Val’s family had always lead her to believe there was something ‘unsavoury’ about Uncle Sydney, something that shouldn’t be talked about. They were wrong!
VAL’S uncle Sydney lived opposite her in Uckfield for 20 years, before retiring to a nursing home in Worthing.
Over lunch one day Val Miles and researcher Alf Le Flohic started chatting about family and skeletons in the closet, and she mentioned her uncle Sydney.
When Val cleared out his room after Sydney passed away, she discovered his stash of gay magazines and newspapers from the 70s and 80s as well as personal papers that revealed he’d been a member of Liberty and the Campaign for Homosexual Equality.
But the best was yet to come, when she discovered his private photo collection covering his time in the army during world war two, his army boyfriend Nick and lots more.
Alf said: “The more she spoke about Sydney the more interested I became. I joked with Val that we had enough material to make a film of his life… so we decided to do just that.
“It’s taken a couple of years to make as many of the photos had to be cleaned up before they could be used, having been stored unprotected in a plastic carrier bag for a number of decades. Once Val showed me the photos I knew they deserved to be shared, as well as Sydney’s story too.”
Val added: “My input came from scrambling about in dusty loft spaces searching out the family photos and poor Alf had to be very patient with me as we tried to dig out dates and times from my memory. However we got there in the end and my uncle Sydney has been given the recognition he so rightly deserves after being a “skeleton in the cupboard” of my family for many years.”
Let’s Talk About Sydney will be screened in full at FILMPRIDE 2019 at The Latest Bar, Manchester Street, on Sunday, August 4 before the premier of the new documentary about Peter Tatchell – Activist at 4pm.
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