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Other library resource(s)
LGBTQ Cinema from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286Mainstream cinema’s dominant subject has always been heterosexuality. Whether explicit, as in the romance genre, or simply implied, as in other genres, heterosexuality has been the foundation of mainstream cinematic representations. Queer characters, however, have been represented since cinema began, although only recently could they be labeled as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered. ...
LGBT thought and culture by This database is an online resource of books, periodicals, and archival materials documenting LGBT political, social and cultural movements throughout the twentieth century and now.- Queer theory from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286Queer Theory emerged from departments of literature, film, rhetoric, and critical studies in universities in the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe during the early 1990s, exemplified and inspired by the publication of two paradigm-shifting books: Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (Butler 1990) and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s Epistemology of the Closet (Sedgwick 2008) (both cited under Theory). Drawing upon the social constructionist views prominent in the work of French philosopher-historian Michel Foucault, Butler argued that gender is neither a natural nor a stable element of biological or social identity, but rather is constantly brought into existence through a series of performative activities: everyday gestures and actions that have the potential to reconstitute notions and practices of masculinity and femininity and thus resist normativity. ...
Transgender media studies from Oxford Bibliographies Online - Communication by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199756841Transgender media studies is a fairly recent area of scholarship emerging at the intersections of communication studies, cultural studies, digital media studies, film studies, gender studies, media studies, television studies, and transgender studies. The earliest scholarship in this field primarily consisted of analyses of portrayals of transsexual characters on the screen. With the gradual broadening of LGBTQ scholarship facilitating coverage of trans issues, the growing global visibility of trans, transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people, and the intermittent expansion of trans legal and human rights, transgender media studies began to develop as a vibrant area of study of its own. ...
Internet resource(s)
- Gay CelluloidGay by name and gay by nature, this site delights in showcasing the works of independent filmmakers, many of whom are openly gay and often battling against the restrictions of a limited budget, take an outright pride in delivering films made for the viewing pleasure of a gay, strictly number six on the Kinsey scale, audience.
- GLAADThe Publications section highlights GLAAD annuals such as Where We Are on Television and Studio Responsibility Index.
- GLAAD's Studio Responsibility IndexThis report maps the quantity, quality, and diversity of LGBTQ characters in films released by the eight film studios that had the highest theatrical grosses from films in a calendar year and four of their subsidiaries as reported by box office database Box Office Mojo. These studios were Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, STX Films, United Artists Releasing, Universal Pictures, The Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Bros.
- NewFest
NewFest is dedicated to bringing together filmmakers and audiences in the building of a community that passionately supports giving greater visibility and voice to a wide range of expressions and representations of the LGBT experience.
Short definitions
QUEER THEORY
A trend in cultural studies that reclaims a derogatory term referencing homosexuality in order to challenge essentialist ideas of fixed gender identities, sexual preferences, and all forms of ‘normality’, both homo—and hetero-, as well as to promote and celebrate a subversive ‘queering’ of all cultural texts. The philosopher Judith Butler’s Bodies That Matter is widely regarded as a founding text of queer theory. In film studies, the development of queer theory and queer cultural politics has gone hand-in-hand with the rise of poststructuralism and postmodernism within the discipline, and with the establishment of New Queer Cinema. Three trends may be identified in queer film theory. First, reflection on and analysis of films, videos, and writings by self-identified queer artists and filmmakers; second, ‘queering the canon’ by means of queer readings of such classic films as Das Kabinett des Dr Caligari/The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Robert Wiene, Germany, 1919), The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, US, 1939), Brief Encounter (David Lean, GB, 1945), and Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock, USA, 1951) (see canon) as well as of the performances and personae of certain stars (Bette Davis and Marlene Dietrich, for example); and third, critical endorsement or re-evaluation of films, old and new, that embody and celebrate pastiche, excess and camp, and demolish gender and sexual stereotypes. While now established in many film studies curricula, queer film theory emerged from the worlds of independent cinema, film festivals, and film criticism as much as from film studies scholarship. Its increased academic currency since the 1990s has taken place in concert with the rise of queer cinema; and it maintains its allegiance to sexual politics, cultural politics, and social change, continuing to offer both political and theoretical purchase for radical sexual communities.
Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). Queer theory. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 3 Mar. 2022
NEW QUEER CINEMA
A diverse body of ‘queer’ films (see queer theory), beginning in the 1980s and ongoing, that are regarded as constituting a break with earlier representations of homosexuality in cinema. Coined in 1992 by Ruby Rich, the term signals a turning away from notions of negative stereotypes and positive images of gays and gayness in films, and a move towards cinematic explorations of the perverse and the deviant within the sexual domain; and/or celebrations of intertextuality, pastiche, irony, and irreverence. Early examples of the genre were independent films and videos that were at first confined largely to film festivals, including Tongues Untied (Marlon Riggs, US, 1989), Paris is Burning (Jennie Livingstone, US, 1990), Edward II (Derek Jarman, UK, 1991), Young Soul Rebels (Isaac Julien, UK/France/Germany/Spain, 1991), and My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant, US, 1991). The term was soon (and in some quarters controversially) extended to more mainstream queer films, such as The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert (Stephan Elliot, Australia/UK, 1994), Boys Don’t Cry (Kimberley Peirce, US, 1999), the work of Todd Haynes, including Far from Heaven (US, 2002) and Carol (UK/US, 2015), and Ang Lee’s highly successful queer western, Brokeback Mountain (US, 2005). In World cinema, the work of such filmmakers as Pedro Almodóvar (for example La mala educación/Bad Education (Spain, 2004)) and Wong Kar-wai (for example Chun gwong cha sit/Happy Together (Hong Kong, 1997)) has also been included in the queer cinema canon.
In film studies, critical debate around New Queer Cinema remains an integral part of queer film theory. For example, scholarly comment on the award-winning Boys Don’t Cry centres on such issues as the notion of a queer gaze, and the tension between the film’s mainstream approach to plot and characterization on the one hand and its queer theme on the other. See also postmodernism; sexuality; transgender.
Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). New Queer Cinema. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 3 Mar. 2022
In the Library's collections
Suggested subject headings for searching the online catalog include:
- bisexuality in motion picturesThis books are scattered between PN 1995.9 .B57 and HQ 74.
- gays in popular cultureThis books are scattered between PN 1992.8 .H64 and HQ 75 through HQ 76.
- homosexuality in motion picturesCall number range is PN 1995.9 .H55 on Baker Level 4.
- lesbianism in motion picturesCall number range is PN 1995.9 .L48 on Baker Level 4.
- transgender people in motion picturesBooks are scattered within the HQ 75.5 call number range.
- transsexualismThis books are scattered between HQ 75 to HQ 77.
Introductory reading(s)
50 years of queer cinema: 500 of the best gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and queer questioning films ever made by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .H55 P65 2010ISBN: 9781936003099As late as 1958, homosexuality couldn't be mentioned in a movie, as proven by the elaborate rituals the producers of Tennessee Williams' swampy drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof used to evade the obvious fact that its hero, as played by Paul Newman, was playing it gay. Cinema emerged from its celluloid closet in 1960 and has since allowed many cult icons into America's mainstream: gay cowboys, gay Nazis, S&M fetish groups and women in love with each other. 50 Years of Queer Cinema documents it all, focusing on cinema's most intriguing queer films.
Completely queer: the Gay and Lesbian encyclopedia by Call Number: Baker-Berry Ref. HQ 75 .H63 1998ISBN: 9780805036299Completely Queer is a concise and balanced guide to the history, people, places, and ideas important to lesbian and gay communities worldwide. Linking a detailed chronology of homosexual life and achievement to nearly six hundred articles - ranging from "ACT UP" to "Lesbian Continuum," from "Military" to "Wilde" - it explores in depth more facets of today's gay and lesbian subcultures than any other one-volume reference work. ...
Film in The SAGE Encyclopedia of LGBTQ Studies by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781483371306This entry focuses on the cinematic representations of LGBTQ subjects. It explains the critical methods used to identify such representations, which span over a century of film-making, from experimental shorts to commercial features to independently produced documentaries and beyond. ...
Gay histories and cultures: an encyclopedia by Call Number: Baker-Berry Ref. HQ 75.13 .G37 2000ISBN: 9780815318804Beginning in 1869, when the study of homosexuality can be said to have begun with the establishment of sexology, this encyclopedia offers accounts of the most important international developments in an area that now occupies a critical place in many fields of academic endeavors. It covers a long history and a dynamic and ever changing present, while opening up the academic profession to new scholarship and new ways of thinking. ...
Lesbian histories and cultures: an encyclopedia by Call Number: Baker-Berry Ref. HQ 75.5 .L4395 2000ISBN: 9780815319207Beginning in 1869, when the study of homosexuality can be said to have begun with the establishment of sexology, this encyclopedia offers accounts of the most important international developments in an area that now occupies a critical place in many fields of academic endeavours. It covers a long history and a dynamic and ever changing present, while opening up the academic profession to new scholarship and new ways of thinking. A groundbreaking new approach While gays and lesbians have shared many aspects of life, their histories and cultures developed in profoundly different ways. To reflect this crucial fact, the encyclopedia has been prepared in two separate volumes assuring that both histories receive full, unbiased attention and that a broad range of human experience is covered. ...
