Outsiders: Dressing for Pleasure: The Films of John Samson (DVD)

For years John Samson (1946-2004) has been the best kept secret in British documentary film-making. The documentary films he made in the period 1973 to 1983, collected here for the first time, are exemplary - once he had touched a subject, it was very difficult for other film-makers to follow. His aesthetic was to capture poetics, and to pull themes through a central metaphor. His technique was to hand over the storytelling to the persons he was interviewing - so his films represent the highlight of factual film making that is delivered without voice-over commentary. Samson's working class roots and passionate interest in radical politics and bohemia fueled what would turn out to be a life-long fascination with individuals and groups operating at the margins of society. His subjects are people with unusual lives and obsessions, luminal figures who fail to square neatly with the models for identity and behavior propagated by contemporary culture. This unique collection pulls together the complete works of John Samson and demonstrates the vision of a brilliant director whose genius is only now beginning to be recognized.