New Queer Cinema - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

New Queer Cinema is a term first coined by the academic B. Ruby Rich

B. Ruby Rich

B. Ruby Rich is an American scholar, critic of independent, Latin American, documentary and gay films, and a professor of Film & Digital Media and Social Documentation also known as "SocDoc" at UC Santa Cruz. She has also taught documentary film and queer studies during spring semesters at UC...

in Sight & Sound

Sight & Sound

Sight & Sound is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute .Sight & Sound was first published in 1932 and in 1934 management of the magazine was handed to the nascent BFI, which still publishes the magazine today...

magazine in 1992 to define and describe a movement in queer

Queer

Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...

-themed independent film

Independent film

An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...

making in the early 1990s. 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. 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

Heteronormativity

Heteronormativity is a term invented in 1991 to describe any of a set of lifestyle norms that hold that people fall into distinct and complementary genders with natural roles in life. It also holds that heterosexuality is the normal sexual orientation, and states that sexual and marital relations...

and the lives of LGBT

LGBT

LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...

protagonists living on the fringe of society.

Overview

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 England.
Rich developed her theory in the Village Voice newspaper, 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 LGBT

LGBT

, but were presented invariably as outsiders and renegades from the rules of conventional society, and embraced radical and unconventional gender roles and ways of life, frequently casting themselves as outlaws or fugitives.

Drawing on postmodernist and poststructuralist academic theories of the 1980s, the New Queer Cinema presented human identity and sexuality as socially constructed, and therefore fluid and changeable, rather than fixed. In the world of New Queer Cinema, sexuality is often a chaotic and subversive force, which is alienating to and often brutally repressed by dominant heterosexual power structures. Films in the New Queer Cinema movement frequently featured explicit and unapologetic depictions of same-sex sexual activity, and presented same-sex relationships that reconfigured traditional heterosexual notions of family and marriage. While not all identifying with a specific political movement, New Queer Cinema films were invariably radical, as they sought to challenge and subvert assumptions about identity, gender, class, family and society. The 1991 documentary Paris is Burning

Paris is Burning (film)

Paris Is Burning is a 1990 documentary film directed by Jennie Livingston. Filmed in the mid-to-late 1980s, it chronicles the ball culture of New York City and the African American, Latino, gay and transgender communities involved in it...

(see photograph above) introduced audiences to yet another subcultural realm. Director Jennie Livingston

Jennie Livingston

Jennie Livingston is an American director best known for the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning.Livingston was born in Dallas, Texas and grew up in Los Angeles where she attended Beverly HIlls High School. She graduated from Yale University in 1983, where she studied photography, drawing, and...

innovatively captured the realities of New York's drag balls and houses, and of the non-white people who occupied these spaces. This was an underappreciated and arguably underground world that many Americans were unfamiliar with. Aesthetic excellence and flamboyance were crucial in drag performances and competitions. Stylized vogue

Vogue

As a noun, "vogue" suggests transient fashionability, hence phrases such as "vogue word."Vogue can also refer for:* Vogue , the fashion magazine** Vogue , the British edition...

dancing was also exhibited as central to the drag experience, influenced by the artistry of pop icon Madonna

Madonna (entertainer)

Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...

. New Queer Cinema figures like Livingston encouraged viewers to suspend their ignorance, and enjoy the diversity of humanity.

The films also frequently referenced the AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

crisis of the 1980s, often commenting on the failure of the Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

administration to respond to the AIDS epidemic and the social stigma experienced by the gay community. Given the relative invisibility of references to AIDS in mainstream Hollywood filmmaking, the work of New Queer Cinema was hailed by the gay community as a welcome correction to a history of under-representation and stereotyping of gay and lesbian people.

Among the films cited by Rich were Todd Haynes

Todd Haynes

Todd Haynes is an American independent film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his feature films Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Poison, Velvet Goldmine, Safe, and the Academy Award-nominated Far from Heaven and I'm Not There.- Style and themes :The writes that "Haynes is...

's Poison

Poison (film)

Poison is a 1991 independent film written and directed by Todd Haynes. It is composed of three intercut stories that are partially inspired by the novels of Jean Genet...

(1991), Isaac Julien

Isaac Julien

Isaac Julien is an installation artist and filmmaker.-Biography:Julien graduated from St Martin's School of Art in 1985, where he studied painting and fine art film...

's Young Soul Rebels

Young Soul Rebels

Young Soul Rebels is a 1991 critically acclaimed coming-of-age/drama British film written by Isaac Julien and Paul Hallam, and directed by Juilen. The film examines the interaction between youth cultural movements during the late 1970s in the UK. Namely skinheads, punks and soulboys along with the...

(1991), Derek Jarman

Derek Jarman

Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...

's Edward II

Edward II (film)

Edward II is a 1991 film directed by Derek Jarman, starring Steven Waddington, Tilda Swinton and Andrew Tiernan. It is based on the eponymous play by Christopher Marlowe...

