Customer Reviews

Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema

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This doc from the Independent Film Channel is a surprisingly comprehensive look at the history of gay, lesbian, and transgendered cinema (mostly in America) over the course of, well, the last century. The infamous Hayes Code prohibited the representation of gay characters starting in the 1930s, so there's a fairly large blank spot in that history, but this program recognizes the contributions of non-commercial indies like Kenneth Anger, and the whole thing picks up speed in the 1970s with some of the very first truely 'indie' productions. Entertainingly presented, with talking head input from a wealth of GLBT film makers and a lot of clips, this is at least a good solid beginning to understanding where "queer cinema" has come from and where it's headed. Very worthwhile!

This documentary was good. It was a little long in some places, but was still entertaining. The special features were fun; it featureas some coming out stories of some of my favourite queer actors (Jane Lynch, this means you!). A good purchase for those interested in queer cinema.

I just watched this documentary. How many ways can an elite group of queer filmmakers break their arms patting themselves on the back? And how hyperserious can any group of people be? Quite frankly, no matter how much queer filmmakers try to parse the "greatness" of their work, they're still subject to the same criticism as their straight contemporaries...sometimes the film is great, sometimes good, and many times dreadful.

The development of "new queer cinema" is no different than the development of other film narratives throughout the past 120 years of filmmaking. To glorify it as something special is to deny its natural progression. As film mercifully left "Stepinfetchit" far behind to create great roles for black actors, so have we left Kenneth Anger's tawdry "Fireworks" behind to create such classic films as "Brokeback Mountain". It's called "evolution", folks, and doesn't need self-serving filmmakers glorifying their own films to show how narrow-minded they think mainstream moviegoers are. The public is savvy enough to understand the evolution of film without being told what it needs to understand. Trust me, pretentious ones, we GET IT.