Catalonian hotel room is reimagined within a queer reality by American filmmaker Christopher Münch, morphing an otherwise pedestrian evening into a tantalizing will-they-or-won’t-they set on the brink of the Beatlemania that would change them both forever. Though Münch believed the film to be nothing more than an exercise, it was accepted at major festivals such as Toronto, Berlin, New Directors/ New Films, and Sundance, where it won a Special Jury Recognition Award the same year the legendary Barbed Wire Kisses panel took place in Park City. DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: Christopher Münch. WITH: David Angus, Ian Hart, Stephanie Pack, Robin McDonald. 1991. 57 min. USA. B&W. English. DCP. Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive in conjunction with Oscilloscope Laboratories and Sundance Institute.
to emphasize the isolating reality of Leopold and Loeb’s existence; as gay Jewish men in the 1920s, their feelings of ostracization were implanted long before the pair committed their crimes. DIRECTED BY: Tom Kalin. WRITTEN BY: Tom Kalin, Hilton Als. WITH: Craig Chester, Daniel Schlachet, Michael Kirby, Michael Stumm. 1992. 93 min. USA. B&W, Color. English. 35mm.
THE LIVING END
The Living End Thu, Jun 27 | 7:30pm | DGT
Though Gregg Araki’s third feature has been referred to as a “gay Thelma & Louise ,” the raw ethos of leads Luke (Mike Dytri) and Jon (Craig Gilmore), both named after key French New Wave filmmakers, make this raucous punk flick more akin to a queer nouvelle vague film than a major studio production. This ultra-violent, shoegaze- driven, blissfully nihilistic road movie is also a primal scream in the direction of the mounting AIDS crisis and its accompanying cultural stigma. Shot with Araki’s then-largest budget of only $20,000, the film saw success on its festival run, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the landmark 1992 Sundance Film Festival. DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: Gregg Araki. WITH: Mike Dytri, Craig Gilmore, Mark Finch, Mary Woronov. 1992. 84 min. USA. Color. English. DCP.
THE WATERMELON WOMAN
The Watermelon Woman Thu, Jun 20 | 7:30pm | TMT
Cheryl Dunye’s queer cult work of autofiction has become a landmark of American indies—and won the Teddy Award for Best Feature at the 1996 Berlin International Film Festival. Dunye herself steps into the role of Cheryl, a young Black filmmaker who spends her days working in a video store. Following Cheryl’s dating life and her aspirations to make a film about a 1930s actress, both of which prove comically hard to navigate, The Watermelon Woman flirts with Jacques Derrida’s concept of “archive fever” as Cheryl’s obsession with her project produces a new lease on her own identity and her position within history as an art-making, Black, lesbian body. DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: Cheryl Dunye. WITH: Cheryl Dunye, Guinevere Turner, Valarie Walker, Lisa Marie Bronson. 1996. 90 min. USA. Color. English. DCP. Digital presentation courtesy of the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project for LGBTQIA+ Moving Image Preservation. Swoon in 35mm Mon, Jun 24 | 7:30pm | TMT Winner of the Cinematography Award at the edition of the Sundance Film Festival that inspired B. Ruby Rich to invent the term New Queer Cinema, Tom Kalin’s feature debut “puts the Homo back in Homicide” with a decidedly queer take on the real- life 1924 case of Leopold and Loeb, two teenage lovers who murdered a younger boy in what they considered to be the perfect crime. This Jazz Age black-and-white indie makes strong use of cinematographer Ellen Kuras’s dramatic visuals
EDWARD II
Edward II Sat, Jun 29 | 2pm | TMT
Drawing on Greek drama and modern dance to interpret Christopher Marlowe’s 16th-century play, scholar B. Ruby Rich notes that “Jarman’s time travel” in Edward II “insist(s) on carrying the court into today’s gay world.” British filmmaker Derek Jarman’s output is as varied and rich
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