Coil

condition (videocassette/cover): M (unplayed) / NM
An altogether more sobering piece than Basilisk's 'Sara Dale...' sex ed VHS title from the same year, yet still finding time to exploit the loophole around the repressively censorious BBFC of the time with lots of gay sex scenes (used for the purposes of "education", of course), this 'lost' film linked to the Terrence Higgins Trust charity, is also an important 1992 time capsule for the UK gay community in several ways. Along with the narration conducted in an earnest yoof presenting style and the groundbreaking gay sex scenes themselves (for its time), there's contextual set-ups involving actors on location (one chap from the UK cop show 'The Bill' appearing) and, for the most nostalgic of people, some great vintage crowd scenes shot in several classic gay bars, the early 1990s apparently still in the tight grip of 1980s fashion. Gay clubs and book shops featured and thanked in the film credits for their participation in the project include Gay’s The Word, First Out, Compton's Long Yang Club, Benjy's, The Angel, and Black Cap.