[Filmfestivalresearch] Queer film festivals and identity discourses

[Chloe Benson]

Dear colleagues:

The following paper on Queer Film Festivals may be of interest to some of you:

<http://sensesofcinema.com/2016/new-directions/language-matters/>Language Matters: Analysing the identity discourses of LGBT film festivals (available for free <http://sensesofcinema.com/2016/new-directions/language-matters/> at the<http://sensesofcinema.com/2016/new-directions/language-matters/><http://sensesofcinema.com/2016/new-directions/language-matters/> Senses of Cinema<http://sensesofcinema.com/2016/new-directions/language-matters/><http://sensesofcinema.com/2016/new-directions/language-matters/> website, via this link) <http://sensesofcinema.com/2016/new-directions/language-matters/>

Abstract:
Queer film festivals (QFFs) have particularly politicised origins and tend to be imbricated in complex gender and sexual identity politics. These politics have often lead to tensions played out in battles over language. As festivals negotiate contemporary queer politics they find themselves engaged in yet another bind concerning language, this time caught between embracing and rejecting traditional identity politics. Although adoption of the term queer may mark movement away from more specific battles over naming rights (or the right to be named) tensions and hierarchies may endure within the contested category of queer, with some identities remaining underrepresented and marginalised despite movement toward more inclusive language. Examining these dynamics in discourse and exploring a new direction in film festival studies, this paper examines the ways identity-based language manifests on the pages of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival’s programs from 2006–14 and offers a quantitative overview of the ways particular identity-based terminology has been used by the festival.

Kind regards,

Chloe Benson

Lecturer, Film and Media Studies | Faculty of Education and Arts

Federation University Australia
Office 225 | Building E | Gippsland campus