Cinematheque celebrates LGBTTQ+ director’s catalogue
As a distinct and important voice in queer cinema, director Gregg Araki’s sex-filled, nihilistic films about LGBTTQ+ life have left a lasting impact on indie films. To end off the […]
Winnipeg’s Dave Barber Cinematheque is hosting a one-week celebration of the work of LGBTTQ+ director Gregg Araki, from August 28 to September 6. The series showcases Araki’s latest film, I Want Your Sex, as well as some of his iconic previous works, including the Teen Apocalypse trilogy: Totally F***ed Up (1993), The Doom Generation (1995), and Nowhere (1997).
Film programmer Olivia Norquay emphasizes the importance of Araki’s films, describing them as "esthetic and very hyper-stylized" with a "teenage or adolescent view of the world." The trilogy focuses on a group of queer teens struggling with spiritual discontent and searching for meaning in a chaotic world, set against the backdrop of the early 1990s economic recession and AIDS epidemic.
Norquay is also excited to screen Splendor (1999) in 35-millimeter film, as the Cinematheque is one of the few locations able to do so due to its location. The film follows Veronica, a Canadian actress who falls in love with two very different men in Los Angeles and decides to house both of them in her apartment for a three-way relationship.
Araki gained prominence in the 1990s alongside other queer filmmakers such as Todd Haynes and Derek Jarman, who coined the term "New Queer Cinema" after his appearance at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival.
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