ABSTRACT
This essay situates the film 1985 (Yen Tan) within American regional cinema, early LGBT indie film, and the New Queer Cinema movement that emerged in the late 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s, respectively, in American independent cinema. It posits that 1985’s sense of a historical consciousness about these and other film movements of that era increases the impact of Tan’s film, especially its evocation of the first decade of the AIDS pandemic. Applying the idea of a “Cinema of the Rejected” to early 1990s New Queer Cinema, the essay ultimately argues that 1985 embraces the long-forgotten regional and early LGBT films that preceded and were themselves implicitly rejected by New Queer Cinema, making 1985 a poignant memorial for a doubly rejected generation of departed gay men.
