Desperate Remedies

(Dirs. Stewart Main and Peter Wells, 1993)

We associate camp with drag queens, the film stereotype of the ‘sissy man’, and Christmas. But there is also an often forgotten tradition of lesbian camp, of flamboyant masculine dress, ancient Greek robes, monocles, weird hats, Victoriana, tattoos, capes, checked shirts, ‘gentlemanly’ behaviour (e.g. opening doors for ladies), and Xena: Warrior Princess. Camp is gender-bending, with the transgressive irony of exaggeration. And exaggeration is the main ingredient of melodrama, with irrepressible feelings that spill over and flood the screen. This Victorian pastiche is a shamelessly melodramatic operatic lesbianatic explosion of fun and madness.

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.