(1991), Tom Kalin

Tom Kalin

Tom Kalin is an award-winning screenwriter, film director, producer, and professor of experimental film at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee.His debut feature, Swoon, is considered an integral part of the New Queer Cinema...

's Swoon

Swoon (film)

Swoon is an independent film written and directed by Tom Kalin, released in 1992. It is an account of the 1924 Leopold and Loeb murder case, focusing more on the homosexuality of the killers than other movies based on the case...

(1992), and Gregg Araki

Gregg Araki

Gregg Araki is an American independent filmmaker. He is involved in New Queer Cinema.-Early life:Araki was born in Los Angeles but grew up in Santa Barbara, California...

's The Living End

The Living End (film)

The Living End is a 1992 film by Gregg Araki. Described by some critics as a "gay Thelma and Louise," the film is an early entry in the New Queer Cinema genre. The Living End was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992....

(1992). All the films feature explicitly gay and lesbian protagonists and subjects; explicit and unapologetic depictions of or references to gay sex; and a confrontational and often antagonist approach towards heterosexual culture.

These directors were making their films at a time when the gay community was facing new challenges from the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and the conservative

Conservatism

Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...

political wave brought on by the presidency of Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

in the United States and the government of Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...

in the United Kingdom. Jarman himself was diagnosed with AIDS in 1986, and died in 1994 at the age of 52. Jarman's public promoting of gay rights and equality have established him as an influential activist within the LGBT

LGBT

community.

Queer theory

Queer theory

Queer theory is a field of critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of the fields of LGBT studies and feminist studies. Queer theory includes both queer readings of texts and the theorisation of 'queerness' itself...

and politics were emerging topics in academic circles, with proponents arguing that gender and sexual categories such as homosexual and heterosexual were historical social constructs, subject to change with cultural attitudes. Rich noted that many films were beginning to represent sexualities which were unashamedly neither fixed nor conventional, and coined the phrase "New Queer Cinema".

Directors

Arthur Bressan: Buddies (1985)
Alexis Dos Santos: Glue
Glue (film)
Glue, or Glue - Historia adolescente en medio de la nada is a 2006 Argentine film written and directed by Alexis Dos Santos.- Plot :The movie is set in a small Argentine town in south Patagonia. Lucas , a 16 year old boy full of testosterone, has a punk rock band together with his friend Nacho...

(2006)
Alex Sichel: All Over Me (1997)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Apichatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, and film producer. His feature films include Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, winner of the prestigious 2010 Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or prize; Tropical Malady, which won a jury prize at the 2004...

: The Adventure of Iron Pussy
The Adventure of Iron Pussy
The Adventure of Iron Pussy is a 2003 Thai musical-action-comedy film written and directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Michael Shaowanasai and starring Shaowanasai as the main protagonist – a transvestite Thai secret agent whose alter ego is a gay male 7-Eleven clerk...

(2003) - Tropical Malady
Tropical Malady
Tropical Malady is a 2004 Thai romantic psychological drama film directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. It is a film in two segments – the first part a romance story about two homosexual men, and the second a mysterious tale about a soldier lost in the woods, bedeviled by the spirit of a shaman...

(2004)
Bill Sherwood
Bill Sherwood
William Charles Patrick Sherwood, better known as Bill Sherwood was an American musician, screenwriter and film director.Sherwood was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Battle Creek, Michigan...

: Parting Glances
Parting Glances
thumb|Parting Glances released on VHS format in 1998Parting Glances is an American film shot in 1984 and released in 1986. With its realistic look at urban gay life in the Ronald Reagan era and at the height of the AIDS crisis, many film critics consider it an important movie in the history of gay...

(1986)
Bruce LaBruce
Bruce LaBruce
Bruce LaBruce is a Canadian writer, filmmaker, photographer and underground gay porn director based in Toronto, Ontario.-Biography:...

: No Skin Off My Ass
No Skin off My Ass
No Skin Off My Ass is a 1993 comedy-drama film by Bruce LaBruce.Filmed in black and white, this is LaBruce's debut feature film, in which he plays the role of a punk hairdresser with Klaus von Brücker as the skinhead with whom he is obsessed. G.B...

(1991) - "Hustler White
Hustler White
Hustler White is a 1996 film by Bruce LaBruce and Rick Castro, a satiric black sex comedy about gay hustlers and their customers in Santa Monica, California. It stars Tony Ward and LaBruce in an addition to the Queer Cinema canon, which is also an homage to classic Hollywood cinema...

" (1996) (although this might properly be classified as Queercore
Queercore
Queercore is a cultural and social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of punk. It is distinguished by being discontent with society in general and its rejection of the disapproval of the gay, bisexual, and lesbian communities and their "oppressive agenda"...

) - "Otto; or, Up With Dead People" (2008)
Cheryl Dunye
Cheryl Dunye
Cheryl Dunye is a film director, producer, screenwriter, editor and actress. Dunye is a lesbian and her work often concerns themes of race, sexuality and gender, particularly issues relating to black lesbians.Dunye was born in Liberia...

