Queer Film Blog

Hedwig and the Angry Inch , directed by J ohn Cameron Mitchell, is a 2001 campy, punk rock musical film based on the off-broadway musical. The film follows Hedwig and their band as they attempt to gain recognition for the songs stolen by their former, albeit too young, lover. When you think of Hedwig and the Angry Inch , you think punk, camp, queer and... Muppets? Although arguably a wild comparison, Hedwig and the Muppets do have a great deal in common. First off, Hedwig is set in the 70s/80s, a time when the Muppets were taking the world by storm. It's no wonder there are visual similarities between the two when they share that time period and most likely draw from the same inspirations of the time. I mean, Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, is also well known for his musical film with a queer, blonde, extravagant wig-wearing character. Starting to see possible connections? But back to the Muppets. First off, there is the most obvious similarity, one that I'm sure we were al...

Carol is a 2015 film about the relationship between Carol, a soon-to-be-divorced mother, and Therese, a store clerk with hopes of becoming a photographer. The film, set in the 1950s, begins with the two meeting for dinner, then flashing back to the start of their relationship, going through their story until we are back to where we started at the beginning of the film. After its release, the film received high praise and many nominations, although no academy awards. Despite its lack of mainstream recognition, the film was and still is popular among queer circles for its portrayal of lesbian relationships, as well as its subversion of typical lesbian tropes.  For example, despite the age difference between the two characters, the older woman (Carol) isn’t framed as predatory, which is often a trope in lesbian films. Carol actually considers the age gap and is concerned about it. And instead of using her age as a way to control Therese, she listens to what Therese wants. This is an i...

Mutt is a film that goes through a day with Feña, a transgender man. During that day, Feña runs into his ex-boyfriend, who he was with before his transition, and his sister who he hasn’t seen since before transition, all while trying to get a car to pick up his father from the airport who, you guessed it, Feña hasn’t seen since transitioning. The film, directed by a transgender man, gives audiences a look into a day in the life of a trans person (granted a very bad day). The film, much like Sedwick’s Epistemology of the Closet , examines the binary options and demonstrates how they are unstable. The film examines binaries not just in terms of gender, but also in terms of ethnicity, with the main character being mixed (hence the name of the film). We see Feña having the navigate the gender binary through his experiences with clerks, for example, the bank clerk viewing him as female and the pharmacy clerk viewing him as male. But we also see him navigating experiences of ethnicity, bounc...

Paris is Burning is a film that provides a look into the drag queen and ball subculture of 1980s Harlem. The film is composed of shots of the ballroom scene interlaced with interviews of members from the scene, either with them talking directly to the camera, talking-head style, or talking while they are doing an activity such as sewing or applying makeup. The film is broken up into sections, signaled by white text labeling the sections, either with members' names or prominent aspects of ballroom culture, such as “Reading.” Those interviewed discuss their personal lives, their connection to the ball scene (either through being part of a house or being a mother), and how the ballroom scene has allowed them to create and belong to a community of their own, even if they still dream of something more. This dream of something more is a repeated theme in Paris is Burning . Many members who were interviewed discussed their desire for fame and fortune, with some having specific goals in mi...

Dallas Buyers Club is a 2013 film about Ron Woodroof and his work creating an underground distribution of unapproved drugs to treat HIV/AIDS. The film is loosely based on a real story, with many characters and aspects added for dramatic effect. For example, Rayon and Dr. Eve were both fictional characters created from the stories of others. The film, to me, functions under one of the rhetorics of AIDS Nye mentions in The Rhetoric of AIDS: A New Taxonomy ; AIDS the Educator. Nye describes AIDS the Educator as functioning “...for people within the community and for people outside.” (Nye 241) As mentioned in the outtake slides shown before the movie, many queer people critiqued the film, but the general public highly enjoyed the film, earning it many nominations and awards. So, the film did not necessarily act as an educator for those “within the community” (i.e. those within the queer community), but it did educate those “outside the community,” aka those not already knowledgeable of th...

How to Survive a Plague addresses the issues of the AIDS epidemic and the work ACT UP did to further research, education, and activism concerning AIDS. The film highlights the inactivity of the US government and other official institutions and emphasizes the work ACT UP did, both through grassroots activism and underground medical markets to get the necessary help for those with HIV/AIDS. I thought it was interesting to see all the work that ACT UP had done, especially in regards to bringing in new medication that was not FDA-approved. I’ve learned about the AIDS epidemic previously, but most of it has been from the public health side, not the activist side. So it was great to be able to learn more about that.  In relation to the public health side, I think a good movie to watch with this film is And the Band Played On . This movie is a television film docudrama following the work of Don Francis, an epidemiologist who began fighting the AIDS epidemic in 1981. He was one of the firs...