Half American
In commemoration of Memorial Day, this week's review uncovers the experiences of African American soldiers in World War II and the impact of racism on their postwar lives.
Posted on in Review of the Week
The Queer Biopic in the AIDS Era
This week's review explores the impact of the AIDS crisis on the queer biopic, tracing the emergence of New Queer Cinema
Posted on December 12, 2022 in Review of the Week
The Queer Biopic in the AIDS Era
Stamm, Laura. Oxford, 2021
218p bibl index, 9780197604038 $125.00, 9780197604045 $39.95, 9780197604069
Stamm is director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the Univ. of Rochester Medical Center. In this volume, she examines the queer biopic through the lens of the AIDS crisis. Based on conference papers the author delivered over the years, this brief study asks “why … queer filmmakers such as Todd Haynes, Barbara Hammer, and Tom Kalin [were] compelled by the biopic genre during the AIDS crisis?” For Stamm, the new queer cinema diverges from the more conservative biopic, such as Milk (2008), because of a greater emphasis on the subject’s sexuality. The five chapters, “case studies” as Stamm calls them, review how the AIDS crisis changed the queer biopic and how such films inform the queer audience of connections to the past and community. Stamm samples a variety of films throughout, including Jarman’s Caravaggio (1986) and Kalin’s Swoon (1992). One chapter is devoted to the films of Barbara Hammer and studies of less-known filmmakers, such as transgender activist Tourmaline. This volume belongs in comprehensive queer cinema collections along with B. Ruby Rich’s seminal New Queer Cinema: The Director’s Cut (CH, Sep’13, 51-0181), which briefly covers biopics.
Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.
Reviewer: A. J. Adam, Strategic Planning Online
Interdisciplinary Subject: Women’s & Gender Studies, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Studies
Subject: Humanities – Performing Arts – Film
Choice Issue: Dec 2022
Enjoy this week’s review? Check out more reviews of related titles:
- A Very Nervous Person’s Guide to Horror Movies
- Afrofuturism in Black Panther: Gender, Identity, and the Re-Making of Blackness
- Atmospheres of Violence: Structuring Antagonism and the Trans/Queer Ungovernable
- Cracking Up: Black Feminist Comedy in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Century United States
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