Description
Book SynopsisCinema has long played a major role in the formation of community among marginalized groups, and this book details that process for gay men in Sydney, Australia from the 1950s to the present. Scott McKinnon builds the book from a variety of sources, including film reviews, media reports, personal memoirs, oral histories, and a striking range of films, all deployed to answer the question of understanding cinema-going as a moment of connection to community and identity how the experience of seeing these films and being part of an audience helped to build a community among the gay men of Sydney in the period.
Trade Review'The book is not a history of gay films or a history of gay men as film actors, writers, directors, or producers. McKinnon's focus is on gay men as film audiences rather than as filmmakers. The films considered here are popular cinema, meaning movies screened in commercial theaters and reviewed in the mainstream media. McKinnon is not interested in developing new insights or analyses of these films but rather in understanding "the historical processes of interpretation and meaning-making undertaken by audiences." At the movies, we engage not only with a film, but also with a space, with an audience, friends, and a neighborhood, so that going to movies is an act of social and cultural interaction and participation. Thus to understand how movies have shaped gay culture, identity, and community, we need to contemplate the place, context, and ongoing memories of film viewing that become part of our individual histories and a collective past. '
-- The Bay Area Reporter, Brian Bromberger
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Part One: Friends of Dorothy in the Emerald City Chapter 1 – The 1950s – Censored from view for all to see
Gay space, cinema-going and censorship in 1950s Sydney Regular guys and ‘sister boys’:
Tea and Sympathy Friends of Tom Lee:
Rebel without a Cause,
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and
Some Like it Hot Chapter 2 – The 1960s – Undeniable
Gay space, cinema-going and censorship in 1960s Sydney Poor unfortunate souls:
Victim and Advise and
Consent The real lives of English youth:
A Taste of Honey,
The Leather Boys and
If... Chapter 3 – The 1970s – Strike up the band
Gay space, cinema-going and censorship in 1970s Sydney A memory of times gone by:
The Boys in the Band The thrill of the new:
Sunday Bloody Sunday and
A Very Natural Thing Chapter 4 – The 1980s – Arriving at last, leaving too soon
Gay space, cinema-going and censorship in 1980s Sydney The Hollywood gaze:
Fame,
Partners,
Cruising and
Making Love An independent eye:
Taxi Zum Klo Chapter 5 – The 1990s – When we were cool
Gay space, cinema-going and censorship in 1990s Sydney Made for them or watched by us?
The Sum of Us To enlighten and remember:
Philadelphia and
Longtime Companion Chapter 6 – The 2000s – In the shadow of the mountain
Gay space, cinema-going and censorship in 2000s Sydney The film that got us good:
Brokeback Mountain Staying home or going to the festival:
Another Gay Movie and
Shelter Part Two: Memories of Dorothy: Memories, Movies, Gay Men Chapter 7 – Gay kids at the movies – Movie memory and queer childhoods On-screen memories: Childhood Remembering childhood cinema-going Chapter 8 – Others like us – Movie memory and the search for community Movie memories at the movies: Identity Learning, reciting and refuting memory Chapter 9 – We were there – Movie memory and the search for a queer past Heroes and villains:
Braveheart and
Alexander Creating ‘our’ history:
Stonewall and
Milk Conclusion: Gay Men at the Movies
