Our first guests this season are queer Brazilian filmmakers Gustavo Vinagre and Fábio Leal, whose films are unabashedly bold, sexually-explicit and confront the realities of living under repressive dictatorial regimes. Their new documentary GOD HAS AIDS shines a light on the little known history of Brazil’s response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s via interviews and performances by contemporary HIV+ artists. For this program, Vinagre and Leal have chosen to screen Joaquim Pedro de Andrade’s short film VEREDA TROPICAL live, which features a man who develops an erotic obsession with fruits and vegetables. Made during the military dictatorship in the 1970s, the film was quickly banned for its subversive portrait of liberation. Though it features a heterosexual protagonist, Leal and Vinagre both feel it is a queer film which uses humor and sexuality to break down barriers.

To accompany this short, we’ll also be screening Vinagre’s short documentary FILM FOR A BLIND POET, about blind sadomasochistic poet Glauco Mattoso, and Leal’s narrative short THE DAYTIME DOORMAN, about a complicated affair between a gay man and the doorman who works at his building. The program will include a live screening of all three films, followed by a discussion and Q&A with Vinagre and Leal.

Fábio Leal on VEREDA TROPICAL

“VEREDA TROPICAL is a film about deviant sexuality, made in a time where there was a military dictatorship in Brazil. This film was censored for many years until it came out. It has humor. It has a way of dealing and showing sexuality that was very new to Brazil at that time. It made an impact on me by showing that sex and sexuality could be much more open and freeing and funny as well. The humor of it, the explicitness of it, the bizarre being shown as a regular, normal thing, make it a very queer film, although the protagonist is a heteroseuxal man.”

Gustavo Vinagre on VEREDA TROPICAL

“VEREDA TROPICAL has a subtlety to the encounter between the boy and girl characters…the object of desire is displaced. It can be located in other places: carrots, watermelons, and more. To me, that is really sweet and funny and fun and queer in a really good way. Joachim Pedro de Andrade was really interested in talking about strong symbols of Brazilian nationality. He does that in his masterpiece MACUNAIMA, which was a really important modernist book. Here he is also talking about the strong symbols which define our culture. In this case it's tropicalism, and how fruits are a huge symbol of Brazil. Usually this comes with the symbol of the hot woman, but in this case Andrade just dismisses it and talks about the sensuality of the fruits. There is a lot of irony in this and in the way Andrade locates the film in an intellectual middle-class that is really thinking about these symbols and trying to rationalize them. I think it's very interesting because he takes all the possible sex appeal of the "Latin lover" character and he creates this awkward intellectual character that is thinking about that trope. It's kind of ironic because he's frustrating the macho man symbol which is really embedded in our culture.”

About Gustavo Vinagre

Gustavo Vinagre was born in 1985. He studied Literature at São Paulo University and Scriptwriting at EICTV (Cuba). Vinagre has directed several short films and features including NOVA DUBAI (Rotterdam), I REMEMBER THE CROWS (Cinema du reel, Indie Lisboa), The BLUE FLOWER OF NOVALIS (Berlinale 2019), and Divinely Evil (Berlinale 2020).

About Fábio Leal

Fábio Leal is a Brazilian director, writer, actor, and programmer. He has programmed for the festival, Janela Internacional de Cinema do Recife, directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, since 2013. He wrote, directed, and starred in the short films, THE DAYTIME DOORMAN (2016), shown in 26 film festivals around the world and released on DVD/VOD in 10 countries; and RENOVATION (2018), which premiered at the prestigious 51st Brasília Film Festival, where it was awarded Best Screenplay and Best Actor Prizes, and traveled to over 30 international film festivals, including BFI Flare, IndieLisboa, Outfest, Frameline, NewFest, Provincetown Film Festival, and Iris Prize FF. He is currently writing his first fiction feature, VALLEY OF HOMOSEXUALS. Leal is currently co-directing his first documentary feature, GOD HAS AIDS with Gustavo Vinagre, which is in post-production.

THE MATRIX

1999. 136 minutes. Directed by the Wachowski Sisters.

