Academic literature on the topic 'LGBTQ Cinema'

Abstract This article examines representations of LGBTQ+ female protagonists in three recent Italian horror films: La terza madre (The Mother of Tears) by Dario Argento (2008), A Pezzi: Undead Men by Alessia Di Giovanni and Daniele Statella (2013) and The Antithesis by Mirabelli (2017). As homosexuality traditionally falls within the realm of the abject (that which is expelled) in horror films, the genre serves as a medium through which we may assess national and global sensibilities about LGBTQ+ identities. Filmic textual analysis and a consideration of horror and melodrama conventions reveal how these protagonists expose cultural anxieties about non-normative sexual orientations in Italy today. While these films include minority protagonists and offer some resistance to discrimination, they ultimately represent homosexuality as a threat to mainstream Italian culture.

Since the year 2000, twenty Icelandic films have been produced which could be aptly grouped as LGBTQ+ or queer Icelandic cinema. This “queer turn” in Icelandic cinema emerges as the nation makes strides in advancing LGBTQ+ rights and as its demographics markedly shift, first-generation immigrants now comprising 12.6 per cent of the population. These changes have not occurred in a vacuum, and the films discussed in this article complicate the boundary between native and foreign, Icelandic and non-Icelandic, alongside their centering of queer characters and stories. In addition to narrative focus on coming-out and sexuality, many of the films within “Icelandic queer cinema” thematize race and ethnicity, often through the inclusion of foreign characters living and traveling in Iceland.This collection of films is thus well suited to exploring the interlocking national and sexual regulations which produce the Icelandic nation state. This article explores conceptions of the Icelandic nation state in two films that span Icelandic cinema’s “queer turn,” Baltasar Kormákur’s 101 Reykjavík (2000) and Ísold Uggadóttir’s Andið eðlilega (And Breathe Normally, 2018). In tracing representations of racialized otherness within these films and taking theoretical cues from critical race theory and queer of color critique, this article considers the ways in which race and ethnicity co-constitute categories of sex, gender, and sexual orientation. Ultimately, this article poses “Icelandic queer cinema” as a key site for the contemporary negotiation of the meaning of national and sexual belonging in Iceland.

Power of variety. Review of the book The Contemporary Israeli Cinema 2 ed. by Joanna Preizner, Kraków 2018, 260 pp.Israeli contemporary cinema, according to many critics, is one of the most interesting world cinemas. Such theses can be concluded from the first series of the books on Israeli cinema — Contemporary Israeli Cinema ed. by J. Preizner, Austeria, Kraków 2015. This book was well received by the academic environment. Thus, the authors and the editor of it decided to create a second similar work. It was definitely a good decision. The reader can check it out at the very beginning of lecture, reading the introduction, written by Joanna Preizner. It is a text ardent in tone and elegant in style. A very important quality of the book is its broad spectrum of the themes of the articles it consists of. There are in it presentations of the splendid film accomplishments, touching some difficult motives of the Israeli society: condition of women, homosexual relationships and the situation of the LGBT environment and also the ghetto condition of contemporary Hasidim, which is similar to their condition in the 16th-century Europe.

The transformation of the concepts ―mass culture‖, ―pop culture‖ and those artistic genres, which are their components, in the scientific discourse of the 19th-21stI centuries is traced. The ways and results of the interaction of modern culture and society, which is the end-user of the cultural product, are studied. Some examples of modern cinema and music industry are analyzed, and it is determined that these two components being the most used by the consumer spheres of art directly reflect the world social trends. After having considered the key social processes it is possible to conclude that they are brightly represented in the modern popular music and this fact allowed not only to specify and systematize the ways of interaction between the music art and its consumers, but also to trace the ways of how exactly a mass consumer shapes the functioning and development of a popular and mass product. The ideas of combating various discriminations (by gender, identification - as in the case of LGBTQ+ community, by physique, etc.) and the creation of unified polycultural space have been defined as the most common ideas, that are broadcasting by performers. Therefore, in the analysis of selected works of pop music, a polycultural approach was used, which allows to consider them in terms of the synthesis of cultures and the formation of a global product, i.e. the one that will be understood and accessible to everyone. The analytical section includes compositions written by performers over the past few years that makes this analysis relevant and demonstrates that isolated trends occur now and continue to transform and change. Such comprehensive approach to the study of the mass culture can be useful to clarify the definition of this concept, as the interpretation and evaluation of this phenomenon of scientists today differs, despite the significant number of the mass culture studies and its individual forms in various fields of science — philosophy, culturology, sociology, psychology

