ABSTRACT

Queer Looks is a collection of writing by video artists, filmmakers, and critics which explores the recent explosion of lesbian and gay independent media culture. A compelling compilation of artists' statements and critical theory, producer interviews and image-text works, this anthology demonstrates the vitality of queer artists under attack and fighting back. Each maker and writer deploys a surprising array of techniques and tactics, negotiating the difficult terrain between street pragmatism and theoretical inquiry, finding voices rich in chutzpah and subtlety. From guerilla Super-8 in Manila to AIDS video activism in New York, Queer Looks zooms in on this very queer place in media culture, revealing a wealth of strategies, a plurality of aesthetics, and an artillary of resistances.

part I|138 pages

What a Difference a Gay Makes

chapter 1|9 pages

That Moment of Emergence

chapter 2|9 pages

Working Round the L-Word

chapter 3|17 pages

On the Make

Activist Video Collectives

chapter 4|3 pages

Eso, me esta pasando

chapter 7|6 pages

The Politics of Abstraction

chapter 8|10 pages

George Kuchar

Half the Story

chapter 9|17 pages

An Unrequited Desire for the Sublime

Looking at Lesbian Representation Across the Works of Abigail Child, Cecilia Dougherty, and Su Friedrich

chapter 10|5 pages

Girlfriend in a Coma

Notes on the Films of Gregg Araki

chapter 11|8 pages

Queens of Language

Paris Is Burning

chapter 12|18 pages

‘The Only Haircut that Makes Sense Anymore”

Queer Subculture and Gay Resistance

chapter 13|5 pages

Bodies in Trouble

Excerpts from a Video by Marusia Bociurkiw

part II|162 pages

Favorite Aunts and Uncles

chapter 14|21 pages

The Third Body

Patterns in the Construction of the Subject in Gay Male Narrative Film

chapter 16|9 pages

No Sex in the USSR

chapter 17|18 pages

Pictures of Sickness

Stuart Marshall's Bright Eyes

chapter 18|5 pages

Ecce Homo

On Making Personal Gay Cinema

chapter 19|16 pages

The AIDS Crisis Is Ridiculous

chapter 20|9 pages

Making the Most of Your Backyard

The Story of an Ideal Beauty

chapter 21|4 pages

Birth of a Notion

Towards Black Gay and Lesbian Imagery in Film and Video

chapter 22|19 pages

Dark and Lovely Too

Black Gay Men in Independent Film

chapter 24|17 pages

Madame X of the China Seas

chapter 25|9 pages

My Affair with Pasolini

part III|110 pages

Bedtime Stories

chapter 26|15 pages

Desiring Conquest

chapter 29|7 pages

Porno?

chapter 30|13 pages

Shortcomings

Questions about Pornography as Pedagogy

chapter 31|9 pages

She Must Be Seeing Things

An Interview With Sheila McLaughlin

chapter 32|6 pages

Dessert Hearts

chapter 33|12 pages

Security Blankets

Sex, Video and the Police 1

chapter 34|8 pages

Homosexuality as Dissent/Cinema as Subversion

Articulating Gay Consciousness in the Philippines

chapter 35|8 pages

Take Back the Light

A Lesbian Visibility Lampshade