: The Watermelon Woman
The Watermelon Woman
The Watermelon Woman is a 1996 feature film by filmmaker Cheryl Dunye about Cheryl, a young black lesbian working a day job in a video store while trying to make a film about a black actress from the 1930s known for playing the stereotypical "mammy" roles relegated to black actresses during the...

(1996) - Stranger Inside
Stranger Inside
Stranger Inside is a television drama film directed by Cheryl Dunye that premiered on cable television in 2001. The story primarily concerns African-American lesbians in prison. Michael Stipe, the lead singer of R.E.M., helped to produce it...

(2001)
Christopher Munch
Christopher Münch
Christopher Münch is an American film director, screenwriter and producer.-Biography:Münch was born in 1962 in Pasadena, California and grew up with his mother in La Jolla, San Diego...

: The Hours and Times
The Hours and Times
The Hours and Times is a 1991 drama film written and directed by Christopher Münch. Starring David Angus and Ian Hart, it is a fictionalized account of what might have happened during a real holiday taken by John Lennon and The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein in 1963.-Plot:It is 1963 and John Lennon...

(1991)
Donna Deitch
Donna Deitch
Donna Deitch is an American film and television director best known for her 1986 film Desert Hearts. The film was groundbreaking as one of the first releases to depict a lesbian love story in a generally mainstream, albeit art house, vein but with positive and respectful themes...

: Desert Hearts
Desert Hearts
Desert Hearts is a 1985 lesbian-themed romantic drama film loosely based on the Jane Rule novel Desert of the Heart. Directed by Donna Deitch, the film stars Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau with a supporting performance by Audra Lindley....

(1985)
Derek Jarman
Derek Jarman
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...

: Sebastiane
Sebastiane
Sebastiane is a controversial 1976 film written and directed by Derek Jarman and Paul Humfress. It portrays the events of the life of Saint Sebastian, including his iconic martyrdom by arrows. Most of the controversy surrounding the film derives from the homoeroticism portrayed between the soldiers...

(1976) - Caravaggio
Caravaggio (film)
Caravaggio is a British film directed by Derek Jarman. The film is a fictionalized re-telling of the life of Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.-Plot:...

(1986) - The Garden (1990) - Edward II
Edward II (film)
Edward II is a 1991 film directed by Derek Jarman, starring Steven Waddington, Tilda Swinton and Andrew Tiernan. It is based on the eponymous play by Christopher Marlowe...

(1991) - Blue
Blue (1993 film)
Blue is the twelfth and final feature film by director Derek Jarman, released four months before his death from AIDS-related complications...

(1993)
Gregg Araki
Gregg Araki
Gregg Araki is an American independent filmmaker. He is involved in New Queer Cinema.-Early life:Araki was born in Los Angeles but grew up in Santa Barbara, California...

: The Living End
The Living End (film)
The Living End is a 1992 film by Gregg Araki. Described by some critics as a "gay Thelma and Louise," the film is an early entry in the New Queer Cinema genre. The Living End was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992....

(1992) - Totally Fucked Up
Totally Fucked Up
Totally Fucked Up is a 1993 American drama film written and directed by Gregg Araki...

(1993) - The Doom Generation
The Doom Generation
The Doom Generation is a film by director Gregg Araki. Released in 1995, it stars Rose McGowan, James Duval and Johnathon Schaech as two teenagers and a 21-year-old punk drifter who become involved in a ménage à trois. It is the second of a trilogy of films known as the Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy,...

(1995) - Nowhere
Nowhere (film)
Nowhere is a 1997 film by director and screenwriter Gregg Araki. It stars James Duval and Rachel True as Dark and Mel, a bisexual teen couple who are both sexually promiscuous....

(1997) - Mysterious Skin
Mysterious Skin
Mysterious Skin is a 2004 drama film directed by American filmmaker Gregg Araki, who also wrote the screenplay based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Scott Heim...

(2004) - Kaboom
Kaboom (film)
Kaboom is a 2010 film, written and directed by Gregg Araki. The film stars Roxane Mesquida, Thomas Dekker, Juno Temple, Haley Bennett, and James Duval...

(2010)
Gus Van Sant
Gus Van Sant
Gus Green Van Sant, Jr. is an American director, screenwriter, painter, photographer, musician, and author. He is a two time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director for his 1997 film Good Will Hunting and his 2008 film Milk, both of which were also nominated for Best Picture, and won the...

: Mala Noche
Mala Noche
Mala Noche is a 1985 American drama film written and directed by Gus Van Sant, based on an autobiographical novel by the Oregon poet Walt Curtis. The movie was shot in 16 mm, mostly black-and-white. Mala Noche is the first feature film by Gus Van Sant...

