Strip Jack Naked: Nighthawks II

When Nighthawks was released, its sincere but self-pitying study of a gay London teacher searching for Mr Right while struggling to emerge from the closet already looked dated. A dozen years on, Peck attempts to put his feelings at that time into some sort of context, mixing personal and political histories with a selection of out-takes from the original movie. Though it doesn't really work - the dreamy connecting shots of naked men fiddling with an editing machine are far too self-consciously arty - there are moments which, due to Peck's readiness to reveal his own discomfort, achieve a genuine if somewhat naive poignancy. His story begins with an unrequited schoolboy crush, proceeds through years of guilt and repression, and ends on a note of hope, with Peck arguing that the gay community's reaction to AIDS has made it both more conspicuous and more united. As autobiographical documentary, the film is ambitious, earnest, heartfelt; as a history of the British gay experience, it suffers from excessive subjectivity.