Emma Smart
Emma Smart - programmer of the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and Periodicals Librarian at the BFI Library - on Dusty Springfield and programming for the LLGFF:
'The black and white image crackled and burst into life on the tiny screen in front of me. Film that had been flawless and brand new almost 50 years ago, betrayed its age as it whirred through the complex mechanisms (well, complex to me) of the Steenbeck: the sound slightly faded now after all this time, the picture quality not as crisp. But still, there was the unmistakable voice I'd been seeking. The iconic image of a blonde with a high beehive and dark kohl-rimmed eyes, resplendent in a fashionable 1960s mini-dress, stared back at me from the screen and I had my opening clip for We Love Dusty Springfield.
'A celebratory event during the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, the We Love... series was created for the 23rd festival in 2009, when myself and my fellow programmer Brian Robinson turned a critical queer eye to Judy Garland. Part of what I think makes the LLGFF unique amongst festivals is our ability to offer a cultural programme along with the films we show. We bring our queer cultural history into the present with the various archive strands included each year (2010's Dorothy Arzner retrospective, the previous year's Film Noir strand) and with events such as the one I planned for 2010 with Dusty Springfield as its focus.
'The idea was a simple one, interspersed with footage of Dusty from the various television programmes she performed on over the course of her career, I would talk about her as a queer icon. The format had worked for Judy Garland, in which Brian and I each took a turn to explain how Judy is an icon to the lesbian and gay community. The research on that occasion was easy, familiar as I was with Judy's film work I didn't even have to go back over her films to know which clips I'd use. But which performances would I show to illustrate Dusty's iconic status? Given that she was at the height of her career and appearing on countless television programmes before I was even born!
'That's where the BFI stepped in, and the expertise of various people in both the library and programming departments, meant I had copious amounts of viewing tapes to watch in which I scrutinised Dusty's performances, her dubious taste in fashion and marvelled over and over again at the dearly missed singer's amazing soulful voice. Eventually clips were chosen, a structure for the event formed, and I, along with about 150 other people in NFT 2 at BFI Southbank, revelled for one night in the brilliance of Dusty Springfield.'
Emma Smart has a BA in Communication Studies and an MA in the History of Film and Visual Media from Birkbeck College. Her MA dissertation "Sympathy for a Serial Killer" about the films Monster and Life and Death of a Serial Killer is held at the BFI Library.
Emma's previous presentations at the BFI and elsewhere include:
- Women in Alfred Hitchcock Films
- History of Lesbian Cinema
- The Queer Invasion - 20 years of the LLGFF
- We Love Judy Garland
January 2011