From September 2017 to June 2020 the University of the Balearic Islands organised a monthly film workshop called Aules Sense Armaris: Cinema LGBTIQ+ a la UIB focused on giving visibility to affective and sexual diversity through film analysis in a university context. Each film was introduced with an interview with a queer activist or cultural expert related to the particular topics the film addressed, and after the screening a cinematographic and critical discussion was held in which the students contributed either with their own reflections or asking questions to the guests. This article exposes the necessity of approaching and celebrating sexual diversity from the university classroom as a form of activism. It also describes the as well as describing the criteria that were followed when choosing the films, how the monthly workshops took place and the most interesting conclusions from the post-film debates between activists, university students and spectators.

The advocacy for gayism and lesbianism in Nigeria is informed by transnational cultural processes, transculturalism, interculturalism, multiculturalism and globalisation. Although critical dimensions on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) are becoming recurrent subjects in Nigerian scholarship, scholarly works on LGBT, sexual identity and Nigerian cinema remain scarce. Perhaps, this is because of indigenous Nigerian cultural processes. While Chimamanda Adichie, a Nigerian novelist cum socio-political activist, campaigns against marginalisation and subjugation of gays and lesbians and for their integration into the Nigerian cultural system, numerous African socio-cultural and political activists hold a view that is dialectical to Adichie’s. The position of the members of the anti-gay group was further strengthened with the institution of stringent laws against gay practice in Nigeria by the President Goodluck Jonathan led government in 2014. In recent times, the gay, bisexual, transgender and lesbian cultures have been a source of raw material for filmmakers. Some of the thematic preoccupations of films have bordered on questions such as: what does it mean to be gay? Why are gays marginalised? Are gays socially constructed? What is the future of the advocacy for gay and lesbian liberation in Nigeria? Although most Nigerian film narratives are destructive critiques of the gay culture, the purpose of this research is not to cast aspersion on the moral dimension of LGBT. Rather, I argue that films on LGBT create spaces and maps for a critical exploration of the gay question. While the paper investigates the politics of gay culture in Nigerian cinema, I also posit that gays and lesbians are socio-culturally rather than biologically constructed. This research adopts literary and content analysis methods to engage Moses Ebere’s Men in Love with reference to other home videos on the gay and lesbian motifs.

