I was chatting one lunchtime at work, about family skeletons in the closet, when my friend Val Miles mentioned her uncle Sydney. The more she spoke about Sydney the more interested I became.
Sydney had lived opposite her in Uckfield, with his sister, Val’s mother. After Sydney passed away, Val cleared out Sydney’s room and discovered his stash of gay magazines and newspapers from the ’70s and ’80s, as well as personal papers that revealed he’d been a member of Liberty and the Campaign for Homosexual Equality.
But best of all, she discovered his private photo collection covering his time in the army during world war two, his army boyfriend Nick and lots more. She had never seen them before.
After seeing all his papers and photos I joked with Val that we had enough material to make a film of his life… so we decided to do it! Val’s family had always lead her to believe there was something ‘unsavoury’ about Uncle Sydney, something that shouldn’t be talked about. That thought never left me, and it became obvious what we should call the film.
Telling Sydney’s story
The film took a couple of years to make, despite the end result being only 6 minutes long. Most of the photos were scratched from being stored unprotected in a plastic carrier bag for a number of decades, so I spent a long time touching them up. But they were so lovely it really felt worth the effort.
To quote Val herself “Alf had to be very patient with me as we tried to dig out dates and times from my memory. However we got there in the end and my uncle Sydney has been given the recognition he so rightly deserves after being a ‘skeleton in the cupboard’ of my family for many years.”
This is a very personal story and I’m really grateful to Val sharing it. It’s also an example of how easily our history is lost. I’m sure there are many men and women who have similar stories to Sydney’s, we were just lucky that Val saw the value in her uncle’s possessions after his death.
One last thing: I’ve been told the film should come with a mascara warning, not that there is shocking use of mascara in the film, more that it’s a very personal story which I know some people have found emotional. So… let’s talk about Sydney.
Screenings
The film has been screened on a couple of occasions:
- Southwark Pride Festival, Ivy House, Nunhead, Tuesday 2 July 2019
- Shorts out! at FilmPride, Latest Bar, Brighton, Sunday 4 August 2019.