(1985) - My Own Private Idaho
My Own Private Idaho
My Own Private Idaho is a 1991 independent drama film written and directed by Gus Van Sant, loosely based on Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V, and starring River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves...

(1991) - Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (film)
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues is a 1993 American comedy-drama-romance film based on the 1976 Tom Robbins novel of the same name. The film was directed by Gus Van Sant, Jr. and starred Uma Thurman, Lorraine Bracco, Pat Morita, Angie Dickinson, Keanu Reeves, John Hurt, Rain Phoenix, and Grace...

(1993) - Elephant
Elephant (film)
Elephant is a 2003 drama film edited, written, and directed by Gus Van Sant. It takes place in the fictional Watt High School, in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon, and chronicles the events surrounding a school shooting, based in part on the 1999 Columbine High School massacre...

(2003) - Milk
Milk (film)
Milk is a 2008 American biographical film on the life of gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk, who was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors...

(2008)
Isaac Julien
Isaac Julien
Isaac Julien is an installation artist and filmmaker.-Biography:Julien graduated from St Martin's School of Art in 1985, where he studied painting and fine art film...

: "Looking for Langston
Looking For Langston
Looking for Langston is a 1989 British black-and-white film directed by Isaac Julien. It combines authentic archival newsreel footage of Harlem in the 1920s with scripted scenes to produce a non-linear impressionistic story line celebrating black gay identity and desire during the artistic and...

" (1989) - Young Soul Rebels
Young Soul Rebels
Young Soul Rebels is a 1991 critically acclaimed coming-of-age/drama British film written by Isaac Julien and Paul Hallam, and directed by Juilen. The film examines the interaction between youth cultural movements during the late 1970s in the UK. Namely skinheads, punks and soulboys along with the...

(1991)
Jamie Babbit
Jamie Babbit
Jamie Babbit is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. She directed the films But I'm a Cheerleader, The Quiet and Itty Bitty Titty Committee. She has also directed episodes of television programs including Gilmore Girls, Malcolm in the Middle, United States of Tara, Nip/Tuck and...

: But I'm a Cheerleader
But I'm a Cheerleader
But I'm a Cheerleader is a 1999 satirical romantic comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit and written by Brian Wayne Peterson. Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan Bloomfield, an apparently happy heterosexual high school cheerleader...

(1999) - The Quiet
The Quiet
The Quiet is a 2005 American drama and thriller film directed by Jamie Babbit, and starring Camilla Belle and Elisha Cuthbert. It focuses on a mute teenage girl, Dot who goes to live with her godparents after her father dies, where she slowly learns the disturbing secrets of the family, primarily...

(2005) - Itty Bitty Titty Committee
Itty Bitty Titty Committee
Itty Bitty Titty Committee is a feminist, lesbian-related comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit. It was released on 28 September 2007.The film had its premiere at the international film festival Berlinale on 9 February 2007, where it was nominated for a Teddy Award for Best Feature...

(2007)
Jennie Livingston
Jennie Livingston
Jennie Livingston is an American director best known for the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning.Livingston was born in Dallas, Texas and grew up in Los Angeles where she attended Beverly HIlls High School. She graduated from Yale University in 1983, where she studied photography, drawing, and...

: Paris is Burning
Paris is Burning (film)
Paris Is Burning is a 1990 documentary film directed by Jennie Livingston. Filmed in the mid-to-late 1980s, it chronicles the ball culture of New York City and the African American, Latino, gay and transgender communities involved in it...

(1990)
John Cameron Mitchell
John Cameron Mitchell
John Cameron Mitchell is an American writer, actor, and director. He is best known for his motion pictures Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Shortbus and Rabbit Hole.- Early life:...

: Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (film)
Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a 2001 American musical comedy-drama film based on the stage musical of the same title about a fictional rock band fronted by an East German transgender singer. The film was adapted and directed by John Cameron Mitchell, who also portrayed the title role...

(2001) - Shortbus
Shortbus
Shortbus is a 2006 comedy-drama film written and directed by John Cameron Mitchell. The plot revolves around a sexually diverse ensemble of colorful characters trying desperately to connect in New York City. The characters converge in a weekly Brooklyn artistic/sexual salon loosely inspired by...

(2006)
John Greyson
John Greyson
John Greyson is a Canadian filmmaker, whose work frequently deals with gay themes. Greyson is also a video artist, writer and activist; he is currently a professor at York University, where he teaches film and video theory and film production and editing.-Background:Greyson was born the son of...

: Pissoir
Pissoir
Pissoir, retitled Urinal in some countries, was the first feature film directed and released by John Greyson.Released in 1988, the film's central character is an unnamed man who conjures a circle of dead gay literary figures, including Sergei Eisenstein, Dorian Gray, Yukio Mishima, Frida Kahlo and...

(1988) - Zero Patience
Zero Patience
Zero Patience is a 1993 Canadian musical film written and directed by John Greyson. The film examines and refutes the urban legend of the alleged introduction of HIV to North America by a single individual, Gaëtan Dugas...

