GLOBAL QUEER CINEMAS

In this class, we will focus on contemporary queer cinema from around the world to explore how filmmakers create new visual modes of representing queerness, and how these queer cinematic narratives are informed by various local, national, cultural and political contexts. Through a comparative, transnational and intersectional approach that takes into consideration the particularities of each filmmaker’s context, we will aim to answer the following questions: How do the particularities of various cultural, national, linguistic, religious contexts affect the way queer identities are defined and depicted visually? How do these filmmakers and artists create a visual aesthetic based on their local contexts that is distinct from westernized visual narratives of queerness? How do images of queerness circulate globally and how might queer visual cultures of the Global South push back against existing paradigms of queerness in the Global North? All films for the course are subject to change, but may include titles such as Rafiki, A Fantastic Woman, Happy Together, The Wound, Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Additionally, we will read critical and theoretical works that will urge us to consider these films from a range of perspectives, such as queer studies, feminist film studies, disability studies, and transgender studies.