A filmografia de Pedro Almodóvar possui uma intrincada articulação entre sexualidade, gênero e polá­tica. Seu cinema rompe com estereótipos de gênero, inaugurando diferentes maneiras de se viver e representar as feminilidades e masculinidades, através de corpos estigmatizados e vistos como abjetos. O diretor rompe também com o binarismo identitário e as estruturas de poder conservadoras, permitindo que diferentes subjetividades sejam forjadas fora dos moldes da heteronormatividade. Neste artigo é feita uma busca e análise de personagens LGBTs dentro da sua obra cinematográfica, tendo como ponto de partida o contexto histórico espanhol ainda sob os efeitos do governo ditatorial de Francisco Franco. A partir dos anos 1980, a homossexualidade e a travestilidade ganharam projeção social maior, não podendo mais ser silenciadas ou condicionadas aos guetos e á marginalidade. Desse momento em diante, aquilo que estava sendo reprimido pela moral cristã ou pelos governos conservadores ganhou potência e impactou o cinema.Palavras-chave: Almodóvar. Corpos. Sexualidades.[UN]TURNED BODIES, MASCULINITIES AND FEMININITIES: a genealogy of subjects that permeate the cinema of Pedro AlmodóvarAbstract: Pedro Almodóvar's filmography has an intricate articulation between sexuality, gender and politics. His cinema breaks gender stereotypes, inaugurating different ways of living and representing femininity and masculinity, through bodies that are stigmatized and seen as abject. The director takes a break from identity binarism and traditional power structures, allowing for different subjectivities to be created outside the mold of heteronormativity. In this article I will analyze LGBT personages in the Almodóvar movies, taking as a starting point the Spanish historical context still under the effects of the dictatorial government of Francisco Franco. From the 1980s onwards, homosexuality and transsexuality gained greater social projection, and could no longer be silenced or limited to ghettos. From that moment on, what was being repressed by Christian morality or conservative governments gained power and impacted the cinema.Keywords: Almodóvar. Bodies. Sexualities.CUERPOS, MASCULINIDADES Y FEMINILIDADES DESVIADAS: una genealogá­a de los sujetos que pasan por el cine de Pedro AlmodóvarResumen: La filmografá­a de Pedro Almodóvar tiene una intrincada articulación entre sexualidad, género y polá­tica. Su cine rompe con los estereotipos de género, inaugurando diferentes formas de vivir la feminidad y la masculinidad, a través de cuerpos estigmatizados y vistos como abyectos. El director rompe también con el binarismo de identidad y las estructuras de poder conservadoras. Esto permite forjar diferentes subjetividades fuera del molde de la heteronormatividad. En este artá­culo se realiza una búsqueda y análisis de personajes LGBTs dentro de su trabajo cinematográfico, tomando como punto de partida el contexto histórico español bajo los efectos del gobierno dictatorial de Francisco Franco. A partir de la década de 1980, la homosexualidad y la travestilidad obtuvieron una mayor proyección social, y ya no pudieron ser silenciadas o condicionadas en los guetos y en la marginalidad. A partir de ese momento, lo que estaba siendo reprimido por la moral cristiana o los gobiernos conservadores ganó poder e impactó el cine.Palabras clave: Almodóvar. Cuerpos. Sexualidades.

RESUMO Este artigo analisa uma postagem publicada no site espanhol Dos Manzanas, que predica Pedro Almodóvar como "pedagogo da realidade LGBT", e alguns dos comentários que esta suscita. Interessa-nos estudar a reflexividade metapragmática que essa pedagogia produz numa discussão online que avalia se a cinematografia almodovariana projeta uma fachada (GOFFMAN, [1967] 2011) favorável para o coletivo em questão. Para tal, focamos em processos de indexicalidade, de entextualização e escalares na construção de significados. O que se observa é que os textos fílmicos, ao serem entextualizados no referido site de notícias LGBT, mobilizam escalas, que inspiram posicionamentos das/dos participantes. Se, por um lado, tais posicionamentos questionam privilégios heteronormativos (BUTLER, 1990), por outro resvalam em essencialismos nada estratégicos (SPIVAK, 1988; BUTLER, 1990).

