Global Queer Cinema

Chocolate Babies, Handmaidens, and Kuchus:
Decoding Global Queer
Cinema

"Chocolate Babies, Handmaidens and Kuchus..."
closely examines films that challenge the reflex
to center whiteness that we see in a lot of
mainstream Western queer cinema and culture. Among
concerns addressed: How and where do the
visionary/socialist politics of iconic trans
activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera
manifest in representations of queers of color in
contemporary indie queer cinema? How can we use
their politics as a filter to critique
contemporary queer representation? In what ways
are the critiques leveled by the late Vito Russo's
analyses of historical queer representation in
Hollywood film still relevant, and how - if at all
- has contemporary queer cinema realized his hopes
and predictions for queer representation? How has
his analysis been found wanting? This course
intends to wrestle with and complicate those
questions and more through close reads of films
from around the world by and/or about LGBTI people
of color. In this class, film is the primary text
that will be supplemented by written texts.
Students will strengthen their own critical voice
and evaluative apparatus while developing nuanced
and layered definitions of "diversity and
representation" that challenge some prevailing and
popular notions of those ideals. That will be
accomplished through the following:
. Class viewings and discussions of films from
around the world (South Korea; Hong Kong, Brazil;
America; Spain; U.K.) that span genre and include
fiction and non-fiction titles.
. Close reading of film criticism and social
analysis from writers including queer film
historian Vito Russo; Black feminists bell hooks,
June Jordan, and Gabrielle Civil; queer cultural
critics Yasmin Nair, Kenyon Farrow, and Keguro
Macharia, cultural critic Jia Tolentino, and
breaking reporting on the lives of queer POC
around the world.
. Examining the relationship between queer
activism (such as Stonewall and the Civil Rights
and feminist movements of the 1960s-70s; ACT-UP in
the 80s and '90s) and the evolution of queer
images in film.
. Reading queer literature (especially that by
queer POC) and discussing how it set the
foundation for (and is in conversation with) a lot
of queer film (especially that with protagonists
of color.)