Queer Vision—an event benefiting the Queer Film Society—will feature a non-stop compilation of classic and current film, TV, Broadway and comedy clips rarely or never before shown at Sidetrack, the Boystown video bar known for its spirited showtunes sing-a-long, with video clips carefully chosen— and sometimes gleefully modified—to entertain the diverse crowd.
The Queer Film Society (QFS) is a not-for-profit consortium of LGBT film critics and scholars dedicated to the exploration of queer images in world cinema. The Chicago chapter is the headquarters for the society, which was founded in 2009 by Richard Knight, Jr., cinema writer for the Windy City Times.
“Funding will help us to bring more queer-themed films to Chicago—many of which now completely skip our city entirely,” Knight explained. “Sometimes it just comes down to money—OK, almost all the time. I’d love to start a screening series that focuses exclusively on queer classics that have never been shown in Chicago on the large screen. And we want to start a queer movie club that has a social component to it.”
Queer Vision will also feature an exclusive first-look preview of Reeling 30 (Nov. 3—Nov. 12), Chicago’s gay and lesbian international film festival—the second oldest LGBT film festival in the world.
The RedEye chatted with Knight to get a behind-the-scenes peek at Queer Vision’s LGBT clips compilation, the QFS’ definition of queer cinema, and why the society decided to host the event on Oct 11th—National Coming Out Day.
Can you give readers a brief tease and describe some of the clips you’ve pulled together for the Queer Vision event?
The evening will be comprised of a two hour-long segment that will offer a dazzling array of clips—everything from a “Let’s Go Sexin” montage, to a segment on gay leaders cut to “Heroes” by David Bowie, to a montage of queer movie stars, past and present—vintage footage of stuff that’s so gay you wonder how it got into theaters or on TV. We’re also including a gay marriage montage mixed with footage from the 1967 CBS special “The Homosexuals,” a very hot lesbian tango montage (and a male one, too), a long gay kiss- a-thon montage (two in fact), and snippets from foreign queer films, commercials and documentaries. And drag queens, of course, for days.
What I love about what we’ve been working on—and I’ve been working for months with Sidetrack video editor Russell Daugherty and co-owner Pepe Pena on this— is that this really is the first time in ages that Sidetrack will show stuff from all these different genres in one fell swoop— and it will all be gay as hell. We have more stuff than we could ever show in one night so expect another round down the road.
For people unfamiliar with Sidetrack, describe why this Boystown video bar is the ideal venue for the Queer Vision event?
Sidetrack programing changes from night to night, and the nights are themed: one night will feature video clips from musicals—movies, Broadway, television and so on. Another night will feature a mix of comedy clips. And the bar always features, of course, a lot of music videos. Many of these clips have been shown literally for decades and are beloved by regular patrons who wait for specific moments to sing along, laugh along and talk back to the screen. The camaraderie is a huge part of the Sidetrack appeal. I have always loved the sense of community the bar offers and their relentless insistence on quality in everything they do. When those guys do something, they give it their all.
Talk a little about how the Queer Film Society defines “queer cinema.”
“Queer cinema” is a broad term that can cover a lot of ground. We’re a group of film critics, historians, academics and writers, so there’s not always a consensus on this definition. Basically, though, we try to support movies with queer characters and storylines when we come upon them. Which means a lot of indies and docs, as well as the queer elements (often there in the subtext) in mainstream cinema. The recent X-men prequel, X-Men: First Class, would be an example of the latter. It’s pretty clear that the “special abilities” and “differences” of the two leading male characters which must be kept secret, hidden, closeted at all costs for fear of mainstream reprisals can be read as being gay. And there’s an awful lot of mentor/student homoeroticism in the relationship between Charles and Erik. I believe even one of the screen writers acknowledged this in an interview.
Where were you when the idea to form the Queer Film Society first unspooled?
I was probably in the screening room with other film critics. I remember thinking to myself that there were several of us that were openly gay writing about movies, and that our point of view wasn’t often being represented. There were film groups for women and minorities but I didn’t know of any for gay professionals in the business of film criticism and writing.
Queer Vision takes place on Oct. 11, which is National Coming Out Day. How has LGBT cinema played a powerful role in gays and lesbians coming out to themselves or to the people around them?
Tony Curtis said it so beautifully in The Celluloid Closet which is the movie that made me want to be a film critic, by the by. In the film, Curtis said “We learn by watching movies. I learned how to dress, how to take someone on a date from watching Cary Grant.” I’m paraphrasing, but that is so on-point for our lives. We learn by what we see, and for almost 100 years gay people were forced through exclusion to fantasize themselves into the movies they were seeing and act accordingly. We existed, if at all, on the edge of the frame. Increasingly, now, we don’t have to. Gays and lesbians coming out now are seeing positive images on the screen, both large and small, and that’s incredibly empowering. It’s the aim of Queer Vision to offer folks—gay and those interested in our lives—an evening that will leave them feeling not just proud to be queer, but ecstatic about it.
Queer Vision: An evening of all queer content
Tues., Oct. 11
7-10 p.m.
3349 N. Halsted St.
$10 donation includes complimentary cocktail and door prizes
