Groundbreaking 1958 film featuring same-sex kiss to premiere at special screening in Norwich
By: Communications
A remarkable piece of LGBTQ+ screen history has been rediscovered at the East Anglian Film Archive (EAFA). Man On His Mind, a short film made in 1958 by amateur filmmaker Eric Gibbins, will receive its first known public screening at Cinema City, Norwich, on Thursday 21 May 2026.
The film explores the relationship between two men through a series of lyrical vignettes presented as memories of their time together. Opening with a break-up on a country road outside Cambridge, the narrative follows a brooding protagonist as he recalls moments of joy, intimacy and longing, culminating in a romantic reunion and a historic on-screen kiss. The film is underscored by Jimmy Young’s 1955 recording of Unchained Melody.
Man On His Mind is historically significant for its tender depiction of a same-sex kiss at a time when homosexuality was illegal in the UK, with severe legal consequences for those involved. Its survival offers a rare insight into queer creativity, emotional expression and resistance during a period of repression.
The film forms part of Man on His Mind: A Night With Eric Gibbins and the Buckfast Players, a special screening event presenting four short films made by Gibbins with the help of actors and crew from his theatre troupe during the 1950s and early 1960s. Shown together, the films reveal not only recurring themes of love, secrecy and longing, but also Gibbins’ clear progression as a filmmaker. Across the programme, his growing confidence with narrative structure, pacing and visual storytelling is evident, alongside particularly strong characterisation and emotional nuance. Despite being made outside the professional film industry, the films are strikingly sophisticated examples of amateur filmmaking, combining ambition, restraint and tenderness.
Man On His Mind was rediscovered through the Community Curating Project, a collaboration between Queer Norfolk and the East Anglian Film Archive, supported by the BFI Screen Heritage Fund awarding National Lottery funding. The project has been working with LGBTQ+ communities to create The Queer Screen Heritage Survival Guide, offering practical advice for individuals and community groups on preserving their own film and video material in their own voices.
Sam Tring, Queer Norfolk Project Consultant and LGBTQ+ screen heritage researcher, said: “The discovery of Man On His Mind has been the perfect anecdote for this project. We have this extraordinary film, made during a time of extreme repression towards queer people. It’s hugely romantic — not just in its depiction of the love between two men, but in how confidently and carefully it is constructed. When seen alongside Gibbins’ other films, it becomes clear that he was a thoughtful and ambitious storyteller whose work deserves serious attention.”
Dr Nick Warr, Associate Professor at the University of East Anglia and Academic Director of the East Anglian Film Archive, added: “As we celebrate the East Anglian Film Archive’s 50th anniversary, the discovery of these films is a timely reminder of why archives matter. To uncover such a tender expression of love in a time of repression is a powerful testament to the courage and creativity that has always existed. It is a privilege for the archive to bring this lost work to audiences today.”
The screening will include three additional short films from the Eric Gibbins collection, each exploring love and relationships through narratives that often engage with social taboo and coded emotional expression:
- The Hour Before Love (1957): in a rural town, an affair between an older woman and a younger man faces the harsh glare of gossip and judgment.
- The Innocents (1961): a young man returns with his girlfriend to his childhood home, where memories of first love and pain of growing up resurface.
- White Tie and Marmalade (c. 1961): a glamourous couple’s night out take a surreal turn when car trouble leads to an encounter with a mysterious woman by the river.
Eric Gibbins (1916–1978) was born in Leicester and later joined the teaching staff at St Faith’s Preparatory School in Cambridge. During the Second World War, the school was evacuated to Ashburton, Devon, where Gibbins began a decades-long creative collaboration with Moyra Babington and the Buckfast Players, starring in and directing plays at The Studio Theatre. Alongside theatre, he produced a body of films between the early 1950s and late 1960s, some of which are held by the East Anglian Film Archive.
Man on His Mind: A Night With Eric Gibbins and the Buckfast Players will take place at Cinema City, Norwich, on Thursday 21 May 2026 at 8.15pm. Tickets are free and available to book on the Picturehouse website.
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