(1993) - Lilies
Lilies (film)
Lilies is a 1996 Canadian film directed by John Greyson. It is an adaptation by Michel Marc Bouchard and Linda Gaboriau of Bouchard's own play Les feluettes. It depicts a play being performed in a prison by the inmates.-Expository narration:...

(1996) - Proteus (2003) - Fig Trees
Fig Trees
Fig Trees is a 2009 Canadian operatic documentary film written and directed by John Greyson. It follows South African AIDS activist Zackie Achmat and Canadian AIDS activist Tim McCaskell as they fight for access to treatment for HIV/AIDS. It was also inspired by Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson's...

(2009)
Julian Hernandez: A Thousand Clouds of Peace Fence the Sky, Love; Your Being Love Will Never End (2003) - Broken Sky
Broken Sky (film)
Broken Sky is a 2006 Mexican drama film involving a love triangle between three young gay men. The film was directed and written by Julián Hernández.-Cast:*Miguel Ángel Hoppe - Gerardo...

(2006) - Raging Sun, Raging Sky
Raging Sun, Raging Sky
Raging Sun, Raging Sky is a 2009 Mexican film made in 2008, written and directed by Julián Hernández. It won the Teddy Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.-Plot:...

(2009)
Kimberly Pierce: Boys Don't Cry
Boys Don't Cry (film)
Boys Don't Cry is a 1999 American independent romantic drama film directed by Kimberly Peirce and co-written by Andy Bienen. The film is a dramatization of the real-life story of Brandon Teena, a transgender man played by Hilary Swank, who pursues a relationship with a young woman, played by Chloë...

(1999)
Maria Maggenti
Maria Maggenti
Maria Maggenti is a film director and screenwriter for film and television.She has been the script editor and has written many episodes of the American television series, Without a Trace , but is perhaps best known for her feature film, The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love...

: The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love
The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love
The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love is a 1995 film, written and directed by Maria Maggenti, of the story of two very different high school girls who fall in love. It generated good notices and publicity at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. It also launched the film careers of Laurel...

(1995)
Norman Rene
Norman René
Norman René was an American theatre and film director and film producer who frequently collaborated with playwright Craig Lucas.-Biography:...

: Longtime Companion
Longtime Companion
Longtime Companion is a 1989 film with Bruce Davison, Campbell Scott, Patrick Cassidy, and Mary-Louise Parker. The first wide-release theatrical film to deal with the subject of AIDS, the film takes its title from the words The New York Times used to describe the surviving same-sex partner of...

(1989)
Rose Troche
Rose Troche
Rose Troche is a film and television director, television producer, and screenwriter. She grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and attended film school, earning a degree from the University of Illinois in Chicago...

: Go Fish
Go Fish (film)
Go Fish is a 1994 American lesbian-themed independent drama film. Directed and co-written by Rose Troche, the film tells the story of the interrelationships of a small group of lesbian friends in Chicago...

(1994) - Bedrooms and Hallways
Bedrooms and Hallways
Bedrooms and Hallways is a 1998 comedy-drama film about bisexuality or the fluidity of sexuality. It was written by Robert Farrar and directed by Rose Troche, starring Kevin McKidd, James Purefoy, Tom Hollander, Julie Graham, Simon Callow and Hugo Weaving....

(1998)
Sebastien Lifshitz
Sébastien Lifshitz
Sébastien Lifshitz is a French screenwriter and director. He teaches at La Fémis, a school that focuses on the subject of image and sound. He studied at the École du Louvre, and has a bachelor's degree from the University of Paris in history of art.Lifshitz's work involves gay themes...

: Presque rien
Presque rien
Presque rien is a 2000 French film directed by Sebastien Lifshitz, set in Brittany, depicting a stormy holiday romance between two 18-year-olds and what remains of that relationship eighteen months later.- Plot :Upper-middle class Mathieu , is spending his summer...

(2000) - Wild Side
Wild Side (2004 film)
Wild Side is a 2004 drama film directed by Sébastien Lifshitz. It premiered at the 2004 Berlin International Film Festival.-Plot:Stéphanie, a transsexual prostitute travels to a small town to care for her sick mother. She is joined by her two flatmates, an Algerian hustler and an AWOL Russian...

(2004)
Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes is an American independent film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his feature films Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Poison, Velvet Goldmine, Safe, and the Academy Award-nominated Far from Heaven and I'm Not There.- Style and themes :The writes that "Haynes is...

: Poison
Poison (film)
Poison is a 1991 independent film written and directed by Todd Haynes. It is composed of three intercut stories that are partially inspired by the novels of Jean Genet...

(1991) - Dottie Gets Spanked (1993) - Safe (1995) Velvet Goldmine
Velvet Goldmine
Velvet Goldmine is a 1998 British/American drama film directed and co-written by Todd Haynes. The film tells the story of a pop star based mainly on David Bowie's 'Ziggy Stardust' character and is set in Britain during the days of glam rock in the early 1970s.Sandy Powell received another Academy...