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Through a queer perspective, this study aims to investigate the representations of LGBT characters in documentaries produced in southern Brazil between 2000 and 2014. By understanding sexuality as a historical device regulation and social order, we discussed how these films appear the representations of gender, body and sexuality of "abject subject" and how to take or not a counteraesthetics and resistance to sexed and gendered norms. Representations as anchors narratives contribute to understanding the processes of imagining and recognize each other, because every film produces representations submitted to the view of a self enunciator, that is, as others see us and design in the film portraits. Postulate that horizon, the intention of this work unfolds in: (1) investigate the ethical stances of the works to articulate the film universe, leading the meanings given to LGBT characters; (2) analyze how the technical and stylistic devices used in the documentary contribute or not to the subversions of discriminatory film portraits; and (3) understand what are the representations that this movie has figured to establish (and down) his speech and queer aesthetics. The choice of the timeline is justified, first, by demarcating the post resumption of Brazilian cinema (NAGIB, 2002). Second, the emergence of a more committed national films with various representations of LGBT people (GARCIA, 2012). Third, it is from the year 2002 there is a greater heating of the national documentary production (Maruno, 2008). And fourth, the configuration of the LGBT movement in the last decade, which struggle for media spaces - including the cinema to give social existence to his speeches against hegemonic (SIMÕES, FACHINI, 2009). 19 mapped movies, analysis procedures underlie the prior literature and the analysis method filmic representation of LGBT characters that make up the filmic scenarios. In the end, it was possible to infer that, in general, the mapped films and analyzed share of an organic commitment to represent these subjects differently, developing an alternative and opposed to negative and stereotypical representations speech, humanizing the subjects that were out of a possible "humanity." Representing these oppositions and resistances to the discourses of prejudiced order, the filmic representations advance, at times, for upgrades and (re) signification of a place that would serve only to reinforce a control and exclusion strategy. However, to constantly seek to oppose the discourses of prejudiced order, some of these movies fall into the trap of reframing representations of these people characters in hegemonic terms, valuing speeches and aesthetic sanitized and aseptic rather reinvent and circumvent the very discursive regime which elects and defines how LGBT should behave to achieve a status of "viable life". While others bet on an identity reification and some open onto views of homosexuality, travestilidade, transsexuality or bisexuality as real critical land deconstruction of sex / gender, representing these subjects through ethnic and identity model. However, there are those films that are not just concerned with opposing the stereotyped portraits, to draw up a positive image of LGBT or reduce your creativity to an identity reification. In addition, betting on a resistance representation is also counterproductive contrasexual and queer.
Através de uma perspectiva queer, este estudo tem por objetivo investigar as representações das personagens LGBT nos documentários produzidos na região Sul do Brasil, entre 2000 e 2014. Ao compreender a sexualidade como um dispositivo histórico de regulação e ordem social, problematizamos como estes filmes figuram as representações de gênero, corpo e sexualidades dos sujeitos abjetos e como assumem ou não uma estética contraprodutiva e de resistência as normas sexuadas e generificadas. As representações, enquanto âncoras narrativas, contribuem para compreender os processos de imaginar e reconhecer o outro, pois todo filme produz representações submetidas ao ponto de vista de um eu enunciador, isto é, como o outro nos vê e nos projeta em retratos fílmicos. Postulado esse horizonte, a intenção desse trabalho se desdobra em: (1) investigar as posturas éticas das obras para articular o universo fílmico, conduzindo as significações dadas às personagens LGBT; (2) analisar como os dispositivos técnicos e estilísticos utilizados no documentário contribuem ou não para as subversões de retratos fílmicos discriminatórios; e (3) compreender quais são as representações que este cinema tem figurado para estabelecer (e se estabelece) seu discurso e estética queer. A escolha do espaço temporal justifica-se, primeiramente, por demarcar a pós retomada do cinema brasileiro (NAGIB, 2002). Em segundo lugar, pelo despontar de um maior número de filmes nacionais comprometidos com representações mais diversas das pessoas LGBT (GARCIA, 2012). Em terceiro lugar, é a partir do ano de 2002 que há um maior aquecimento da produção de documentários nacionais (MARUNO, 2008). E em quarto lugar, pela configuração do movimento LGBT nesta última década, o qual luta por espaços midiáticos entre eles o cinema para dar existência social aos seus discursos contra-hegemônicos (SIMÕES; FACHINI, 2009). Com 19 filmes mapeados, os procedimentos de análise perpassam pela pesquisa bibliográfica prévia e pelo método de análise fílmica da representação das personagens LGBT que compõe os enredos fílmicos. Ao final, pôde-se aferir que, de modo geral, os filmes mapeados e analisados compartilham de um comprometimento orgânico em representar esses sujeitos de maneira diversa, elaborando um discurso alternativo e de contraposição às representações negativas e estereotipadas, humanizando os sujeitos que antes estavam fora de uma humanidade possível . Ao representar estas contraposições e resistências aos discursos de ordem preconceituosa, as representações fílmicas avançam, em alguns momentos, para atualizações e (re)significações de um lugar que serviria apenas para reforçar uma estratégia de controle e exclusão. No entanto, ao buscar constantemente se opor aos discursos de ordem preconceituosa, alguns desses filmes recaem na armadilha de ressignificar as representações dessas pessoas personagens em termos hegemônicos, valorizando discursos e estéticas higienizadas e assépticas (em vez reinventar e burlar o próprio regime discursivo que elege e define como as LGBT devem se comportar para alcançarem um status de vida viável ). Já outros apostam em uma reificação identitária e pouco se abrem para visões da homossexualidade, travestilidade, transexualidade ou bissexualidade como reais terrenos críticos de desconstrução do sexo/gênero, representando estes sujeitos através de um modelo étnico e identitário. No entanto, há aqueles filmes que não estão preocupados apenas em se opor aos retratos estereotipados, em elaborar uma representação positiva das LGBT ou reduzir sua criatividade a uma reificação identitária. Para além disso, apostam em uma representação de resistência que também é contraprodutiva, contrassexual e queer.

