Studio One Forever review – affectionate look back at LA’s legendary gay club

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Frequented by those looking for a refuge from homophobia, this documentary charts the history of the venue and the effort to save its cultural legacy ‘It used to be paradise. Now it’s a straight club.” The dismay is obvious when a bunch of former regulars at Studio One, the legendary West Hollywood gay club, take a tour of the venue in 2019. From 1974 until 1993, 9pm to 2am, seven nights a week, men packed the dancefloor of Studio One. “It was the happiest place on Earth,” remembers one. Looking at the photographs you can almost smell the sweat. One ex employee says that so many guys were taking poppers you could get a head-rush high simply by breathing in on the dance floor. The story of Studio One is told in this affectionate, nostalgic documentary. Film-maker Marc Saltarelli interviews men who were there and follows a campaign in 2019 to save the Studio One building – a former factory – from demolition. When it opened in 1974, homophobia was rife outside. Studio One was a place wh
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BFI apologises to film-maker over racial discrimination complaint

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CEO Ben Roberts admits Faisal Qureshi has been ‘let down’ after report finds his complaint was badly handled

The chief executive of the British Film Institute has apologised to a prominent film-maker of colour for mishandling his complaint about racial discrimination.

The apology from Ben Roberts comes after an independent report found that the BFI had “badly handled” a complaint by Faisal Qureshi, the producer behind hit UK film Four Lions, and that it was “understandable that [he] feels deeply dissatisfied”.

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