NEWS

Before the 1970s, we tend to think of people’s reputations and careers being irredeemably destroyed if it was revealed they were gay. That was true for many, but some managed to overcome the social and professional problems being outed caused. One of those was Pier Paolo Pasolini, who was outed following an arrest in the late 1940s where he was charged with ‘obscene acts in public places’.

Although it initially destroyed his life, forcing him to move to Rome where he remained essentially unemployable for several years (perceptions of Communist sympathies didn’t help either), he fought back, becoming one of the most important films directors in Italian history, with movies such as The Gospel According to Matthew, Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom and The Decameron.

Now he’s due to get a major, full retrospective presented by New York’s MOMA (Museum Of Modern Art) at The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters from December 13th, 2012 through January 5th, 2013, which will feature all of his movies.

While Pasolini rarely dealt explicitly with homosexuality (although it’s touched up in Teorema, Arabian Night and Salo) and didn’t consider himself a ‘gay artist’, sex, power and society were strong themes in his work, and you can definitely see that the effect of coming of age as a gay man during the political tumult of the Second World War and its aftermath had a profound effect on his viewpoint as an artist.

The film retrospective will be accompanied by a series of events including recitals highlighting Pasolini’s works as an essayist, poet, and composer. MoMA PS1 will also feature Saló or the 120 Days of Sodom, Teorema, and Medea as continuous cinematic installations running throughout the film retrospective, while Location 1 will host a gallery exhibition bringing together over 40 rarely exhibited drawings and paintings by Pasolini.

Pasolini was murdered in 1975 after he was run over numerous cars by his own car. A young hustler was convicted of his murder, although there have been rumours over the years the boys was forced to confess by those who’d killed Pasolini because they thought he was a ‘dirty communist’. Other evidence has suggested he could have been killed by an extortionist.

The Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival is one of the most interesting gay film festivals in India, with an aim to try and reach as many people as possible in the country’s biggest city by showing LGBT films for free.

Now the festival is coming to the UK, under the title Queer India, with filmmaker Sridhar Rangayan showing movies from Kashish, as well as his own films, in showcases and other events in Brighton and London between now November 30th (unfortunately though, this time it’s not free), before he moves on to other European countries.

Queer India is described as ‘A peep into the colorful Indian homosexual closet and understanding of the fast changing contemporary Indian LGBT landscape through discussions and screenings of films by Sridhar Rangayan and award winning short films from KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival.

‘Films part of the collection are: ‘The Pink Mirror (Gulabi Aaina)’, ’68 Pages’, ‘Project Bolo’, ‘Amen’, ‘Flower Bud (Kusum)’, ‘In The Closet’, ‘More Than A Friend’, ‘Logging Out’, ‘The Night Is Young (Raat Baaki)’, ‘Are We Different (Amra Ki Etoi Bhinno)’ and ‘Breaking Free’ (Trailer).’

As for Sridhar Rangayan, he’s an Indian filmmaker whose queer films on social issues have screened at more than 100 national and international film festivals; won several awards and have received great critical acclaim. He has served as Jury member at Berlinale (Germany) for the Teddy Awards and Movies That Matter (Netherlands) for Matter of Act Awards.

He is the Festival Director of KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, India’s biggest queer film festival and Founder Trustee of The Humsafar Trust. He has been at the forefront of Indian LGBT movement for over two decades and contributed through his films, writings and talks.

The London event is presented by the University of Westminster’s India Media Center and will screen at the the site of Britain’s first cinema screening, the Old Cinema on Regent Street, where the Lumiere Brothers showed their films in the late 1800s. The audience will get to see Rangayan’s ‘Gulabi Aaina (The Pink Mirror)’, along with award-winning short films from Kashish such as ‘Amen’, ‘Kusum (The Flower Bud)’, ‘Logging Out’ and ‘Raat Baaki (Night is Young).

Rangayan commented, “I am tremendously excited to screen the films at one of Britain’s oldest theaters. It is a rare honor and I am greatly looking forward to this event.”

Ranadeep Bhattacharya and Judhajit Bagchi, directors of short film ‘Amen’, have said, “It’s normally difficult to screen short films on gender and sexuality to a large audience in India but with Kashish film festival, filmmakers like us have a new ray of hope. And now with our film ‘Amen’ being a part of the Queer India European Tour, we are ecstatic. It’s both overwhelming and encouraging to the entire team as now our stories are ready to be shared with the world.”

After visiting the UK, Rangayan heads for Dublin, Warsaw and Stockholm as part of a European tour. Take a look below for the current calendar of events.