(1998) - Far From Heaven
Far from Heaven
Far from Heaven is a 2002 drama film written and directed by Todd Haynes and starring Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, and Patricia Clarkson....

(2002) - I'm Not There
I'm Not There
I'm Not There is a 2007 biographical musical film directed by Todd Haynes, inspired by iconic American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Six actors depict different facets of Dylan's life and public persona: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw...

(2007)
Todd Verow
Todd Verow
Todd Verow is an American film director who now resides in New York City, New York. He attended the Rhode Island School of Design and the AFI Conservatory. Together with his creative partner, James Derek Dwyer, he formed Bangor Films in 1995. He was also the cinematographer for Jon Moritsugu's...

: Frisk
Frisk
Frisk is a surname of Swedish origin, one of many Swedish army names originally given to soldiers to make their names more distinctive;-People:*Anders Frisk, Swedish former football referee*Helena Frisk, Swedish politician of the Social Democratic Party...

(1995) - Anonymous (2004) - Vacationland
Vacationland (film)
Vacationland is an independent gay-themed coming-of-age film by director Todd Verow starring Brad Hallowell as Joe and Gregory J. Lucas as Andrew, two highschool youth who have a crush on each other, but have difficulties to reconcile with their own sexuality in a small town...

(2006) - Between Something & Nothing (2008)
Tom Kalin
Tom Kalin
Tom Kalin is an award-winning screenwriter, film director, producer, and professor of experimental film at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee.His debut feature, Swoon, is considered an integral part of the New Queer Cinema...

: Swoon
Swoon (film)
Swoon is an independent film written and directed by Tom Kalin, released in 1992. It is an account of the 1924 Leopold and Loeb murder case, focusing more on the homosexuality of the killers than other movies based on the case...

(1992)
Francoise Doherty
Françoise Doherty
Françoise Doherty is a Canadian filmmaker, songwriter and media artist. Noted for being a trailblazer in queer activism with a stop-motion animated series for children. She garnered Audience Choice Awards at Cineffable in Paris France and Festival Image + Nation in Montreal. To date the Girl...

: The Girl Bunnies. Big Tree. (2011) - The Girl Bunnies. Hockey. (2009) - Les Lapines (The Girl Bunnies) (2008)

Producers

Christine Vachon
Christine Vachon
Christine Vachon is an American film producer active in the American independent film sector and daughter of noted photographer John Vachon....

: Poison
Poison (film)
Poison is a 1991 independent film written and directed by Todd Haynes. It is composed of three intercut stories that are partially inspired by the novels of Jean Genet...

, Swoon
Swoon (film)
Swoon is an independent film written and directed by Tom Kalin, released in 1992. It is an account of the 1924 Leopold and Loeb murder case, focusing more on the homosexuality of the killers than other movies based on the case...
Andrea Sperling
Andrea Sperling
Andrea Sperling is an American independent film producer based in Los Angeles. Films she has produced include Totally Fucked Up, But I'm a Cheerleader, D.E.B.S. and Itty Bitty Titty Committee.-Biography:...

: The Hours and Times
The Hours and Times
The Hours and Times is a 1991 drama film written and directed by Christopher Münch. Starring David Angus and Ian Hart, it is a fictionalized account of what might have happened during a real holiday taken by John Lennon and The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein in 1963.-Plot:It is 1963 and John Lennon...

, Totally Fucked Up
Totally Fucked Up
Totally Fucked Up is a 1993 American drama film written and directed by Gregg Araki...

, The Doom Generation
The Doom Generation
The Doom Generation is a film by director Gregg Araki. Released in 1995, it stars Rose McGowan, James Duval and Johnathon Schaech as two teenagers and a 21-year-old punk drifter who become involved in a ménage à trois. It is the second of a trilogy of films known as the Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy,...

, But I'm a Cheerleader
But I'm a Cheerleader
But I'm a Cheerleader is a 1999 satirical romantic comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit and written by Brian Wayne Peterson. Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan Bloomfield, an apparently happy heterosexual high school cheerleader...

, Itty Bitty Titty Committee
Itty Bitty Titty Committee
Itty Bitty Titty Committee is a feminist, lesbian-related comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit. It was released on 28 September 2007.The film had its premiere at the international film festival Berlinale on 9 February 2007, where it was nominated for a Teddy Award for Best Feature...

Actors/Actresses

Alexis Arquette
Alexis Arquette
Alexis Arquette is an American trans woman, actress, musician, and cabaret performer.-Early life:...

: Last Exit to Brooklyn
Last Exit to Brooklyn (film)
Last Exit to Brooklyn is a 1989 English-language German drama film, directed by Uli Edel, and based on the eponymous novel by Hubert Selby Jr.- Plot :...