Il presente elaborato si propone di illustrare il processo di traduzione e sottotitolazione in italiano di un estratto del documentario “Taipeilove” della regista sino-tedesca Lucie Liu. Tale documentario si propone di fornire uno spaccato delle condizioni della comunità LGBT (Lesbiche, Gay, Bisessuali e Transgender) a Taiwan. L’elaborato si articola in cinque capitoli. Nel primo si proporrà una definizione sommaria del genere cinematografico del documentario. Nel secondo si procederà a introdurre il documentario sul quale ho lavorato, “Taipeilove”. Si traccerà inoltre una panoramica della situazione legislativa e sociale della comunità LGBT in Asia. Il terzo capitolo parlerà invece da un punto di vista globale della sottotitolazione. Il quarto capitolo riporterà la mia proposta di sottotitolazione di un estratto del documentario. Si procederà successivamente a commentare nel quinto capitolo il lavoro svolto, analizzando le diverse difficoltà linguistiche e tecniche incontrate nel processo di traduzione prima e di sottotitolazione poi, elencando i vari riferimenti culturali, espressioni idiomatiche e specificità sia del socioletto della comunità LGBT che della lingua parlata.

A principal questão desta dissertação foi promover uma análise entre ética e estética a partir do devir marginal de subjetividades desviantes como forma de enfrentamento ao neoliberalismo heteronormativo e patriarcal através da produção audiovisual independente LGBTQ+. Para tal, utilizei uma fundamentação crítica a partir de autores basilares para o entendimento de subjetividades desviantes, como Simone de Beauvoir e Foucault. Então, estabeleci uma introdução à psicanálise com Freud e Lacan para, então, me aprofundar na esquizoanálise de Deleuze e Guattari como método de desterritorialização para que seja alcançada uma produção audiovisual independente e marginal. O principal objetivo destas obras em imagem em movimento é a busca da documentação da narrativa e experiência de subjetividades desviantes e livres. Utilizei também minha própria vivência enquanto artista queer e multidisciplinar em projetos de arte contemporânea voltados aos temas de sexualidade e gênero. Como superar momentos de incompletudes entre narrativa, experiência e estética? Como realizar críticas sócio-políticas, éticas e filosóficas que incidam positivamente sobre a representação estética do outro? Se gênero e sexualidade são manifestações performativas em constante devir, não deveria também sua estética representacional buscar por estratégias de resistência alheias às apropriações neoliberais, às restrições heteronormativas e à normatização dos corpos? Com base na relação entre esquizoanálise e produções audiovisuais LGBTQ+ fui capaz de delinear algumas falhas minhas por ser uma artista inserida num modelo de produção neoliberal e, portanto, com restrições neuróticas, mas também alcancei resultados para trabalhos futuros que fujam de tais limitações. Ademais, indiquei alguns exemplos de filmes, videoartes e videoinstalações que representam linhas de fuga diversas e potentes, que atravessam tabus sociais ou questionamentos éticos.
The main issue of this dissertation was to promote an analysis between ethics and aesthetics regarding the marginal Becoming of alien subjectivities as a confrontation with heteronormative and patriarchal neoliberalism through independent LGBTQ+ audiovisual production. To this end, I will use a critical basis from fundamental authors to understand deviant subjectivities, such as Simone de Beauvoir and Foucault. Then, I formulated an introduction to psychoanalysis based on Freud and Lacan to analyze the schizoanalysis of Deleuze and Guattari as deterritorialization, in order to achieve marginal independent audiovisual production that seek documental narratives and experiences of free subjectivities. I also used my own background as a queer multidisciplinary artist producing contemporary art projects focused on sexuality and gender. How to overcome moments of incompleteness between narrative, experience and aesthetics? If gender and sexuality are performative manifestations in constant Becoming, shouldn't their representational aesthetics also seek resistance strategies that are alien to neoliberal appropriations, heteronormative restrictions and the normalization of bodies? Based on the relationship between schizoanalysis and LGBTQ+ audiovisual productions, I was able to delineate some of my faults as an artist inserted in a neoliberal production model and, therefore, with neurotic restrictions. Nevertheless, I was able achieved results for future works that escape these limitations. In addition, I have indicated some examples of films, video art and video installations that represent diverse and powerful lines of escape, which cross social taboos or ethical questions.

