New Queer Cinema

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New Queer Cinema (German "New queer cinema") describes a current of predominantly American independent films from the early 1990s with queer themes.

Concept history

B. Ruby Rich (2017)

The film theorist B. Ruby Rich coined the term with an essay that appeared on March 24, 1992 as the cover story in The Village Voice newspaper. She was referring to a number of American films that were shown at the Sundance Film Festival and other film festivals around the world: Todd Haynes ' Poison won the 1991 Sundance Festival Jury Grand Prize . The following year Tom Kalins Swoon , Gregg Arakis The Living End and Christopher Münchs The Hours and Times were performed at Sundance. These four films were produced by Christine Vachon ( Swoon and Poison ) and Andrea Sperling ( The Living End and The Hours and Times ), who, together with the directors, are considered to be important pioneers of the current. Also Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho (1991), Jennie Livingston's Paris Is Burning (1990), Derek Jarman's Edward II (1991), the films of British director Isaac Julien and the German director Monika Treut and video works by Sadie Benning as examples called.

style

An important element of New Queer Cinema was the self-identification of its filmmakers as gay, lesbian and / or queer. For the filmmakers, LGBT activism and a lesbian, gay or queer identity were a matter of course. Some were active in the LGBT movement, for example in the Act Up action group to raise awareness for AIDS .

The movement's films are aimed primarily at queer audiences. Homosexuality is taken for granted in the films and is not declared to be a straight audience. The filmmakers are not interested in an exclusively positive, politically correct portrayal of gays and lesbians, but rather clichés and prejudices about homosexuality are appropriated and complained about, queer subculture and rejection of the mainstream are celebrated. Based on postmodern theory, the films show a rejection of essentialist representations of sexual identities; “Gay” and “lesbian” identities alone are not enough to cover the reality and diversity of sexual orientations and identities. Rich calls this commonality of the films "homo pomo" (based on the terms homosexuality and postmodernism).

The aesthetics of the films are often experimental, for both artistic and financial reasons. Some of the films have a limited number of actors, are mostly set indoors, or are black and white films. The trend is divided into two styles: "Some cultivate the unattractive (with rough camera work, brittle colors, shabby settings), others celebrate the exuberant (with flawless picture compositions, glamorous light, exquisite furnishings)."

The aesthetics of the current are shaped by gay European auteur filmmakers of the 1970s, such as Pier Paolo Pasolini , Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner Schroeter . Gus Van Sant's Mala Noche (1985) and Bill Sherwood's Farewell Glances (1986) are considered the most important precursors of the movement . The latter, like some of the films that led to the development of the term, was produced by Vachon. The films of New Queer Cinema differ from Mala Noche and Abschiedsblicke in their clearer representation of queer identities and lifestyles.

effect

The success of the films that coined the term with critics and audiences paved the way for other gay and lesbian independent films. These include Rose Troches Go Fish (1994), Mary Harrons I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), Kimberly Peirces Boys Don't Cry (1999), Steve McLeans Postcards from America (1994) and Nigel Finch's Stonewall (1995), all of which are from Christine Vachon and partly produced by Tom Kalin.

New Queer Cinema itself is seen as a relatively short-lived current and more as momentum than movement. Important representatives of New Queer Cinema such as Tom Kalin and Jennie Livingston did not create any follow-up films with a comparable effect. At the same time, gay and lesbian topics made their way into the mainstream American film industry. B. Ruby Rich finally declared the end of the flow in an interview in 2004. She criticized the fact that the entry of queer topics into the mainstream would now propagate neoliberal ideologies and satisfy heterosexual viewers with easily identifiable characters instead of exploiting the radical potential of queer films.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Bob Nowlan: Queer Theory, Queer Cinema . In: JoAnne C. Juett, David Jones (Eds.): Coming Out to the Mainstream: New Queer Cinema in the 21st Century . Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010, pp. 2 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Daryl Chin: New Queer Cinema. In: GLBTQ Archive. 2002, accessed October 6, 2016 .
  3. ^ A b c d Philipp Brunner: New Queer Cinema. In: Lexicon of film terms. Retrieved October 6, 2016 .
  4. ↑ a b Harry M. Benshof: Queer Cinema: The Film Reader . Psychology Press, 2004, pp. 11 .
  5. ↑ Barbara Mennel: Queer Cinema: Schoolgirls, Vampires, and Gay Cowboys . Columbia University Press, 2012, pp. 71 ff .
  6. ↑ Nowlan, p. 11.
  7. ↑ a b JoAnne C. Juett, David Jones (Ed.): Coming Out to the Mainstream: New Queer Cinema in the 21st Century . Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010, pp. X .
  8. ↑ Mark Adnum: My Own Private New Queer Cinema. In: Senses of Cinema. February 2005, accessed October 6, 2016 .