Forever Queer: Community, Memory, Survival
Three films that celebrate the role of the diva in queer communities as both entertainers and for queer identity creation.
Divas hold an exalted place in queer communities as both entertainers and for queer identity creation. This program celebrates and explores those roles with three films where divas are ciphers of queer storytelling and subjectivity. Featuring the following films:
Trevor (Peggy Rajski, 1994, 23 min): Upon hitting puberty, a high-school boy realizes he is gay and faces prejudice from family and friends.
Flaming Creatures (Jack Smith, 1963, 45 min): A true experimental exercise in joy, sex, obscenity, and glamour. (Note: this film contains extended scenes of nonconsensual sex.)
Mala Mala (Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles, 2014, 87 min): A documentary about the power of transformation told through the eyes of nine trans-identifying individuals in Puerto Rico.
"Flaming Creatures is a non-narrative, Dionysian orgy, complete with wild dancing, gender-bending, and a climactic earthquake. The carnivalesque madness of the film is reinforced by the chaotic density of its formal composition." — Harrison Sherrod, Cine-File
"Beginning as a colorful documentary about the Puerto Rican transgender community... Mala Mala slowly morphs into a celebration of solidarity and collective activism without ever losing sight of its likable protagonists." — Ronnie Scheib, Variety
"Peggy Rajski’s Academy Award-winning debut film Trevor is a heartfelt and straightforward dark comedy that perfectly walks a fine line between darkness and a charming story of self-realization and advocacy." — Todd Wiener, UCLA Archive
Any film screened at IU Cinema may contain content that viewers find sensitive or upsetting. Visit our Audience Advisories page to learn more.
