Dorothy Towers (2022)
Dorothy Towers tells the story of the legendary Clydesdale and Cleveland Towers – two residential blocks in the centre of Birmingham, UK. Completed in 1971 as part of a social housing development and located adjacent to Birmingham’s Gay Village, the towers’ proximity to the LGBTQ+ community has long made them a haven for queer residents.
The 31-minute, 16mm film opens a space for reflection on the complex relationship between architecture, community, and memory. It features testimonials from current and former residents, exploring ideas of queer kinship and inheritance alongside experiences of HIV in the 1980s and ’90s. Dorothy Towers situates the buildings within a historical continuum that stretches from the city’s postwar redevelopment to its nightclubs and modernist underpasses.
A live score – composed and performed by Sean Burns and Lai Power – accompanied the film’s initial screening at Vivid Projects, Birmingham, alongside a new installation produced by the local practice Intervention Architecture. Owain Harrison’s accompanying text, A Cornucopia of Experience, merges the factual history of Dorothy Towers – the colloquial name given to the buildings by local LGBTQ+ communities, owing to the number of queer residents – with a fictional narrative based on first-hand testimonials.
Dorothy Towers first screened at Vivid Projects, Birmingham, in September 2022. It subsequently appeared at Auto Italia and the British Film Institute, London (2023); the Edinburgh Art Festival (2023); TULCA Festival of Visual Arts, Galway (2023); the Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts, Sussex (2023); Goswell Road, Paris, and Coridoor Project, Oslo (2025).
Dorothy Towers Playlist was a documentary film series programmed by Sean Burns for the Flatpack Film Festival, Birmingham. The film was the centrepiece of a solo exhibition at the Edinburgh Art Festival, where the artist hosted workshops on the city’s queer histories in collaboration with partners including Dr Cole Collins, the Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive, and the Lothian Health Service Archive.
A selection of press links is available here.
Dorothy Towers was supported by Arts Council England, National Lottery Heritage Fund and Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Images: Sean Burns, Dorothy Towers, 2022, 16mm film still. Installation photographs: Stuart Whipps
The 31-minute, 16mm film opens a space for reflection on the complex relationship between architecture, community, and memory. It features testimonials from current and former residents, exploring ideas of queer kinship and inheritance alongside experiences of HIV in the 1980s and ’90s. Dorothy Towers situates the buildings within a historical continuum that stretches from the city’s postwar redevelopment to its nightclubs and modernist underpasses.
A live score – composed and performed by Sean Burns and Lai Power – accompanied the film’s initial screening at Vivid Projects, Birmingham, alongside a new installation produced by the local practice Intervention Architecture. Owain Harrison’s accompanying text, A Cornucopia of Experience, merges the factual history of Dorothy Towers – the colloquial name given to the buildings by local LGBTQ+ communities, owing to the number of queer residents – with a fictional narrative based on first-hand testimonials.
Dorothy Towers first screened at Vivid Projects, Birmingham, in September 2022. It subsequently appeared at Auto Italia and the British Film Institute, London (2023); the Edinburgh Art Festival (2023); TULCA Festival of Visual Arts, Galway (2023); the Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts, Sussex (2023); Goswell Road, Paris, and Coridoor Project, Oslo (2025).
Dorothy Towers Playlist was a documentary film series programmed by Sean Burns for the Flatpack Film Festival, Birmingham. The film was the centrepiece of a solo exhibition at the Edinburgh Art Festival, where the artist hosted workshops on the city’s queer histories in collaboration with partners including Dr Cole Collins, the Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive, and the Lothian Health Service Archive.
A selection of press links is available here.
Dorothy Towers was supported by Arts Council England, National Lottery Heritage Fund and Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Images: Sean Burns, Dorothy Towers, 2022, 16mm film still. Installation photographs: Stuart Whipps