(1989) - Grief (1993) - Threesome
Threesome (film)
Threesome is a 1994 film, written and directed by Andrew Fleming. The film is an autobiographical comedy mixed in with some social commentary, and is based on the college memories of Fleming. It was given an R rating by the Motion Picture Association of America...

(1994) - Frisk
Frisk (film)
Frisk is a 1995 drama film, directed by Todd Verow, based on the 1991 novel by author Dennis Cooper. It is a first-person narrative about a serial killer. Dennis describes a series of ritual murders in letters to his sometime lover and best friend, Julian , and Julian's younger brother Kevin . It...

(1995) - I Think I Do
I Think I Do
I Think I Do is a 1997 American gay-themed romantic comedy film written and directed by Brian Sloan and starring Alexis Arquette.-Plot:The film follows the relationship between Bob and Brendan , roommates at George Washington University in Washington, DC, five years after Bob made his romantic...

(1997) - Party Monster (2003)
Craig Chester
Craig Chester
Craig Chester is an American actor and screenwriter.He is best known for his performances in independent films in the 1990s, starting with his debut in Swoon , which earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination...

: Swoon
Swoon (film)
Swoon is an independent film written and directed by Tom Kalin, released in 1992. It is an account of the 1924 Leopold and Loeb murder case, focusing more on the homosexuality of the killers than other movies based on the case...

(1992) - Frisk
Frisk (film)
Frisk is a 1995 drama film, directed by Todd Verow, based on the 1991 novel by author Dennis Cooper. It is a first-person narrative about a serial killer. Dennis describes a series of ritual murders in letters to his sometime lover and best friend, Julian , and Julian's younger brother Kevin . It...

(1995) - Kiss Me, Guido
Kiss Me, Guido
Kiss Me, Guido is a 1997 independent film comedy. Written and directed by Tony Vitale, it stars Nick Scotti, Anthony Barrile, Anthony DeSando and Craig Chester.-Synopsis:...

(1997) - Adam & Steve
Adam & Steve
Adam & Steve is a 2005 LGBT romantic comedy film directed by and starring Craig Chester, who also wrote the screenplay. It deals with the lives of two gay men, played by Chester and Malcolm Gets...

(2005)
Craig Gilmore
Craig Gilmore
Craig Gilmore is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the New Queer Cinema films The Living End and Totally Fucked Up.-External links:* at All Media Guide...

: The Living End
The Living End (film)
The Living End is a 1992 film by Gregg Araki. Described by some critics as a "gay Thelma and Louise," the film is an early entry in the New Queer Cinema genre. The Living End was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992....

(1992) - Totally Fucked Up
Totally Fucked Up
Totally Fucked Up is a 1993 American drama film written and directed by Gregg Araki...

(1993)
Guinevere Turner
Guinevere Turner
Guinevere Turner is an American actress, writer and director. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She is best known as the screenwriter of such films as American Psycho and The Notorious Bettie Page and for playing the lead role of the dominatrix Tanya Cheex in Preaching to the Perverted.-...

: Go Fish
Go Fish (film)
Go Fish is a 1994 American lesbian-themed independent drama film. Directed and co-written by Rose Troche, the film tells the story of the interrelationships of a small group of lesbian friends in Chicago...

(1994) - The Watermelon Woman
The Watermelon Woman
The Watermelon Woman is a 1996 feature film by filmmaker Cheryl Dunye about Cheryl, a young black lesbian working a day job in a video store while trying to make a film about a black actress from the 1930s known for playing the stereotypical "mammy" roles relegated to black actresses during the...

(1996) - Kiss Me, Guido
Kiss Me, Guido
Kiss Me, Guido is a 1997 independent film comedy. Written and directed by Tony Vitale, it stars Nick Scotti, Anthony Barrile, Anthony DeSando and Craig Chester.-Synopsis:...

(1997) - The Fluffer
The Fluffer
The Fluffer, a 2001 U.S. independent film, is a triangular story of obsessive love set against the backdrop of the adult video industry. The film was written by Wash West and co-directed by West and his life partner Richard Glatzer...

(2001) - Itty Bitty Titty Committee
Itty Bitty Titty Committee
Itty Bitty Titty Committee is a feminist, lesbian-related comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit. It was released on 28 September 2007.The film had its premiere at the international film festival Berlinale on 9 February 2007, where it was nominated for a Teddy Award for Best Feature...

(2007)
James Duval
James Duval
James Edward Duval is an American actor, who is most famous for his roles in the Gregg Araki trilogy—Totally Fucked Up, The Doom Generation, and Nowhere—in addition to Frank in Donnie Darko, Blank in May, Miguel in Independence Day and Singh in Go.-Personal life:Duval was born in Detroit, Michigan...

: Totally Fucked Up
Totally Fucked Up
Totally Fucked Up is a 1993 American drama film written and directed by Gregg Araki...

(1993) - The Doom Generation
The Doom Generation
The Doom Generation is a film by director Gregg Araki. Released in 1995, it stars Rose McGowan, James Duval and Johnathon Schaech as two teenagers and a 21-year-old punk drifter who become involved in a ménage à trois. It is the second of a trilogy of films known as the Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy,...

