Honoring a courageous history of liberation and transgression, this major survey of queer film and video includes more than 70 shorts and features by 65 filmmakers. This cinematic celebration of lesbian, gay, and transgender sexuality, love, and activism presents seven decades of pioneering, landmark films and lesser-known or marginalized works.
Guest curators MM Serra, longtime head of Film-Maker’s Cooperative, and Erica Schreiner—both filmmakers themselves—write, “Since the inception of queer cinema, artists have faced censorship and invisibility, a challenge that persists today. Queer and Uncensored showcases a powerful selection of rarely seen, suppressed films that are crucial milestones in the evolution of queer filmmaking. Each program focuses on a topic that is relevant to the development and expansion of queer identity and its diversity. These films explore gender, race, class, sexual orientation, and the emergence of the epidemic.”
Queer-identified filmmakers represented include leaders Kenneth Anger, Edward Owens, Gunvor Nelson, Alla Nazimova, José Rodriquez-Soltero, Barbara Hammer, James Broughton, Marguerite Paris, Andrew Meyer, Luis Ernesto Arocha, Jack Smith, Olívio Tavares de Araújo, Ron Rice and Andy Warhol; joined by a generation of activists such as Rosa von Praunheim, Michelle Handelman, Jim Hubbard, Carmelita Tropicana, Jerry Tartaglia, Ira Sachs, Uzi Parnes, Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens, Tom Chomont, Isaac Julien, Garth Maxwell, Alice O’Malley, Abigail Child and Gary Goldberg; along with recent works by Anto Astudillo, Theo Cuthand, Lucy Rosa Blanca Gaehring, Nazlı Dinçel, Pol Merchan, Max Disgrace, and KT Burns. The series also embraces queer-positive work by Beth B, Doris Wishman, Carolee Schneemann, Tessa Hughes-Freeland and Nick Zedd.
Organized by Ron Magliozzi, Curator, and Carson Parish, Associate Producer, Department of Film, MoMA, with MM Serra and Erica Schreiner, guest curators. Thanks to Steve Macfarlane, Department Assistant, and Aditi Prasad, Intern, Department of Film.
