerful work of art. Both the film and the text serve as an iconoclastic response to the lack of political engagement with the AIDS crisis. The artist Tilda Swinton, Jarman's long-time collaborator, introduces this evocative and emotional piece of writing.