‘Born in Flames’ and the No Future of Afrofuturism
Released in 1983, Lizzie Borden’s film Born in Flames shows us the politics of time that a queer Black female…
Essays
The Monster and the Other: reading gender in Victor Erice’s ‘The Spirit of the Beehive’
The monster is not what society has repressed, but what society adheres to – Peter Evans, 1982 Haunting and ethereal,…
A woman’s art: Sophie Maintigneux, Eric Rohmer and female friendship
François Truffaut once claimed that cinema is a ‘woman’s art, that’s to say the art of the actress. The director’s…
Strangers in the Village? On ‘Borderline’ and Belonging
‘From all available evidence, no black man had ever set foot in this tiny Swiss village before I came’. James Baldwin’s…
Beyond the Femme Fatale: Female Crime Writers in the 20th Century
You’re a private eye working late. There’s a glass of scotch on your desk. The air is filled with cigarette…
On ‘Regarding Susan Sontag’
I The documentary opens on Susan Sontag’s profile to camera, the black of a television studio beyond. “I love being…
Where We Are Is Here: On the Influence of Female Filmmakers
When Sally Potter’s first feature film The Gold Diggers opened in London in 1983, the British Film Institute invited her…
Lesbian Films Don’t Make Money
A couple of years ago my producer and I were attending film festivals trying to raise money for our next…
Moon Signs: Jacques Rivette in the 1970s
The sad news of Jacques Rivette’s death on 29 January 2016 came just a month or so after some of…
‘Carol’ and the Ineffable Queerness of Being
I harbored a tremendous amount of dubiousness for Todd Haynes’ Carol. A lavishly developed adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel The Price…