B. Ruby Rich designated a brand new genre, the New Queer Cinema (NQC), in her groundbreaking article in the Village Voice in 1992. This movement in film and video was intensely political and aesthetically innovative, made possible by the debut of the camcorder, and driven initially by outrage over the unchecked spread of AIDS. The genre has grown to include an entire generation of queer artists, filmmakers, and activists.As a critic, curator, journalist, and scholar, Rich has been inextricably linked to the New Queer Cinema from its inception. This volume presents her new thoughts on the topic, as well as bringing together the best of her writing on the NQC. She follows this cinematic movement from its origins in the mid-1980s all the way to the present in essays and articles directed at a range of audiences, from readers of academic journals to popular glossies and weekly newspapers. She presents her insights into such NQC pioneers as Derek Jarman and Isaac Julien and investigates such celebrated films as Go Fish, Brokeback Mountain, Itty Bitty Titty Committee, and Milk. In addition to exploring less-known films and international cinemas (including Latin American and French films and videos), she documents the more recent incarnations of the NQC on screen, on the web, and in art galleries.

Acknowledgments xiIntroduction xvPart I. Origins, Festivals, Audiences1. Before the Beginning: Lineages and Preconceptions 32. The New Queer Cinema: Director's Cut 163. Collision, Catastrophe, Celebration: The Relationship between Gay and Lesbian Film Festivals and Their Publics 334. What's a Good Gay Film? 40Part II. Bulletins From the Front5. The King of Queer: Derek Jarman 496. True Stories of Forbidden Love 537. Goings and Comings, the Go Fish Way 588. Historical Fictions, Modern Desires: The Watermelon Woman 669. Channeling Domestic Violence: In the Den with Todd Haynes and Christine Vachon 7210. The I.K.U. Experience: The Shu-Lea Cheang Phenomenon 7611. Jonathan Caouette: What in Tarnation? 8112. Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Tropical Maladies 8813. Beyond Doom: Gregg Araki's Mysterious Films 9214. A Walk in the Clouds: Julián Hernández 96Part III. Genre Meets Gender15. Lethal Lesbians: The Cinematic Inscription of Murderous Desire 10316. Queering the Biopic Documentary 12317. A Queer and Present Danger: The Death of New Queer Cinema? 130Part IV. Queering a New Latin American Cinema18. Preface to a History 14119. Refashioning Mexican Screen Sexuality: Ripstein, Hermosillo, Leduc 14520. Gay and Lesbian Traces 15121. Mexico in the Forties: Reclaiming a Gender Pioneer 15622. Revolution, Sexuality, and the Paradox of Queer Film in Cuba 15923. Queering the Social Landscape 167Part V. Expansions and Reversals24. Ang Lee's Lonesome Cowboys 18525. Itty Bitty Titty Committee: Free Radicals and the Feminist Carnivalesque 20226. Queer Nouveau: From Morality Tales to Mortality Tales in Ozon, Téchiné, Collard 21427. Got Milk? Gus Van Sant's Encounter with History 236Conclusion 261Filmography 285Bibliography 297Credits 307Index 309