For our second program this season, activist, filmmaker, and writer Tourmaline will present the Wachoski Sisters’ 1999 cult classic, The Matrix. Starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, and Carrie-Anne Moss, The Matrix renders the liminal space in a future where the oppressors are hidden and the masses are satiated with simulations. Co-director Lilly Wachowski, describes this turn-of-the-century favorite as “a metaphor for transgender identities” and explains that, “when you talk about transformation, specifically in the world of science fiction, which is just about imagination and world-building…the idea of the seemingly impossible becomes possible.” In the Wachowski Sisters’ dystopian future, the physical body is only an avatar to the limitless power of the mind, as many of us on the gender spectrum have realized. For our guest presenter, Tourmaline, The Matrix elicits a “compelling invite to shift the beliefs we hold to be more aligned with the world we want.”

Tourmaline on THE MATRIX

“I’d like to screen The Matrix because it’s a fun and compelling invite to shift the beliefs we hold to be more aligned with the world we want.”

About Tourmaline

Tourmaline is an activist, filmmaker, and writer. Her work highlights the capacity of Black queer and trans people and communities to make and transform worlds. In her films, Tourmaline creates dreamlike portraits of people whose stories tell the history of New York City, including gay and trans liberation activists, drag queens, and queer icons Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARSHA, co-directed with Sasha Wortzel, 2018), Miss Major (THE PERSONAL THINGS, 2016), and Egyptt LaBeija (ATLANTIC IS A SEA OF BONES, 2017). Recent screenings of Tourmaline’s work have been presented at venues including BFI Flare, London; Seattle Transgender Film Festival; Portland Art Museum; New Museum, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and the Brooklyn Museum.

TEOREMA

1968. 98 min. Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini

Filmmaker and producer Frédéric Tcheng hosts our third program this season, leading discussions on two films: Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1968 classic, TEOREMA and François Ozon steamy narrative short, A SUMMER DRESS. The cinematic dreaminess of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s TEOREMA brings a 1968 Italian middle-class family to the silver screen. The film portrays a family, spiritually bereft but living a comfortable life of complacency, social status, and corporate idealization—with no passion for life until a visitor arrives. Known for depicting sexuality as a tool to render everything from hypocrisy to the heroic, in this classic, Pasolini explores sexuality to narrate the 1968 political movement, Il Sessantotto. The movement, which comprised protests driven by the working class, opposed traditional Italian values and called for an end to consumer capitalism and patriarchal structures. For Queer|Art|Film Club: Free Your Mind, guest presenter Frédéric Tcheng will explain how the “sexual tension, the religious overtones, and Silvana Mangano’s glamour” in TEOREMA inspired his personal career as a filmmaker, editor, and producer.

A SUMMER DRESS

1996. 15 min. Directed by François Ozon.

For Frédéric Tcheng, François Ozon’s 1996 narrative short, A SUMMER DRESS, is “an irresistible haiku on the circulation of desire and the fluidity of gender.” Regarded by many as the “first mainstream French queer filmmaker,” François Ozon has inspired generations to come with his flirtatious and evocative portraits of queerness.

Frédéric Tcheng on TEOREMA

“TEOREMA is a riddle that has fascinated me ever since I discovered it as a teenager. The sexual tension, the religious overtones, Silvana Mangano’s glamour... But above all, it’s the complete queerness of the worldview that transfixed me. Pasolini abolishes all boundaries, between gay and straight, between art and sex, between god and man. For the 16-year-old that I was, it was a revelation, a taste of cinematic sublime.”

Frédéric Tcheng on A SUMMER DRESS

“The first LGBT event I ever attended was a screening of short films by François Ozon in my home town of Lyon. A SUMMER DRESS was the gem of the program, an irresistible haiku on the circulation of desire and the fluidity of gender. In 15 short minutes, Ozon manages to pack two sex scenes, skinny dipping, and a campy rendition of the song Bang Bang.”

About Frédéric Tcheng

Frédéric Tcheng is a French-born filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York. He co-produced and co-edited VALENTINO: THE LAST EMPEROR, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was shortlisted for the Best Documentary Oscar. He is the co-director of the acclaimed documentary DIANA VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL, which the New York Times called “dizzily enjoyable.” His award-winning directorial debut, DIOR AND I, premiered at the 2014 Tribeca film festival and was released by The Orchard. His most recent film, HALSTON, was executive produced by CNN Films and premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. He has served as a filmmaking mentor for Queer|Art, a non-profit arts organization in New York serving a diverse community of LGBTQ+ artists across generations and disciplines. He studied engineering in France and is a graduate of the film program at Columbia University’s School of the Arts.