The Oxford handbook of Queer cinema by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780190877996The term "queer cinema" is often used to name at least three cultural events: 1) an emergent visual culture that boldly identifies as queer; 2) a body of narrative, documentary, and experimental work previously collated under the rubric of homosexual or lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) cinema; 3) a means of critically reading and evaluating films and other visual media through the lens of sexuality. By this expansive account, queer cinema encompasses more than a century of filmmaking, film criticism, and film reception, and the past twenty-five years have seen the idea of "queer cinema" expand further as a descriptor for a global arts practice. As the first of its kind, The Oxford Handbook of Queer Cinema treats these three currents as art and critical practice, bringing the canon of queer cinema together with a new generation of makers and scholars. ...
Queer screen: a Screen reader by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .H55 Q47 2007ISBN: 9780415384315Queer Screen: A Screen Reader brings together a selection of key articles on queer cinema published over the past two decades in the internationally renowned journal, Screen, with new introductory editorial material from Jackie Stacey and Sarah Street. ...
Transgender cinema by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780813597331Transgender Cinema gives readers the big picture of how trans people have been depicted on screen. Beginning with a history of trans tropes in classic Hollywood cinema, from comic drag scenes in Chaplin's The Masquerader to Garbo's androgynous Queen Christina, and from psycho killer queers to The Rocky Horror Picture Show's outrageous queen, it examines a plethora of trans portrayals that subsequently emerged from varied media outlets, including documentary films, television serials, and world cinema. ...
Selected book titles
Bisexual characters in film: from Anaïs to Zee by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .B57 B78 1997ISBN: 9781560238942How far have we progressed from the days when showing a film such as Jack Smith's Flaming Creatures landed the cinema's programmer, projectionist, and ticket taker in jail? What are some of the hidden clues modern audiences are overlooking in older films that suggest a character's bisexuality? Which famous actors, actresses, directors, and screenwriters were attracted to people of both sexes? In Bisexual Characters in Film, the first book to focus on the role of bisexual characters in film, you'll find answers to these questions and many more as you explore, analyze, and celebrate 80 years of bisexual movie characters (and the people who have created them) from around the world. ...
The celluloid closet: homosexuality in the movies by Call Number: BakerBerry PN 1995.9 .H55 R8 1987ISBN: 9780060961329Publication Date: Rev. ed.Praised by the Chicago Tribune as "an impressive study" and written with incisive wit and searing perception--the definitive, highly acclaimed landmark work on the portrayal of homosexuality in film.
Cinematic queerness: gay and lesbian hypervisibility in contemporary Francophone feature films by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .H55 C56 2011ISBN: 9783034301831The last three decades have witnessed the proliferation of gay/lesbian-themed films both on our screens and at international film festivals. This trend - termed 'hypervisibility' by Julianne Pidduck - has gone far beyond the boundaries of countries with a multicultural tradition and now reaches many territories, including the French-speaking world. What is the narrative and thematic originality of such films in French-speaking contexts? Do such feature films develop problematics and approaches specific to areas such as metropolitan France or Francophone Canada? The sixteen essays included in this collection (six in English and ten in French) aim to answer to such questions by offering in-depth and challenging discussions of film productions from France and Quebec, ...
Insane passions: lesbianism and psychosis in literature and film by Call Number: Baker-Berry PS 228 .L47 C64 2006ISBN: 9780819568199In France in 1933, two sisters, presumed to be lovers, murdered the women who employed them as maids. Known as "the Papin affair," the incident inspired not only Jean Genet's 1947 The Maids but also an essay by Jacques Lacan that presents the sisters' crime as fueled by a narcissistic, homosexual drive that culminated in the assault. In this new investigation of the roots of the twentieth-century myth of the lesbian-as-madwoman, Christine Coffman argues that the female psychotic was the privileged object of Lacan's effort to derive a revolutionary theory of subjectivity from the study of mental illness. ...
Male bisexuality in current cinema: images of growth, rebellion and survival by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .B57 V53 2011ISBN: 9780786461608In recent decades, male bisexuality has become a recurring topic in international cinema, as filmmakers and their works challenge our ideas about sexual freedom and identity. In all of these films, more than a dozen of which are covered here, bisexuality is treated both as an actual practice and a complex metaphor for a number of things, including the need to adapt to changing environments, the questioning of rigidly traditional male roles and identities, the breakdown and regeneration of the structures of families, the limitations of monogamy, and the stubborn affirmation of romantic love.
