A TV documentary will chart Brighton’s gay history with the help of National Lottery funding.
A film is being made by Latest Group Community Interest Company (CIC) as part of a wider project to create a permanent digital archive.
Latest said that the story of Brighton and Hove’s LGBTIQ past would be told from all gender perspectives.
The start of the Live and Let Live project was welcomed by Brighton Kemptown MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle at an event at the Latest Music Bar, in Manchester Street, Brighton, today (Monday 26 March).
Latest said: “Over the course of the coming year the project will be created and screened in Manchester Street both internally and externally.
“The projections will be an all-encompassing colourful display of the large archive of fascinating material that we have on video and film and on posters, flyers, newspaper and magazines. The project will use this unique resource of visual history.
“We have been promoting events in Brighton since 1978 and publishing magazines since 1982 and filming professionally throughout this century and before.
“We will chart Brighton and Hove’s LGBTIQ history from both female and male perspectives, indeed from all gender perspectives, in this, the most liberal of British cities.
“It was not always like this and we will credit those who built this beacon of hope and diversity that is the modern city of Brighton and Hove.”
Mr Russell-Moyle, who is also a patron of Latest Group CIC and supported the funding bid, said: “I am thrilled that the CIC has received this award from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
“And I am confident that this exhibition will attract audiences in huge numbers and hundreds of participants who will join in celebrating the diversity of our city and take advantage of the learning opportunities that it will offer.
“An exhibition of this kind will create a focus of attention for both visitors and locals and help in what I believe in most passionately – the regeneration of St James’s Street and Kemp Town village and east Brighton – east of the pier – as one of the city’s most vibrant communities.
“We don’t talk diversity. We are diversity. We live and let live.
“We’ve seen the support from the public over here and indeed across Brighton and Hove for the Madeira Terraces. East of the pier the rebirth continues with this project.”
Michelle Roffe, head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in south east England, said: “We are delighted to support Latest Group CIC in exploring Brighton and Hove’s LGBT+ heritage through local people’s stories, archives and film.
“Thanks to National Lottery players, participants will learn new skills and explore their heritage while providing a lasting record of this important heritage for wider communities, both locally and beyond.”
Live And Let Live will work with professionals and volunteers, with access to training and educational opportunities, among the Andy Garth, owner of the shop Brighton and Hove Stuff.
Latest CIC said: “We would like to thank the Heritage Lottery Fund and all the National Lottery players who have made this possible.
“The exhibition will also be available to be viewed online and accessed by other organisations globally.
“At the end of the project, archive materials will be donated to the Keep to ensure they are accessible to all.”