FEMALE TROUBLE

1974. 89 min. Directed by John Waters

In John Waters’ queer comedic masterpiece FEMALE TROUBLE, deranged teen Dawn Davenport (played by the legendary Divine) beats up her parents and runs away from home after she doesn’t get the cha-cha heels she wanted for Christmas. Pretty soon she’s knocked up, down and out, and desperate for superstardom –– which she finds when she befriends a fascistic couple who help turn her into a psychotic performance artist!

For the first month of the summer season of the (still virtual) Queer|Art|Film Club, join us for a fun and frothy discussion about Waters’ still-brilliant cult classic with Brown, queer underground, punk ‘n’ glam rock guitar legend Kid Congo Powers, who first saw the film as a teen in the 1970s at the dawn of the punk rock explosion. Like all misfit queers who encounter Waters’ work, Powers found the film “bratty, hilarious, outrageous, and queer to the bone” and repeated the dialogue constantly with his friends. “We never felt more alive,” he recalls. Powers would soon inspire his own underground queer fan club as an important member of iconic bands like The Gun Club, The Cramps, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and as frontman for his own Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds. The group’s latest EP, “Swing From the Sean DeLear,” is a tribute to another great queer punk and nightlife icon in the Waters-mold. After all, as Aunt Ida says in FEMALE TROUBLE, queers are just better!

Kid Congo Powers on FEMALE TROUBLE:

“My reason for picking John Waters’ FEMALE TROUBLE is that I first saw it as a teenager in the late 1970’s, at the dawn (Davenport) of the punk rock explosion, it was a film which gave me every reason to become counter “counter culture”. This movie knew what was on my mind. Bratty, Hilarious, outrageous and queer to the bone. Me and my friends remembered every bit of the dialogue and repeated it verbatim, very often! We never felt more alive. Divine, Edith Massey, Mink Stole, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pierce, and Cookie Muller all give Douglas Sirk gone mad performances , and let’s not forget the costumes , makeup and the music. “Female Trouble” will always be an all time favorite of mine.”

About Kid Congo Powers

Kid Congo Powers is a Brown, queer, underground punk glam rock guitar legend who grew up in the East L.A. suburb of La Puente, California. His work over decades with worldwide bands like The Gun Club, The Cramps, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and now his own Pink Monkey Birds places Kid Congo Powers firmly in the international punk music scene. Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds’ latest release is the 4-song EP “Swing From the Sean DeLear”, which features a musical tribute to the “late, magical and ubiquitous” Sean DeLear, a nonbinary Black LA nightlife legend, artist, punk singer and icon who passed away in 2017.

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN

2008. 114 min. Directed by Tomas Alfredson.

12-year-old Oskar is regularly tormented by bullies at school and fantasizes about revenge at night. Things change when he befriends his mysterious new neighbor Eli, who only comes out after dark, has a very pale complexion, and (surprise) just may be the vampire responsible for a string of deadly local attacks. Could their bloody bond be the key to each of their survival? This 2008 Swedish coming-of-age-horror-drama is a favorite of author Torrey Peters, whose debut novel Detransition Baby is an absolute must-read book of 2021. She writes, “LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is a film that has meant many different things to me, depending on what point in my life I watched it. It is something like a cipher––a film that reflects back at me my current preoccupations... It's been a couple years now since I've watched it, and I'm excited to discover now what it will reveal to me this time about itself, and perhaps, myself."

Torrey Peters on LET THE RIGHT ONE IN:

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is a film that has meant many different things to me, depending at what point in my life I watched it. It is something like a cipher--a film that reflects back at me my current preoccupations. The first time I watched LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, I was transfixed, and just kept on saying to my friend: "I didn't know I liked horror films, but wow, I guess I do," and then there came an ambiguous moment, an intimation (no spoilers), that perhaps the vampire is trans. Or that something is going on with her gender. This was before I came out, and I realized that I had spent the first hour of the movie-viewing experience unwittingly, but truthfully, proclaiming how this film really spoke to me--this film about a maybe-trans child vampire. Oops, I divulged too much! I think after it was over, I took it home, and then watched it again, alone, some parts over and over, trying to figure it out. Then, during a brief stint as an adjunct professor I tried to use it to teach about the Gothic--which was really just cover for talking about transness and otherness. Then I finally came out, and I watched it again, and it seemed like yet another film all together--a film about xenophobia and the abject. It's been a couple years now since I've watched it, and I'm excited to discover now, what it will reveal to me this time about itself, and perhaps, myself."

