The de-Fusion of Good Intentions

“I didn’t want to promote it with a white girl”: marketing practices and boundary work at popular music festivals

“…This paper is built on the premise that there is power behind marketing and promotional strategies (Clarke and Jepson, 2011), as they place some people outside of the spectrum of potential visitors, while (implicitly) inviting others in. This is due to the main goal of marketing and promotion strategies, which is focused on reaching specific audiences (Bose, 2005; Järvekülg and Wikström, 2022; Rastegar, 2009), relating closely to the concept of segmentation. Segmentation has a long-standing research tradition within the field of marketing (Ritter and Lund Pedersen, 2024).…”

Pink programming across Europe: exploring identity politics at European LGBT film festivals

“…Angelo Acerbi (TGLFF-Torino Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Torino), Kevin De Ridder (Pinx) and Bohdan Zhuk (Sunny Bunny, Kiev) view this method as a way to avoid losing audiences: according to Acerbi and Zhuk, audiences are not likely to pay to see a film of questionable quality and De Ridder fears that audiences may feel alienated when the represented issue does not concern them. By curating programs that feature several films with overrepresented identities and issues, programmers participate in preserving the dominance of films by and about white gay men in the LGBT film festival circuit (Gamson 1996;Rastegar 2009). All programmers are aware of the omnipresence of white gay men but some reiterate how difficult it is to find films of quality with characters that are not white, cisgender male and/or homosexual.…”

“…In particular, established LGBT film festivals have been criticized for turning into commercial events built around commodified gay and lesbian identities (Rastegar 2009;Rich 2006). Several interviewees provided extended accounts of their festival's political character.…”

How queer is ‘pink’ programming? On the representational politics of an identity-based film program at Film Fest Gent

“…They defied the absence of positive, intersectional, and rounded imagery of gender and sexual diversity, created opportunities for LGBT filmmakers to show their films, and brought LGBT individuals together in and around the cinema to form a temporary counterpublic. Yet the increase in successful LGBT film festivals, the success of new queer cinema in the 1990s, and a growing awareness of LGBT individuals as a niche and international market have complicated the political and activist ambitions of festivals as the political aims have become more intertwined with commercial goals (Gamson, 1996; Rastegar, 2009; Rhyne, 2006; Rich, 2013). Roya Rastegar (2009) stresses that processes of commodification have produced marketable gay and lesbian identities.…”

“…Yet the increase in successful LGBT film festivals, the success of new queer cinema in the 1990s, and a growing awareness of LGBT individuals as a niche and international market have complicated the political and activist ambitions of festivals as the political aims have become more intertwined with commercial goals (Gamson, 1996; Rastegar, 2009; Rhyne, 2006; Rich, 2013). Roya Rastegar (2009) stresses that processes of commodification have produced marketable gay and lesbian identities. For a film festival invested in the market, it has become difficult to resist the established, normative images of LGBTs.…”