Abstract

Chapter 3 revisits traditional historical accounts of the development of both gay and lesbian film studies and festivals. In particular, I trace the emergence and mutation of the concept ‘gay and lesbian cinema(s)’ – a relatively recent notion shaped through an interplay between film criticism, festival organizing, and scholarship. I detail the careers and works of various critics and scholars as they intersect with LGBTQ festival organizing. In so doing, I nuance the divide between scholars, critics, and practitioners that has been instrumental in asserting the legitimacy of festival studies and describe various uses of the festival format as a praxis of academic knowledge production. In so doing, Chapter 3 is offered as a criticism of festival studies’ emphasis on stakeholders: it highlights the networks of friendship, fucking, and collaboration that informed the development of LGBTQ cinema.

Keywords: gay and lesbian film studies; film criticism; academic labour; curation; stakeholders; film cultures; film history

‘No accident either that, after Stonewall, we queer film critics instinctively found the movies so life-and-death and that queer film and video festivals are among our most thriving community institutions twenty-five years later. Even the other generalized film festivals (like the Montreal monstrosity I endlessly had to write about in these pages), artificial hothouses of offbeat films rejected by Cannes and distributors, often look like carnivals of queer cinephilia.’