About Torrey Peters

Torrey Peters (she/her), is the author of the novel Detransition, Baby, a national bestseller, longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, and currently in development for a TV adaptation. She also wrote the novellas Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones and The Masker. Torrey rides a pink motorcycle and splits her time between Brooklyn and an off-grid cabin in Vermont.

BLUE VELVET

1986. 120 min. Directed by David Lynch

HEN HIS WIFE

1990. 13 min. Directed by Igor Kovalyov.

In David Lynch’s 1986 neo-noir thriller BLUE VELVET, a young man returns home and happens upon a dismembered human ear, a discovery that brings about many strange occurances, criminal encounters, and psycho-sexual awakenings. A self-fashioned detective (played by seemingly innocent Kyle MacLachlan), the young man’s obsession with solving the mystery leads to a romance (with the enigmatic and tortured Isabella Rosselini) that excites and disturbs his sense of self, culminating in a emotional collision course between the straight and perverse.

For the final month of the summer season of Queer|Art|Film Club, join us for a conversation about Lynch’s enduringly creepy cult classic with video artist Aimee Goguen, whose porn aesthetics and B movie style videos document kinky sexual subjection and bullying. Goguen was first introduced to the film in the 5th grade by her Aunt Janet, who gave her a VHS tape of BLUE VELVET along with a copy of William Burroughs’ 1959 novel, Naked Lunch. “I knew I was on to something if I loved it and my mom hated it,” Goguen says of Lynch’s “slow moving action film.” Blue Velvet’s play of darkness and shadow felt strangely familiar to Goguen’s internal sensibility and her physical surroundings in a gloomy military town in rural Washington state. She tried to figure out the lighting on her own, filming on her family’s Hi-8 camera, which she still uses to shoot analog video today. Along with Blue Velvet, we will discuss the Kafka-esque short experimental animation, HEN, HIS WIFE by Russian artist Igor Kovalyov, about a couple that receives an unexpected visitor and unwelcome revelation of the inhuman in the home.

Aimee Goguen on BLUE VELVET:

“You know when you watch something and it’s in you for a long time, and as an adult you can still feel that special feeling? It confused me that something could be so slow and so addictive, that a slow moving picture could captivate me. BLUE VELVET was the first real, perverse adult movie I saw, before getting into Araki’s NOWHERE and Waters’ PINK FLAMINGOS. It illuminates something that’s in everybody: the strange, weird, obsessive, and romantic.

Aimee Goguen on HEN, HIS WIFE:

“I always pay attention to the way animators imagine movement. In HEN, HIS WIFE, Kovalyov generates depth in two dimensions, creating a psychedelic horror that collapses background and foreground into a delirious play of psychic surfaces. Like Lynch’s BLUE VELVET, the timing generates a high energy space for the viewer to inhabit.”

Aimee Goguen is a video artist who combines analog video with animation elements. Her work often re-imagines scenarios of bullying and putrefaction as staged, repetitive actions. Her work has shown internationally including at CASSTL, Panel LA, LAXART, Vox Populi, Participant Inc., and White Columns. She co-curated Afterglow: summer video series with Harry Dodge. Recent residencies include Human Resources Los Angeles and the ONE Archives. She is currently making an experimental animation of Debbie’s Barium Swallow, a short story by Laurie Weeks, in collaboration with Olivia Taussig. She earned a BFA in Film and Video and an MFA in Fine Art at The California Institute of the Arts. She lives and works in Los Angeles.

LITTLE WOODS

2018. 105 min. Directed by Nia DaCosta

LITTLE WOODS is a film about two sisters taking matters into their own hands and refusing to be another statistic of a country that does not support them. Director Nia DaCosta does not shy away from taking a stance on political hot topics such as abortion, fracking, and the opioid crisis. The desolate landscapes of this gritty small-town thriller reflects the bleak realities of sisters, Ollie (Tessa Thompson) and Deb (Lily James), as they navigate low-income living and the American healthcare system where choices become more limited and the danger more real. Guest presenter Roxane Gay will explain how LITTLE WOODS’ portrayal of the unique challenges women face has impacted her creative development and work as a writer, professor, and social commentator.

