film

No Man is an Island

BFI Doc Society: Made of Truth

Director

John Craine

Producer

Diarmuid Hughes

 

Production support

 

Through verbatim reconstruction No Man Is An Island tells the story of how the Isle of Man came to decriminalise homosexual acts in 1992. The film follows the parliamentary debates around changing the law, the febrile atmosphere on the island as activists protested at Tynwald Day, the 1991 general election campaign where gay sex seemed to be on the ballot, and the police raids of public toilets where gay men would meet. The film specially explores ideas around social shame and the media as an extra-judicial mechanism for social control in small communities.