20th Anniversary Special Screening of Brokeback Mountain at BLOC Cinema

When: Monday, December 8, 2025, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Where: BLOC Cinema, Mile End

Join us for a special 20th anniversary screening of Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, a landmark film that reshaped contemporary queer cinema and remains one of the most enduring love stories in 21st-century film history.

About the Film

Following the global success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain marked a pivotal moment in Ang Lee’s career. Adapted from Annie Proulx’s acclaimed short story, the film brings Lee’s signature emotional precision into an entirely new terrain:
the rugged masculinity of the American West, the quiet ache of forbidden intimacy, and the unspeakable weight of identity shaped by time and place.

Shot across the United States and Canada, Brokeback Mountain blends the vastness of the Western landscape with Lee’s deeply sensitive, humanistic storytelling. Upon its release in 2005, it became a cultural phenomenon—hailed for its emotional power, its groundbreaking depiction of queer desire, and its unforgettable performances by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal.

The film went on to earn Ang Lee the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, multiple major awards including BAFTA, the Golden Globes, PGA, and Critics’ Choice, and three Academy Awards, including Best Director.

Today, it stands as both a queer classic and a universal story of memory, longing, and the lives lived between silence and desire.

Why a 20th Anniversary Screening?

Re-screening Brokeback Mountain twenty years later is not only a tribute to its artistic achievements—it is an invitation to revisit its emotional resonance in a changing world.

Its themes—love constrained by social norms, identities formed through repression, the persistence of memory—continue to echo today with undiminished force.

Two decades on, the film has lost none of its quiet, devastating beauty. Instead, it has gained new layers of meaning, reminding us how cinema captures not only a moment in time but the shifting horizons of our own lives.

On 8 December, we return to Jack and Ennis’s story—to the mountains, to the silence, to the fragile tenderness that continues to move audiences around the world.

Event Details

📅 Monday, 8 December 2025
🕕 18:00 – 20:30 (includes a short pre-screening introduction)
📍 BLOC Cinema, ArtsOne Building
Queen Mary University of London
1 Westfield Way, London E1 4PD

⏱ Please arrive on time. A 10-minute introduction will begin shortly before the screening.

Pre-Screening Introduction by Professor Chris Berry

Chris Berry is Professor of Film Studies at King's College London, where he has taught modules on queer cinema and Chinese-language cinemas, as well as a module on the films of Ang Lee. His essay 'The Chinese Side of the Mountain' provides an alternative reading of the film that will frame his introduction.

Film Credits

Director: Ang Lee
Writers: Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana, Annie Proulx
Cast: Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway, Kate Mara
Language: English
Running Time: 134 minutes
Release: 2005 (Venice Film Festival World Premiere)

Presented by Green Ray

A London-based film organisation dedicated to screenings, criticism, and bridging conversations across cinema, culture, and community.

Instagram: @greenraylondon
Email: info.greenlightscreening@gmail.com