Queerstory shows history of gay cinema

In recent years, being gay has become a popular character trait in movies and television.\nEllen DeGeneres' coming out episode in 1997 drew more than 36 million viewers and won an Emmy award for writing. "Will & Grace," a show featuring a gay character, crushed the competition at this year's Emmys. And Hilary Swank won an Academy Award for her portrayal of a woman living as a man in "Boys Don't Cry."\nBut most people aren't familiar with the first homosexual liberation film, "Different From Others." Made in Germany in 1919, it championed gay rights long before it became one of Hollywood's favorite causes. In fact, many of today's fights for gay rights can trace their origins to the early 20th century. \nFacts like these are what Anne Chamberlin spends her life talking about. Wednesday night she brought her knowledge to IU for her lecture "A Queerstory of Cinema in the Twentieth Century." It was sponsored by Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered student support services, the department of Communication and Culture, OUT and the Commission on Multicultural Understanding.\nSince getting her degree in history with a film studies certificate from IU in 1987, Chamberlin has spent most of her life producing short films about gays and lesbians, and teaching in an area struggling for respect in the academic community -- queer studies. Chamberlin is a professor at City College of San Francisco in Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Studies, the only department of its kind in the nation. \nIn recent years, queer theory has come under fire from the gay community for being overly intellectual. But Chamberlin said she tried to translate elaborate theories stretching back centuries into applicable, real-life explanations about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. \nIn her lecture, Chamberlin said an inherent issue in society is its binary nature. People are either one thing or another -- male or female, republican or democrat, IU or Purdue -- with no room for the in-between.\n"Queer theory looks at the way we construct language. You're either 'he' or 'she.' There is no way to denote 'other' besides 'it,' and then you're nothing," she said. \nChamberlin said society's binary system has affected all aspects of life, and the film industry is no exception. \n"The (film) system is limiting, and it's hierarchical," she said. "In most Hollywood cinema, you don't get a character walking into a scene and saying 'Hi, I'm a lesbian.' We read things in terms of a guy with a limp wrist. But what we're starting to see is 'straight queers' who break out of traditional notions of gender roles." \nInitially, Chamberlin said queer cinema started out strong with films like "Different From Others," about a gay man's struggle to survive. Often, those early films were political statements against laws banning homosexuality in Germany and other countries. But with the rise of censorship in the early 1930s, homosexual storylines were scrapped and films were forced to "clean up" their acts. \nGay story lines resurfaced again in the 1970s, but then it was mostly blatant anti-gay propaganda. \n"It was always a slasher who's some sort of faggy guy," Chamberlin said. \nShe cited the 1977 film "Looking for Mr. Goodbar," about a sexually-liberated woman who is murdered by a gay character, and 1991's "Silence of the Lambs," in which the killer is a homosexual.\n"In ('Lambs'), queerness completely led to villainy. After 'Mr. Goodbar,' … women went to their cars and felt their greatest threat was from gay men. We fear queers and go home to lock our doors," she said. \nDue to Hollywood's stereotypes and movie studios' reluctance to risk money on smaller films, Chamberlin said truly independent cinema is the answer to these messages in films.\n"We still see a lot of reinforcing of those patterns (today.) They're just redirected and rearranged," she said.\nChamberlin's own film work has made inroads toward portraying gays and lesbians in more positive lights. One film, "Condomnation," showed the trouble lesbians had getting information about AIDS during the early years of the outbreak. Another film featured Chamberlin's friends from across the nation in an attempt to show the true face of lesbians.\nDespite her college's work in GLBT studies, Chamberlin said the department always fights for its funding. And other schools' efforts have been thwarted as well.\n"I'd have lots of teachers calling about courses (in GLBT studies) they wanted to teach, but the administrations vetoed them," she said. "It's been a real struggle to get courses taught in colleges. Mostly, universities say there isn't enough interest in queer studies for a course." \nKarin Heemstra, a friend of Chamberlin's, said the best way to increase awareness and popularity of queer studies was to get even one class started at a university, such as the class offered at Michigan State University, her alma mater.\n"Just start with any kind of queer class. A lot of people took Michigan State's class, so the interest's definitely out there."\nAnne Chamberlin will present a filmmaking workshop "Camera-less Filmmaking" from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the John Waldron Arts Center, 122 S. Walnut St. Cost is $25 for members, $35 for non-members. For more information or to register, call the Waldron Center at 334-3100.