Queer Cinema in the World

Abstract

Maryam Keshavarz's film Circumstance (2011) uses a scene of film consumption to expose the international fault lines of politics and sexuality. The film is set in con temporary Tehran and centers on two young Ira nian women, Atafeh and Shireen, who are in love but are compelled to hide their relationship. With their friends Joey and Hossein, the women visit a back-room video store to buy Western movies (figure I.1). They come across Gus Van Sant's Milk (2008) and begin to discuss its politics. For Joey and Hossein, Milk matters primarily not as a story of gay rights but as a story of po liti cal activism and an inspiring example of grassroots organ izing for the youth of Iran. Thus, Joey proclaims, "This film is not about fucking. It is about human rights!" to which Atafeh responds, "Fucking is a human right. " The question of how to read a film such as Milk and what a "gay" film might signify internationally is explic itly played out in this exchange. If fucking is a human right, then queerness takes its place on a certain kind of

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Media: Key Narratives, Future Directions

“…Relatedly, most stories and scholarship have focused on Western media, especially media from the United States. However, non‐Western LGBTQ narratives are becoming a familiar subject across some fields, like film studies, and warrant future research (Schoonover & Galt, ). Finally, bisexual and transgender accounts are limited though they too are seeing increased interest across literatures, especially in scholarship surrounding newer forms of media like video games, blogs, and websites (Brookey & Cannon, ; Craig, McInroy, McCready, & Alaggia, ; Craig, McInroy, McCready, Di Cesare, & Pettaway, ; McInroy & Craig, ).…”

“…In turn, media texts, audiences, or users can queer sexual and gender binaries as well as the expectations, demands, and constraints of heterosexuality and gender (and to a much lesser extent racism). Despite criticism (Dhoest & Simons, 2012;Raymond, 2003), researchers have extended these ideas to a range of media, from earlier forms like television (Dhaenens & Van Bauwel, 2011;Doty, 1993;Griffin, 2008;Muñoz, 1999;Reed, 2009) and film (Doty, 1993;Richardson, 2003;Schoonover & Galt, 2016) to newer media forms like web-based communities (Pullen, 2010a) and video games (Consalvo, 2003;Thompson, 2014). A key catalyst for this queer media narrative is Doty's (1993)…”

“…This skepticism echoes the earlier discussed militant/queer perspectives and is forcefully described in Chasin's (2000) words as the gay and lesbian movement "selling out" and adopting an assimilationist position. Chasin makes use of advertisements and a few other media forms, and other researchers similarly range in their research objects, including film (Brookey & Westerfelhaus, 2001;Schoonover & Galt, 2016), television (Battles & Hilton-Morrow, 2002;Dow, 2001;Reed, 2002Reed, , 2009Skerski, 2007), print advertisements (Chasin, 2000;Clark, 1991;Peñaloza, 1996), video games (Elund, 2013), websites (Campbell, 2005(Campbell, , 2007, and media more generally (Chasin, 2000;Fejes & Petrich, 1993;Gross, 2001;Moscowitz, 2013;Sender, 2003Sender, , 2004Streitmatter, 2008;Walters, 2001).…”

“…Thus, while the sites allowed individuals to develop personal relationships and share their intimate lives, the portals revealed deep tensions between economic imperatives and marginalized community building. Similarly, Schoonover and Galt (2016), citing Doty (1993) and other queer media scholars, underline that film studies literature often paints popular cinema as deeply ideological. Through textual analysis of global cinema-including films from Thailand, Serbia, and Nigeria-they seek to offer popular cinema more nuance, underlining that it is a site where "the relationship of queerness to the world is negotiated and renegotiated" (p. 210).…”

Rendering Identity: Normativity in Conventional Contemporary Queer Documentary

“…It is emphasised as an aspirational aim for "successful" films to adhere to particular styles, stories, and aesthetics that served the Western narrative --and by proxy, the established dichotomies, standards, and ideals of western hegemony (Dixon & Foster 2002;King, 2006). Schoonover and Galt (2016) argue that while western narrative models may contribute to a reinforcement of normative assertions, the possibility of de-westernized and foreign narrative formulas may contribute to the establishment of a subversive narrative medium (pp 12-14).…”