Open secret: gay Hollywood, 1928-1998 by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .H55 E47 1998ISBN: 9780688153175Hollywood isn't just a place or an industry -- it's a fantasy that unfolds in the minds of moviegoers the world over. And talking about "who's gay in Hollywood" has always been the most socially acceptable way of talking about homosexuality period. But times have changed for gays and lesbians inside Hollywood and in the culture at large. Ellen DeGeneres "came out" to a world quite different from the one that allowed Marlene Dietrich to "stay in." And while Rupert Everett may be called "the gay Cary Grant," the real Cary Grant would never have described himself as gay -- even though he was. So what has it meant to be gay in Hollywood, not just as a star but behind the scenes as well? How homosexual actors and actresses came to define straight America's sexual self-image is only one of the paradoxical and provocative questions explored in Open Secret, a revealing cultural chronicle of gay Hollywood. ...
Queer (un)friendly film and television by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .H55 K45 2002ISBN: 9780786412464In the past, representations of alternative lifestyles on film were, even in their most explicit forms, faint and ambiguous, and the television industry was even more conservative. But in more recent years, thanks in part to the success of such films as Philadelphia, The Birdcage, To Wong Fu and In & Out, and television programs such as Will & Grace, a collective effort is underway to construct a positive new public image for gays and lesbians. This work studies recent cinematic and television depictions of gays and lesbians. ...
LGBTQ+ documentaries, shorts and selected feature films
Something other than books and journals ...
The celluloid closet by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #14481ISBN: 9780767849005Assembles footage from over 120 films showing the changing face of cinema homosexuality from cruel stereotypes to covert love to the activist triumphs of the 1990s. Many actors, writers and commentators provide anecdotes regarding the history of the role of gay men and lesbians on the silver screen.
Fabulous!: the story of queer cinema by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #4199ISBN: 9781932134759An overview of the history of gay and lesbian cinema, from Kenneth Anger's pioneering Fireworks (1947) to Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain (2005).
History lessons by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #16853This film explores lesbian images from 1896 until 1969, focusing on pervading images prior to Stonewall, the film exposes popular representations of lesbian culture.
Homo promo by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #9798A compilation of trailers for motion pictures produced between 1956 and 1976 that deal with the themes of homosexual relationships and transgender issues.
Lesbian nation: a short film collectionCall Number: Jones Media DVD #17225Five short films dealing with lesbianism.
LGBTQ cinema by Call Number: Streaming videoA collection of films from and about the LGBTQ+ Community.
Rock Hudson's home movies by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #14466In this documentary, filmmaker Mark Rappaport conducts a revisionist analysis of the famed Hollywood actor's cinematic career. By turns fascinating, provocative, and amusing, nothing Hudson did onscreen escapes Rappaport's revisionist thesis--reading a gay subtext everywhere--which yields both clever insights and obvious stretching of a point. Rappaport's analysis is on its strongest ground in the examination of the Doris Day/Rock Hudson comedies of the late 50s and 60s, whose plots often centered on Hudson assuming dual identities.
The silver screen: color me lavender by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #2186An exploration of the way Hollywood dealt with or ignored issues of homosexuality during its so-called Golden Age, when the studio system reigned supreme. A funny and occasionally rude re-examination of the subterfuges by which Hollywood has alluded to and at the same time avoided an issue that it could not even name, much less identify, it is at the same time a serious survey of gender issues and how they were perceived and perpetuated by the Hollywood dream factory from the 1930s up to the 1960s.
Finding journal titles & articles
Articles and other writings about the LGBTQ depictions in movies can be found in many publications. You can use Film & Television Literature Index, Communication & Mass Media Complete (CMMC) or the search box at the top of the page.
Communication & mass media complete (CMMC) by Call Number: Electronic resourceThis is the main article index for the field of Communications.
Film & television literature indexCall Number: Electronic resourceThis index covers over 300 journal and magazine titles for film and television reviews, scholarly and critical analysis of cinema and television, and articles of popular interest about film and television. About half the journals and magazines are film periodicals and the other half cover film and television with some regularity. Subject coverage includes film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews.
glbtq archivesAlthough the encyclopedia closed in 2015, The encyclopedia's Literature, Arts, and Social Sciences Departments feature nearly 2000 signed entries. Hundreds of complementary illustrations help showcase the lives and contributions of thousands of glbtq people who have influenced society through literature, the arts, law, politics and more.
The web of science citation databases by Call Number: Electronic resourceThe online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.
Keeping up with Film Studies journal literature
Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for all facets of Film Studies? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's, you can download and read the articles you want from the journals for which we have subscriptions.
You can get the app from the App Store or Google Play.
Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's also available in a web version. You can get to it here. The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.