(1995) - A River Made to Drown In
A River Made to Drown In
A River Made to Drown In is a 1997 drama film starring Michael Imperioli, Richard Chamberlain, Ute Lemper and James Duval. Directed by James Merendino, Merendino had his name removed and the film is credited to Alan Smithee...

(1997) - Nowhere
Nowhere (film)
Nowhere is a 1997 film by director and screenwriter Gregg Araki. It stars James Duval and Rachel True as Dark and Mel, a bisexual teen couple who are both sexually promiscuous....

(1997) - Kaboom
Kaboom (film)
Kaboom is a 2010 film, written and directed by Gregg Araki. The film stars Roxane Mesquida, Thomas Dekker, Juno Temple, Haley Bennett, and James Duval...

(2010)
Richard Ganoung: Parting Glances
Parting Glances
thumb|Parting Glances released on VHS format in 1998Parting Glances is an American film shot in 1984 and released in 1986. With its realistic look at urban gay life in the Ronald Reagan era and at the height of the AIDS crisis, many film critics consider it an important movie in the history of gay...

(1986) - Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss
Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss
Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss is a 1998 American independent, gay-themed romantic comedy film written and directed by Tommy O'Haver and starring Sean P. Hayes, Brad Rowe, and Meredith Scott Lynn...

(1992)
Ian McKellen
Ian McKellen
Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction...

: Gods and Monsters
Gods and Monsters
Gods and Monsters is a 1998 drama film that recounts the last days of the life of troubled film director James Whale, whose homosexuality is a central theme. It stars Ian McKellen as Whale, along with Brendan Fraser, Lynn Redgrave, Lolita Davidovich, and David Dukes...

(1998) - Apt Pupil
Apt Pupil
Apt Pupil is a novella by Stephen King, originally published in the 1982 novella collection Different Seasons, subtitled "Summer of Corruption".-Format of the story:Apt Pupil consists of 29 chapters, many of which are headed by a month...

(1998)

Further reference

B. Ruby Rich
B. Ruby Rich
B. Ruby Rich is an American scholar, critic of independent, Latin American, documentary and gay films, and a professor of Film & Digital Media and Social Documentation also known as "SocDoc" at UC Santa Cruz. She has also taught documentary film and queer studies during spring semesters at UC...

“New Queer Cinema”: Sight & Sound, Volume 2, Issue 5 (September 1992)
B. Ruby Rich “Queer and present danger”: Sight & Sound, Volume 10, Issue 3 (March 2000): http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/80/
Joseph Bristow: Sexuality (1997) ISBN 0-415-08494-6
Derek Jarman
Derek Jarman
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...

: Queer Edward II (1991) ISBN 0-85170-316-X
Martin Frey. Derek Jarman - Bewegte Bilder eines Malers. BoD 2008, ISBN 978-3-8370-1217-0
Nick Rees-Roberts: French Queer Cinema (2008)
Mark Simpson (journalist)
Mark Simpson (journalist)
Mark Simpson is an English journalist, writer, and broadcaster specialising in pop culture, media, and masculinity. He has been described by one critic as "the skinhead Oscar Wilde" Simpson is a frequent commentator on British television shows....

(ed.): Anti-Gay (1996) ISBN 0-304-33144-9
Tamsin Spargo: Foucault
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...

and Queer theory
Queer theory
Queer theory is a field of critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of the fields of LGBT studies and feminist studies. Queer theory includes both queer readings of texts and the theorisation of 'queerness' itself...

(1999) ISBN 1-84046-092-X
Colin Spencer: Homosexuality: A History (1995) ISBN 1-85702-447-8
Richard Dyer
Richard Dyer
Richard W. Dyer is an English academic specialising in cinema. As of 2006 he is Professor of Film Studies at King's College London. Previously he was at the University of Warwick...

: The Culture of Queers (2002). ISBN 0-415-22376-8
Axel Schock
Axel Schock
Axel Schock is a German journalist and author.Schock grew up in Sinsheim. He studied literature and theater at the Free University of Berlin...

/ Manuela Kay
Manuela Kay
Manuela Kay is a German lesbian journalist, writer, film-maker, and magazine editor.-Life and career:After finishing her studies, Kay worked as a journalist on various radio programmes. She made several videos on lesbian sexuality and pornography...

: Out im Kino. Das lesbisch-schwule Filmlexikon (2004). ISBN 978-3-89656-090-2
Doan, Laura L. The Lesbian Postmodern. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.
Aaron, Michele. New Queer Cinema: A Critical Reader. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2004.

External links

GLBTQ article on New Queer Cinema
GreenCine primer on Queer Cinema
Mubi article on New Queer Cinema (includes comprehensive filmography)

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Overview

Directors

Producers

Actors/Actresses

Further reference

See also

External links