Queer as Films: Celluloid Closet

PT Foundation & Seksualiti Merdeka present

Queer As Films

THE CELLULOID CLOSET

(1995)

As some of you may have heard, the liberal folks at the Malaysian Censorship Board finally revised their guidelines for Malaysian filmmakers. We can now portray gay characters, provided they repent and go straight, or meet a terrible fate at the end (you mean there are fates worse than going straight??).

So in response, we’re screening the highly acclaimed documentary “The Celluloid Closet”. Spanning films from the silent era to the mid-90s, it is an insightful examination of Hollywood’s uneasy relationship with LGBT characters and even actors. Featuring interviews with Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, Tom Hanks, Quentin Crisp, Lily Tomlin, and many more, this documentary reveals how homophobia kept queers out of mainstream films, and how other filmmakers found creative strategies to include queer codes in their films. Why did Tom Cruise dance in his underwear in Risky Business? Did Susan Sarandon and Catherine Deneuve really make out in The Hunger?

Join us after the screening for an interesting discussion with film critic Benjamin McKay, for whom all films are queer until proven otherwise, and filmmaker Amir Muhammad, whose short film Pangyau remains a queer film festival favourite around the world and who is the first Malaysian filmmaker to have been officially banned, not for showing queer characters but communist ones (his communist characters didn't repent either).

Harvey Fierstein: The hunger I felt as a kid looking for gay images was not to be alone.

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Date: Sun 18 Apr, 2010

Time: 3pm

Venue: The Annex Gallery

Admission: FREE!

Enquiries: 03 4044 4611 (PT Foundation), 03 2070 1137 (The Annexe Gallery)

This is a private event - by invitation only - which will be checked against a register at the door.

Please email to register for this event: jeremykwan69@ptfmalaysia.org

Include your name, age, and who you are bringing along, if any.

Please refrain from posting this event on blogs, or anywhere else without permission from the organisers. Thanks!

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Wanna be part of something irresistible and fabulous?

Wanna watch amazing films about being queer in a safe, inclusive environment with friends?

Wanna see if the sexuality rights movement can have relevance for us in Malaysia?

Now you can… At Queer As Films, brought to you by PT Foundation and The Annexe Gallery. Once a month (Sundays at 3pm) at The Annexe Gallery, you're invited to watch some movies with us and join frank discussions with film critics, well known personalities and other minor celebrities we love.