BRIGHTON, UK: Nov 21 – 26th 2012
November 22nd 2012
4.00pm – 6.00pm at University of Sussex
Screening of clips from Sridhar Rangayan’s films and discussion
http://www.facebook.com/events/435393629842250/
Presented by GQC

November 24th 2012
2.00pm at CineCity
Curating Queer Film Culture roundtable panel discussion
http://www.facebook.com/events/360991103991391/
Presented by GQC

followed by screening of KASHISH Shorts
4.00pm at Cinecity
http://www.facebook.com/events/122114541278741
Presented by GQC

November 26th 2012
Alliance Secretariat
Screening of clips from Sridhar Rangayan’s films and KASHISH shorts and discussion

LONDON, UK: Nov 27 – 30th 2012
November 28th 2012
The Old Cinema (in Regent Street campus of University of Westminster)
Screening of Sridhar Rangayan’s films and KASHISH shorts
Presented by India Media Center, University of Westminster

November 30th 2012
University of West London
Screening of clips from Sridhar Rangayan’s films and KASHISH shorts and discussion

DUBLIN, IRELAND: Dec 1 – 4th 2012
December 3rd 2012
Dublin City University
Screening of film Sridhar Rangayan’s film ’68 Pages’ and discussion
Presented by DCU and EROSS

WARSAW, POLAND: Dec 4 – 8th 2012
December 8th 2012
Watch Docs Human Rights Film Festival, Warsaw, Poland
Panel discussion on LGBT Rights

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN : Dec 9 – 16th 2012
December 10, 11th 2012
Stockholm, Sweden
RFSL/SIDA International Programme Alumni Seminar

December 12-16th 2012
ILGA World Conference, Stockholm, Sweden
Workshop: Documenting LGBT Histories

While we tend to think of Hollywood actors living the high life while surrounded by riches, most aren’t that lucky and indeed some die completely broke and in need of help to pay for their funeral. One of those was Johnny Arthur, whose funeral was paid for by the Motion Picture & Television Fund Home, but sadly they didn’t have the money for a headstone.

Now that’s been remedied, 61 years after he died. His grave marker will be unveiled at 3pm on Sunday, November 25, at Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood.

What makes this of interest to gay readers is not just that’s it’s believed Arhur was gay himself, but also that he specialised in playing timid, fey, sissy characters during the silent era. While these would be seen as offensive stereotypes nowadays, at the time he was one of a select group of actors (such as Edward Everett Horton and Tyrell Davis) who gave gay people at least a small amount of visibility on screen. He appeared in generally over-the-top fey roles in movies like The Desert Song, Going Wild, and The Monster, as well as having success on stage in musical comedy and variety in both Britain and the US.

However, when the Hays Code came in during the early 30s, it made it much more difficult for those who played ‘gay’ characters. All depictions of what was deemed ‘sex perversion’ were banned from the screen, and while some asexual sissy characters survived, they became much rarer and suddenly actors who’d spent decades specialising in these roles found work had dried up. Arthur continued to act but generally found himself in much smaller roles playing a wimp. Indeed his stature in Hollywood shrank so much that he didn’t even get a screen credit for most of his later roles. That may well be why Arthur had no money to pay for his own funeral.

Scott Michaels of Dearly Departed Tours was behind the fundraising campaign for a proper headstone for Johnny Arthur (something he’s done for other bygone cult-film stars). He says “I think of Johnny Arthur as the gay ‘StepinFetchit’. “Some consider his un-PC roles offensive, but he was providing the public one of the first glimpses of a gay man. He deserves our respect. He took the bullet for us.”

If you want to see Johnny Arthur in action, we’ve embedded the complete 1934 movie The Ghost Walks below (we can do that because it’s out of copyright), in which he starred.

There’s been much talk about a potentially homoerotic scene in Skyfall where Javier Bardem’s villain flirts with a tied up Bond and strokes his chest. The secret agent’s provocative comment, “What makes you think this is my first time?” has led to speculation that 007 may actually be bisexual (despite very little evidence).

It appears one fan has taken this and run with it, as they came up with the poster above, which certainly makes any gay subtext far more overt. It’s far steamier than anything we saw in the actual movie, but let’s hope it gives the producers a few ideas for the next one (it won’t, but we can always hope).

Skyfall has certainly gotten a lot of people’s imaginations running, with many claiming it’s one of the best Bonds ever (although I know a lot of people who thought it was just another 007 adventure with little to mark it as special). It’s already the most successful film in the history of the franchise, with $678 million grossed to date and still climbing fast.

The image above has gone viral since it first popped up over at Reddit, garnering 10s of thousands of views. It certainly suggests there’s a lot of interest in a gay Bond.