Projection The celluloid closet

The Celluloid Closet US 1996, 107 min, directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. Stereotypical representations of LGBTIQ people and the absence of queer sexualities have defined mainstream cinema for a long time. Queer people were depicted as promiscous gay, suicidal lesbian, sissy, confused, self-hating, or otherwise psychopathologically deviant. Based on queer activist Vito Russo’s original work on film history in the 1980s, the documentary ​“The Celluloid Closet” features the different ways in which Hollywood movies portrayed queer culture since the early 20th century. In a more positive version of Russo’s findings, the documentary shows how movies used homoerotic subtexts to subvert anti-gay film conventions. 20 years after its release, the documentary has not lost its critical significance and visualizes the different roles that LGBTIQ people are asigned in media representations. So come out of your celluloid closet and join the queer movie night at Rotondes !