Orientação: Possidónio José Rosado Cachapa
Na sequência do aprofundamento da websérie “Secreto” e da construção de uma temporada especial intitulada de “Secreto LX”, serão analisados os conceitos de websérie e o porquê do crescimento da temática LGBT independente para a plataforma do YouTube, como também a justificativa que esse trabalho traz da narrativa de um guião dramático com final feliz. A ideia inicial de um argumento que consiste em finais felizes para os diferentes dramas apresentados é justificada através da prática de um guião que defende e aborda de forma natural os conflitos que personagens LGBT´s enfrentam diante de toda sua luta perante as conquistas dos seus direitos.
This work consists on analyzing of what is a webserie and the reason of LGBT independent content growth on YouTube platform elaborating the webseries “Secreto” and culminating the writing of a special season entitled as “Secreto LX”. This season is also the justification of a happy ending script narrative. The argument´s initial idea consists on giving happy endings to the most different plots presented on the webseries and it is justified through the script practice that defends and approaches, in a natural way, the conflicts that LGBTs face during their fight for their rights.

Fundada logo após a Revolução de 25 de Abril de 1974, por Óscar Alves e João Paulo Ferreira, a Cineground (1975-78) não respeitava os modelos clássicos de cinematografia e ainda menos os modelos normativos de sexualidade. As vivências dos intervenientes da produtora e os seus filmes retratam sexualidades classificadas na década de 1960/70 como desviantes, e a sua linguagem subliminar e paródica remete-nos para as décadas antecedentes de repressão ditatorial e seus resquícios no imaginário dos portugueses. Os filmes são o produto de um círculo restrito, expressões da cultura existente e possível de uma comunidade invisível, que não encontraria lugar nas concepções políticas prevalecentes na época, inclusive nos programas partidários de esquerda, o que se verificou com a difícil aceitação das primeiras tentativas conhecidas de associativismo pelos direitos LGBT em Portugal. Este é um trabalho de reflexão sobre o uso da imagem na antropologia e sobre o estudo do corpo como componente da cultura visual, cujo foco é a identidade em performance e os processos de identificação em torno da cultura gay e do corpo travesti plasmados no espólio cinematográfico da Cineground, tendo como rastilho teórico a teoria queer e de performatividade de género de Butler. A teoria queer aparece como um local de contestação das formas de pensamento e poder hegemónicos e dos seus modelos rígidos de existência, reconhecendo o envolvimento dos sujeitos nos processos de poder que os afetam, permitindo assim “voltar o poder contra ele próprio de modo a produzir formas alternativas de poder” (Butler, 1993:241).
Cineground (1975-78) was a film production company founded right after the April 25th Revolution, by Óscar Alves and João Paulo Ferreira, which did not responded to the classical models of cinematography and even less to normative models of sexuality. The life experiences of the actors and the producers portray a sexuality classified in the 1960s/70s as deviant, and their subliminal and parodic language brings us to the preceding decades of dictatorial repression and its remnants in the minds of the Portuguese. The films are the product of a restricted circle, expressions of an estranged culture and invisible community, that would not find representation in the prevailing political views at the time, including in the left-wing party programs, what was proven with the difficult acceptance met by the first known attempts of mobilisation for LGBT rights in Portugal. This thesis reflects on the use of image in anthropology and the study of the body as an element of visual culture, on the identity in performance and the identification processes around gay culture and the transvestite body, embodied in Cineground’s film collection, having as theoretical scope Judith Butler’s gender performativity theory. Queer theory appears as a site for the contestation of hegemonic power and thinking and its rigid models of existence, recognizing the involvement of individuals in the same power processes that affect them and thus "turning the power against itself to produce alternative forms of power "(Butler 1993: 241).

