Новое квир-кино: История и развитие движения

Movement in queer themed independent filmmaking

"New queer cinema" is a term first coined by the academic B. Ruby Rich in Sight & Sound magazine in 1992 to define and describe a movement in queer themed independent filmmaking in the early 1990s. It is also referred to as the "queer new wave".

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. The major film studio to discuss these issues was aptly named New Line Cinema with its Fine Line Features division. 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 and the lives of LGBT protagonists living on the fringe of society.

Susan Hayward states that queer cinema existed for decades before it was given its official label, such as, with the films of French creators Jean Cocteau (Le sang d'un poète in 1934) and Jean Genet (Un chant d'amour in 1950). Queer cinema is associated with avant garde and underground films (e. g., Andy Warhol's 1960s films). In avant garde film, there are lesbian filmmakers, who laid the heritage for queer cinema, notably Ulrike Ottinger, Chantal Akerman and Pratibha Parmar. An important influence on the development of queer cinema was Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1970s and 1980s European art films, which added a "gay and queer sensibility" to film (e. g., Querelle from 1982, based on Genet's novel). Like Rosa von Praunheim, who has made more than 100 films on queer topics since the late 1960s, many of them have been shown and rated internationally. Some of the director's films are considered milestones in queer cinema. Von Praunheim became an international icon of queer cinema. Another influence on queer cinema was the Brazilian filmmaker Héctor Babenco, whose film Kiss of the Spider Woman, from 1985, depicted a man in prison, who is seduced by his cellmate. The identification of queer cinema probably emerged in the mid 1980s through the influence of queer theory, which aims to "challenge and push further debates on gender and sexuality" as developed by feminist theory and "confuse binary essentialisms around gender and sexual identity, expose their limitations", and depict the blurring of these roles and identities. Rich developed her theory in The Village Voice and Sight & Sound, 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, but were presented invariably as outsiders and renegades from the rules of conventional society, who embraced radical and unconventional gender roles and ways of life, frequently casting themselves as outlaws or fugitives.

The 1991 documentary Paris Is Burning introduced audiences to yet another subcultural realm. Director Jennie Livingston captured the realities of New York's drag balls and houses, and of the people of color who occupied these spaces. This was an arguably underground world with which many Americans were unfamiliar. Aesthetic excellence and flamboyance were crucial in drag performances and competitions. Stylized vogue dancing was also exhibited as central to the drag experience, notably influencing the artistry of pop icon Madonna. New queer cinema figures like Livingston encouraged viewers to suspend their ignorance, and enjoy the diversity of humanity. Not only did these films frequently reference the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, the film movement itself can be seen as a response to the crisis. The tone and energy of these movies reflected the assertive outrage of AIDS activist organizations of the past decade. Given the relative invisibility of references to AIDS in mainstream Hollywood film making, 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. Laurie Lynd's RSVP (1991), Isaac Julien's Young Soul Rebels (1991), Derek Jarman's Edward II (1991), Tom Kalin's Swoon (1992), and Gregg Araki's The Living End (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 antagonistic approach towards heterosexual culture. and Hong Kong director Wong Kar wai's Happy Together (1997).

Beginning in the 2010s, a number of LGBT filmmakers, including Rose Troche and Travis Mathews, identified a newer trend in LGBT filmmaking, in which the influence of new queer cinema was evolving toward more universal audience appeal. Rich, the originator of the phrase "new queer cinema", has identified the emergence in the late 2000s of LGBT themed mainstream films such as Brokeback Mountain, Milk, and The Kids Are All Right as a key moment in the evolution of the genre. Both Troche and Mathews singled out Stacie Passon's 2013 Concussion, a film about marital infidelity in which the central characters' lesbianism is a relatively minor aspect of a story and the primary theme is how a long term relationship can become troubled and unfulfilling regardless of its gender configuration, as a prominent example of the trend. More recently, Academy Award for Best Picture winners Moonlight and Everything Everywhere All at Once have been notable for prominently depicting queer characters.