Roxane Gay on LITTLE WOODS

“LITTLE WOODS is a haunting, layered film, written and directed by Nia DaCosta. I chose to present LITTLE WOODS at the IFC Center because of the gritty and compelling story it tells; the prescience with which the film lays bare the harsh realities of American poverty; and how women often have to make impossible choices to survive. With incredible performances by Tessa Thompson and Lily James, LITTLE WOODS is a reminder that when you’re living in precarious circumstances, it doesn’t take much at all to be pushed over the edge.”

About Roxane Gay

Roxane Gay’s writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. She has several books forthcoming and is also at work on television and film projects. She also has a newsletter, The Audacity.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

1946. 93 min. Directed by Jean Cocteau

Jean Cocteau, a French poet, novelist, filmmaker, and director of the 1946 rendition of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, uses magical realism and queer nuance to illustrate the many forms in which beauty manifests itself. A major figure in the Surrealist and Dada art movements, Cocteau’s dreamy special effects create a mise-en-scene that is so lush with Freudian symbolism and homoeroticism, like the wall of muscular arms holding candelabras, that the set feels like another character in the poetic and haunting love story between Belle and The Beast. Jean Marais, Cocteau’s muse and lover, plays the monstrous beast as well as three other roles in this film, while Josette Day, as Belle, plays a convincingly horrified and orgasmic damsel. Richard Haines, our guest presenter, will talk about how this film not only shaped his life but also his love of art, design, fashion and all things queer.

Richard Haines on BEAUTY AND THE BEAST:

“As a queer kid, there was nothing harsher than the reality of daylight. I felt exposed, seen in a dangerous way...getting through the day was an accomplishment that was rewarded by the night. The play of light and dark in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is one of its many appeals. The precision of a Vermeer painting vs the darkness of Gustave Dore, the 'hand' of Jean Cocteau and Christian Bèrard, the pain and loneliness of The Beast: all these fantastic and relatable elements make it one of my favorite films. I'm so excited to see it on the big screen and to share it with my QueerIArtlFilm community.”

About Richard Haines:

To Richard Haines, New York City is an endless runway. He first moved to the city to pursue illustration and instead found a successful career as a fashion designer. Through fashion design, working for such brands as Calvin Klein, Perry Ellis and Bill Blass, he developed a keen eye for the often overlooked details of form, fabric and how a garment falls on the body. This laid a foundation for his illustration work and after years in the world of fashion design, his career has now come full circle allowing him to emerge as one of today’s most sought after fashion illustrators.

CAMP

2003. 114 min. Directed by Todd Graff.

In Todd Graff’s beloved 2003 coming-of-age comedy, a diverse group of mostly queer kids set off for a musical theater camp in upstate New York, where they plan to spend the summers putting on productions of beloved musicals. But when an “honest-to-god straight-boy” named Vlad boards the bus, he becomes the object of multiple crushes and the backstage drama begins! As the summer rolls along, each camper struggles to deal with their own personal problems, including disapproving parents, self-image issues, mental health and of course, first love! Anna Kendrick, Robin DeJesus, and Tiffany Taylor are just a few of the young show-stoppers in this charming queering of the “summer camp” teen movie subgenre. Our guest presenter for the evening is critically-acclaimed singer-songwriter Shamir, who calls the film one of his “comfort movies,” writing, “Although I wasn’t a theater kid, I still found myself resonating with the kids in the film.”

Shamir on CAMP:

“I selected CAMP as my film because it’s one of my comfort movies. I came across this movie as a young queer in high school nearly a decade after its release. Although I wasn't a theater kid, I still found myself resonating with the kids in the film. I instantly found it refreshing to see a young adult film full of queer characters that was tragic, as well as being uplifted by their allies and Peers."

About Shamir:

It’s been a long road over the last six years for Shamir to finally make the album that matched his vision. Becoming a globe-trotting touring act behind his 2015 debut, Ratchet, taking a hard left turn stylistically, confronting his mental health issues, and moving from his native Las Vegas to Philadelphia--that’s just the start of this journey. His seventh full-length, the self-titled Shamir, is his most intimate, his most crafted, and a huge step forward, for an artist who can hardly sit still. “I felt like it didn’t need a name, cuz it’s the record that’s most me,” Shamir says. In the arc of catharsis that has been his half-dozen records of the last several years, Shamir is the light after the storm, a Resolution of his journey to artistic realization. Having adopted the iconography of the butterfly, the chrysalis has fallen away, and Shamir is floating. “I felt like I had to make those records to build to this point.”