The British Guide to Showing Off

Directed by Jes Benstock Club, IFI, Dublin, 98 min

TRUE, THIS documentary on the Alternative Miss World does not demand to be seen on the world’s biggest screen. Though elegantly composed and punctuated with pretty animations, the picturefilm is a small thing that would work perfectly well on TV.

That grumpy proviso noted, we urge anyone even vaguely interested in English subcultures of the late 20th century to make their way to this joyful, punky film. The British Guide to Showing Offrelates how Andrew Logan, a sculptor from a moneyed background, devised the Alternative Miss World in 1972 and – despite occasional solicitor's letters from the real Miss World – has somehow kept the jamboree breathing for the succeeding four decades.

A superficial definition would cast AMW (as it is abbreviated) as a competition for drag artists. In truth it’s much more than that. We watch delighted as a host of nascent anti-celebrities – Derek Jarman, Grayson Perry, John Maybury – attempt to divert the judges with unimaginably elaborate costumes.

Moving from the dying days of swinging London through punk and on to the Blitz kids and the Aids years, the film offers a potted history of one corner of the British underground. It’s a happy place, though it offers a slightly melancholy payoff. Whereas the early contestants were genuinely on the fringes of society, the outrageous camp that AMW celebrates now seems part of the mainstream. (Swatch sponsored a recent event.) The 2009 event shown here seems awfully good fun, but even the angriest curmudgeon would struggle to view it with disgust or anxiety.

Oh well. There are downsides to everything, even inclusiveness. Enjoy the amusing contributions in this likable film and pay attention to the huge beast sitting beside Brian Eno. We have our cinematic cat of the year.