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New queer cinema
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New queer cinema
"New queer cinema" is a term first coined by the academic B. Ruby Rich in Sight & Sound magazine in 1992 to define and describe a movement in queer-themed independent filmmaking in the early 1990s.
It is also referred to as the "queer new wave".
The term developed from use of the word queer in academic writing in the 1980s and 1990s as an inclusive way of describing gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender identity and experience, and also defining a form of sexuality that was fluid and subversive of traditional understandings of sexuality. The major film studio to discuss these issues was aptly named New Line Cinema with its Fine Line Features division. Since 1992, the phenomenon has also been described by various other academics and has been used to describe several other films released since the 1990s. Films of the new queer cinema movement typically share certain themes, such as the rejection of heteronormativity and the lives of LGBTQ protagonists living on the fringe of society.
Susan Hayward states that queer cinema existed for decades before it was given its official label, such as the films of French creators Jean Cocteau (Le sang d'un poète in 1934) and Jean Genet (Un chant d'amour in 1950). Queer cinema is associated with avant-garde and underground films (e.g., Andy Warhol's 1960s films). In avant-garde film, there are lesbian filmmakers, who laid the heritage for queer cinema, notably Ulrike Ottinger, Chantal Akerman and Pratibha Parmar.
An important influence on the development of queer cinema was Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1970s and 1980s European art films, which added a "gay and queer sensibility" to film (e.g., Querelle from 1982, based on Genet's novel). Rosa von Praunheim has made more than 100 films on queer topics since the late 1960s, many of them have been shown and rated internationally; some of the director's films are considered milestones in queer cinema. Von Praunheim became an international icon of queer cinema. Another influence on queer cinema was the Brazilian filmmaker Héctor Babenco, whose film Kiss of the Spider Woman, from 1985, depicted a man in prison, who is seduced by his cellmate. His films also examined the relationship between sexual, social, and political oppression, which would go on to become key themes of new queer cinema.
The identification of queer cinema probably emerged in the mid-1980s through the influence of queer theory, which aims to "challenge and push further debates on gender and sexuality" as developed by feminist theory and "confuse binary essentialisms around gender and sexual identity, expose their limitations", and depict the blurring of these roles and identities. Queer cinema filmmakers sometimes made films in genres that were typically considered mainstream, then subverting conventions by depicting the "question of pleasure" and celebrating excess, or by re-adding homosexual themes or historical elements where they had been erased through straightwashing (e.g. in Derek Jarman's 1991 historical film Edward II).
Queer cinema filmmakers called for a "multiplicity of voices and sexualities" and equally had a "collection of different aesthetics" in their work. The issue of "lesbian invisibility" had been raised in queer cinema, since more funding went to gay male filmmakers than lesbian directors, as is the case with the heterosexual/mainstream film industry, and as such, much of queer cinema focused on the "construction of male desire".
In her 1992 article, Rich commented on the strong gay and lesbian presence on the previous year's film festival circuit and coined the phrase "new queer cinema" to describe a growing movement of similarly themed films being made by gay and lesbian independent filmmakers, chiefly in North America and the United Kingdom. Rich developed her theory in The Village Voice and Sight & Sound, describing films that were radical in form and aggressive in their presentation of sexual identities, which challenged both the status quo of heterosexual definition and resisted promoting "positive" images of lesbians and gay men that had been advocated by the gay liberation movement of the 1970s and 1980s. In the films of new queer cinema, the protagonists and narratives were predominantly LGBTQ, but were presented invariably as outsiders and renegades from the rules of conventional society, who embraced radical and unconventional gender roles and ways of life, frequently casting themselves as outlaws or fugitives.
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New queer cinema
"New queer cinema" is a term first coined by the academic B. Ruby Rich in Sight & Sound magazine in 1992 to define and describe a movement in queer-themed independent filmmaking in the early 1990s.
It is also referred to as the "queer new wave".
The term developed from use of the word queer in academic writing in the 1980s and 1990s as an inclusive way of describing gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender identity and experience, and also defining a form of sexuality that was fluid and subversive of traditional understandings of sexuality. The major film studio to discuss these issues was aptly named New Line Cinema with its Fine Line Features division. Since 1992, the phenomenon has also been described by various other academics and has been used to describe several other films released since the 1990s. Films of the new queer cinema movement typically share certain themes, such as the rejection of heteronormativity and the lives of LGBTQ protagonists living on the fringe of society.
Susan Hayward states that queer cinema existed for decades before it was given its official label, such as the films of French creators Jean Cocteau (Le sang d'un poète in 1934) and Jean Genet (Un chant d'amour in 1950). Queer cinema is associated with avant-garde and underground films (e.g., Andy Warhol's 1960s films). In avant-garde film, there are lesbian filmmakers, who laid the heritage for queer cinema, notably Ulrike Ottinger, Chantal Akerman and Pratibha Parmar.
An important influence on the development of queer cinema was Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1970s and 1980s European art films, which added a "gay and queer sensibility" to film (e.g., Querelle from 1982, based on Genet's novel). Rosa von Praunheim has made more than 100 films on queer topics since the late 1960s, many of them have been shown and rated internationally; some of the director's films are considered milestones in queer cinema. Von Praunheim became an international icon of queer cinema. Another influence on queer cinema was the Brazilian filmmaker Héctor Babenco, whose film Kiss of the Spider Woman, from 1985, depicted a man in prison, who is seduced by his cellmate. His films also examined the relationship between sexual, social, and political oppression, which would go on to become key themes of new queer cinema.
The identification of queer cinema probably emerged in the mid-1980s through the influence of queer theory, which aims to "challenge and push further debates on gender and sexuality" as developed by feminist theory and "confuse binary essentialisms around gender and sexual identity, expose their limitations", and depict the blurring of these roles and identities. Queer cinema filmmakers sometimes made films in genres that were typically considered mainstream, then subverting conventions by depicting the "question of pleasure" and celebrating excess, or by re-adding homosexual themes or historical elements where they had been erased through straightwashing (e.g. in Derek Jarman's 1991 historical film Edward II).
Queer cinema filmmakers called for a "multiplicity of voices and sexualities" and equally had a "collection of different aesthetics" in their work. The issue of "lesbian invisibility" had been raised in queer cinema, since more funding went to gay male filmmakers than lesbian directors, as is the case with the heterosexual/mainstream film industry, and as such, much of queer cinema focused on the "construction of male desire".
In her 1992 article, Rich commented on the strong gay and lesbian presence on the previous year's film festival circuit and coined the phrase "new queer cinema" to describe a growing movement of similarly themed films being made by gay and lesbian independent filmmakers, chiefly in North America and the United Kingdom. Rich developed her theory in The Village Voice and Sight & Sound, describing films that were radical in form and aggressive in their presentation of sexual identities, which challenged both the status quo of heterosexual definition and resisted promoting "positive" images of lesbians and gay men that had been advocated by the gay liberation movement of the 1970s and 1980s. In the films of new queer cinema, the protagonists and narratives were predominantly LGBTQ, but were presented invariably as outsiders and renegades from the rules of conventional society, who embraced radical and unconventional gender roles and ways of life, frequently casting themselves as outlaws or fugitives.