Brian Robinson obituary: BFI press officer and programmer with incomparable flair

Titles such as press officer or programmer do not quite do justice to the contribution to UK film culture of the extraordinary Brian Robinson, who has died aged 67. He could variously be considered an archivist, queer historian, collector, and a curator in the truest sense, devoting his life to connecting people and deepening his own and others’ knowledge and appreciation of cinema history and queer culture. Embracing the Golden Age of Hollywood alongside underground gay erotica and independent features, Brian broke boundaries in the ways he introduced audiences to underappreciated and emerging work.

Born in Northern Ireland, he studied law at the University of Sussex where he wasted little time in setting up a gay film group. In 1987 he joined the press team for the National Film Theatre – now BFI Southbank – and went on to promote the BFI’s cultural programme across three decades. A gifted raconteur, Brian’s tales from the NFT Green Room were legion. He thrilled at hosting luminaries including Bette Davis and Julie Andrews (interviewing her on stage was a high point), and recalled with hilarious comic timing delivering Dame Elizabeth Taylor’s BFI Fellowship award – specially customised with a (small) diamond – to her suite at the Dorchester.

Senior colleagues spotted his talent for engaging press and public alike with moving image heritage, and Brian was deployed to work as communications manager for the BFI National Archive, on projects including the astonishing Mitchell & Kenyon collection of rediscovered and restored Edwardian films, and pioneering digital resource the BFI Mediatheque. He served as master of ceremonies for many of the BFI’s major archival projects and ‘blockbuster’ season launches such as Gothic: The Dark Heart of Film in 2013, where he appeared on stage before the assembled press sporting Christopher Lee’s original cape from the Hammer classic Dracula.

In 2000 he embarked on a glittering parallel career as programmer for BFI Flare, formerly the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, maintaining a regular focus on archival work. Spanning almost a quarter of a century, this impressive stint made him the longest-serving programmer of the longest-running queer film festival in the UK. His wit, warmth and vivid dress sense quickly established him as the festival’s beating heart, while the esteem in which he was held by the international queer film community was reflected in his appointment to the juries of the Teddy Award, Queer Palm, Queer Lion and the Iris Prize.

While nurturing the careers of many young queer filmmakers, alongside his fellow Flare programmers, Brian was also determined to ensure that the work of their forebears was not forgotten. His deep knowledge and far-reaching networks helped curatorial colleagues at the BFI National Archive ensure that almost-lost treasures – including a 1978 film by the Campaign for Homosexual Equality and rare 1960s footage of drag performances at the Black Cap in Camden – are now preserved for the nation.

Brian hosted, with great aplomb, a number of events with veteran actors and directors whose work advanced queer representation in British film and television. These included legendary actor Peter Wyngarde, who in 2017 checked himself out of hospital to attend a screening of South (1959), now known to be the earliest surviving gay-themed British TV play, as part of a BFI season marking the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality.

Perhaps most notably, he championed the once forgotten filmmaker Peter de Rome (1924-2014), now dubbed the “grandfather of gay porn”. Bringing Peter and his films to the UK – sometimes having to carry the reels in his own luggage – Brian’s dedication culminated in the BFI’s publication on DVD of The Erotic Films of Peter de Rome. After de Rome’s death, Brian made a memorable cameo appearance in the short film Trouser Bar, produced by David McGillivray from a script found in the late filmmaker’s collection.

As many will attest, Brian’s contribution was perhaps best exemplified in the social sphere, not least by the parties he hosted at the home near BFI Southbank he shared with his husband and partner of almost 45 years, the journalist Pas Paschali. Often acting as an unofficial extension of the Flare festival, all were welcomed at these gatherings, which brought together filmmakers, critics, artists and curators; a happy place to forge friendships and collaborations.

With Pas, Brian had been instrumental in the radical queer magazine Square Peg, founded in 1983; in the 2000s he co-founded London salon The House of Homosexual Culture. As part of the generation of gay men devastated by the early HIV/Aids crisis, Brian and Pas’s role as custodians of queer memory and their generosity in cultivating spaces for inter-generational dialogue – not to mention a lot of fun – deserves to be celebrated.

Outside his life in London and Deal on the Kent coast, Brian fell in love first with Paris, where he opened a small gallery in the Marais district, and, latterly, Venice, a city he took great joy in immersing himself and his visitors in. From Portadown to a restored palazzo on the Grand Canal, that infectious spirit of discovery and delight characterised a life well lived. Brian leaves a rich and kaleidoscopic imprint on the lives of countless friends and colleagues in the film industry, and far beyond.

• Brian Robinson, 16 April 1959 to 30 July 2026