I’ve been obsessing over 120 Beats Per Minute since I first saw it and have been wanting to talk about it with anyone willing. I did a recent podcast with Michael Glass on the film as part of the Eavesdropping at the Movies podcast. And this is one of what I hope will be at least several conversations on the film. If the first podcast was in conjunction with a young heterosexual critic, this one is with a young queer arts producer/ art maker: Adam Carver is a designer, theatre-maker and creative producer for SHOUT, the Festival of Queer Arts and Culture in Birmingham. I wanted to talk to him because almost all of my conversations on the film had been with people more or less my age, people who’d come out in the 80s, lived some of the experiences represented in the film first-hand, and with whom I more or less shared all the responses the film elicited. I wanted to talk to Adam not only because of his interests in queer arts and culture but also because he’s much younger, several generations younger, and would bring a different and, to me, much needed perspective on the experience of watching the film. I hope some of you at least will find the conversation interesting and useful.

José Arroyo