In analyzing the regimes of taste and films cultures that condition the circulation and cultural currency of queer cinemas, Chapter 2 aims to reconceptualize the notion of festival circuits. It locates queer cinema at the intersection of two regimes of cultural value – identity and cinephilia. Through a Bourdieusian approach to taste-making and cultural production, I highlight how both festivals and scholars negotiate these conflicting cultural values. Film traffic relies on a symbolic economy that is based on and fosters differentiated cultural discourses on queer cinema. In analyzing the strategies of both European and American film distributors, I underscore how this interplay between queerness and cinephilia is strategically mobilized so as to assert a film’s legitimacy and authenticity.

Chapter 3 revisits traditional historical accounts of the development of both gay and lesbian film studies and festivals. In particular, I trace the emergence and mutation of the concept ‘gay and lesbian cinema(s)’ – a relatively recent notion shaped through an interplay between film criticism, festival organizing, and scholarship. I detail the careers and works of various critics and scholars as they intersect with LGBTQ festival organizing. In so doing, I nuance the divide between scholars, critics, and practitioners that has been instrumental in asserting the legitimacy of festival studies and describe various uses of the festival format as a praxis of academic knowledge production. In so doing, Chapter 3 is offered as a criticism of festival studies’ emphasis on stakeholders: it highlights the networks of friendship, fucking, and collaboration that informed the development of LGBTQ cinema.

The chapter covers the emergence and development of specific LGBTQ film festivals in France, Spain and the UK. The festivals studied are FIRE !! (Barcelona), LesGaiCineMad (Madrid), FICGLB (Barcelona), Zinegoak (Bilbao), Chéries-Chéris (Paris), Ecrans Mixtes (Lyon), Des Images aux mots (Toulouse), the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival/Flare as well as queer film seasons at Manchester’s Cornerhouse cinema, including POUTfest. Audience responses are used to finesse ideas of how the festivals fit into wider discourses on film festivals in relation to niche designing, space and locality, and responsiveness to community and individual spectators’ needs. The chapter draws on the corpus of written questionnaire responses to programmed films across the festivals.

This chapter is a study of masculinity within American culture and politics of the late 1990s to early 2000s. Old Joy is the only feature primarily focused on male interactions. Reichardt introduces her audience to male stereotypes found in traditional masculine roles and then deeply complicates them, through intentional ambiguous characterization. In doing so, the film resists cultural constructions of masculinity and continues a tradition of resistance by questioning and offering alternative representations of social norms found in independent cinema. The chapter explores production methods via interviews with Reichardt and producer Anish Savjani and contributes to the content conversation around LGBTQ concerns. In addition to a discussion of masculinity, as portrayed in the film, it analyzes the political context of the film concerning the displacement American liberals felt during the 2000-2009 presidency of George W. Bush and the failure of the democratic party to create an effective consensus.