Strip Jack Naked: Nighthawks II

By: Raymond Murray
In-House Review - Mar 20 2006

Intercutting outtakes from his groundbreaking 1978 gay film Nighthawks (reportedly the first independent gay film made in Great Britain) with new footage, director Ron Peck narrates this personal journey of sexual and political self-discovery and growth and links it with the nascent 1970s gay liberation movement as well. In this mesmeric documentary, the director recounts his childhood growing up a closeted gay, his first forays into the secretive gay world of the London bar and pick-up scenes, and his determination to make a film about that lifestyle. The best sequences are the ones describing the 1970s world of gay men's sexual abandonment, where liberation meant having sex with as many men as you could. It is the change of thinking from the sexual to the social and political that changed both the life of the director as well as the direction of the gay movement. A fascinating subject in gay history, made with great insight and feeling.