While Queer|Art|Film Takes a Winter Hiatus, Co-Curator Adam Baran Reflects on
the Groundbreaking Series' Legacy
10 Years of Queer|Art|Film: Winter’s A Drag, photos by KT Pe Benito
Adapted from a speech Queer|Art|Film co-curator, Adam Baran gave
at the Queer|Art Annual Party in November 2019
Queer|Art|Film began 10 years ago during a meeting between Ira Sachs and I at Julius Bar in the West Village. Ira and I shared an unshakeable love of film, a range of passionate opinions about cinematic styles and trends and a general feeling that intergenerational dialogues between queer people and artists were not being fostered or supported by any of the cinema’s art venues or film festivals in the city. A generation of artists and art lovers were lost in the AIDS epidemic and we wanted to begin to bridge the gap that was created. Ira came up with the format: we would invite a queer artist to present a film that inspired or influenced them and lead an incisive discussion with the artist about their work and their choice following the film.
A generation of artists and art lovers were lost in the AIDS epidemic and we wanted to begin to bridge the gap that was created.
Over the 10 years that followed, it has been a gift to be able to bring some of our favorite artists to the Queer|Art|Film stage for some truly extraordinary moments and conversations. I will never forget Justin Vivian Bond describing their intense obsession with Vanessa Redgrave after a screening of THE DEVILS or James Bidgood discussing the worlds that opened up to him when he first saw Powell’s THE THIEF OF BAGDAD. I will never forget Geo Wyeth's electric space-age performance at their screening of THE BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET; the joy I felt hearing the raucous laughter of an older gay audience during our screening of the restoration of the late, great Ridiculous Theatrical Company found Charles Ludlam’s unseen silent film THE SORROWS OF DOLORES; or watching Shea Diamond sing into “Miss Celie’s Blues” at Julius’ after their Q&A following our screening of THE COLOR PURPLE. Lesbian painter Louise Fishman describing her sexual awakening after seeing Marilyn Monroe in DON’T BOTHER TO KNOCK, Peggy Shaw & Lois Weaver of Split Britches wowing audiences with their pick - Marleen Gorris’ A QUESTION OF SILENCE - and DarkMatter (Janani Balasubramanian and Alok Vaid-Menon) explaining how the animated Studio Ghibli film POM POKO relates to the struggles connected to gentrification and erasure, round out some of my personal favorite moments.
It's been thrilling to watch from afar as the Queer|Art mentees grew and developed and began utilizing the new lessons learned at our film series and the mentorship program.
QAF co-curator Adam Baran, photo by Cayetana Suzuki
One of the most exciting developments in Queer|Art|Film history came when only after a year, Ira began to take steps to form the organization Queer|Art and the Queer|Art|Mentorship program. Many of the early mentors were artists who had appeared on our stage presenting a film and some of the audience members became the mentees. In Queer|Art|Mentorship, the intergenerational conversations we’d been having at Queer|Art|Film about influence, survival and practice were carried even further. Queer|Art|Film soon became a monthly gathering event for Queer|Art mentors & mentees to congregate at, catch up, and hear new speakers talk about their processes and survival strategies. It's been thrilling to watch from afar as the Queer|Art mentees grew and developed and began utilizing the new lessons learned at our film series and the mentorship program.
Pamela Sneed & Stephen Winter, co-curators of Black Summer Nights, photo by Ariele Max
As the years passed, Ira and I began to present special seasons, some of which were curated by guest artists from the Queer|Art family: Stephen Winter & Pamela Sneed hosted two brilliant seasons of “Black Summer Nights” which welcomed Black artists such as Jacqueline Woodson, Robert O’Hara and M. Lamar. “Summer of Resistance” welcomed activist groups and activist artists like fierce pussy, F2L and Tarab NYC. Last year’s “Winter’s A Drag” series presented a truly historic celebration of the legendary East Village icon International Chrysis which gathered all the late, great, drag diva’s surviving friends and colleagues to pay tribute to her legacy. Last fall we enlisted Vivian Crockett, Camilo Godoy and Carlos Motta to curate “Chicas Y Fantasmas”, which centered Latinx artists and their favorite films.
I never thought that when I started co-curating Queer|Art|Film with Ira 10 years ago that it would flourish and blossom into what it has…
As I said earlier, when Ira and I began Queer|Art|Film 10 years ago, there were few regular recurring queer film series - and even fewer retrospectives of important queer films. But Queer|Art|Film’s success - including countless sold out screenings - changed all that. Today you can find regular queer film retrospectives taking place at all of the major cinema institutions around New York City. Anthology Film Archives has the “Gender Transgressions” series curated by Queer|Art|Mentorship’s D’Angelo Madsen Minax and Joey Carducci. Lincoln Center has done retrospectives on queer cinema before stonewall and legendary LGBT icons like Lily Tomlin. And just this week MoMA is running a program of sexually charged queer cinema curated by Carson Parish, which features many titles we’ve shown at Queer|Art|Film over the years.
I never thought that when I started co-curating Queer|Art|Film with Ira 10 years ago that it would flourish and blossom into what it has, but looking around the room at last year’s Queer|Art Annual Party, I was so pleased and proud that the space we created at Queer|Art|Film has lead to the space the artists and mentors created with Queer|Art|Mentorship. Queer|Art|Film is on a momentary hiatus - the first in our decade long run - so that we can continue to expand and streamline our offerings, but we’ll resume our programming in May with an exciting summer of visionary queer artists and their film selections! Meanwhile, to all our guest hosts, guest curators, audience members, staff, volunteers, theater managers, graphic designers, Queer|Art|Mentorship artists, and especially Ira and Travis, I say thank you.