War Goddess (aka The Amazons)

(Dir. Terence Young, 1973)

Ancient Greece! Women on horseback! Bows and arrows! Banned heterosexuality! Who can resist? Despite the poor dubbing, the mad hair, the plastic swords, the voyeurism… there is a truly epic scope to this story, and the Amazons are taken quite seriously. The battle scenes are pretty good too. Very importantly, the film is an adaptation from a book by Robert Graves, who is a god in classical studies — no one could ever dream of a more respectable ground-work for the story of the Amazons, the mythical warrior women who banded together to create their own society. Portrayed in the frieze of the Parthenon, sung by the ancient poets, feared by the world’s greatest armies, they have been an enduring inspiration for lesbians til the present day.

SEASON 9: OFF THE WALL!

Join us as we celebrate the weird and wonderful and forgotten heritage of unclassifiable queer films. Unique propositions, with just one thing in common: a touch of divine madness.

Queer films have been thrilling and enlightening audiences since the prehistory of cinema (two women kissing in 1888 in Muibridge’s Plate 444, or two men dancing together in 1895 in Dickson’s Experimental Sound Film), and will continue to do so in the future of cinema (see Ximena Cuevas’ experimental lesbian videoart, or Yobert Yang’s cottaging simulation videogame The Tearoom, of 2017). Queer-friendly and LGBTQ filmmakers have made movies in every genre: romance, documentary, thriller, fantasy, drama, adventure, horror, musical. AND they have also made movies that are impossible to classify… Because they don’t want to be classified. Because they rather invent their own genres. Because they want to use a secret code. Because they don’t care if they’re seen as camp, mad, fab, or ‘gas’. The word “queer” originally meant ‘weird’. Join us as we celebrate the weird and wonderful and forgotten heritage of unclassifiable queer films. Unique propositions, with just one thing in common: a touch of divine madness.