Naked and Famous: Tricky

dir. Mark Kidel, UK, 1997, 52 min

The first of Kidel’s self-shot documentaries, “Naked and Famous” is a surprisingly intimate and revealing portrait of Bristol’s self-taught maverick and musical genius. Proud of his ‘mongrel’ family, Adrian Thaws (aka Tricky) tells the story of his creative journey from a world of part-gypsy entertainers and mixed-race gangsters in the working-class suburb of Knowle West to acclaim as one of the most original musicians of his generation.

A film about passion, instinct and the courage to be different.

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Boy Next Door

dir. Mark Kidel, UK, 1994, 51 min

Made as Boy George re-emerged as a solo artist after a period of severe heroin addiction, the film explores the background to his emergence as the gender-bending star of Culture Club and his descent into self-destructive behaviour.

Friends and family provide insightful contributions to George’s own very candid and humourous account of his rise, fall and rise again, while writer Jon Savage explains George’s journey with a sharp sense of the singer’s sense that he had betrayed his sexuality in presenting himself in Culture Club as a sexless doll-like figure, at time when being gay as a rock star got in the way of mass success.