50 Years of Queer Cinema
500 of the Best GLBTQ Films Ever Made
Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince
An indispensable reference source for films about The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name.
As late as 1958, homosexuality couldn’t even be mentioned in a movie, as proven by the elaborate lengths the producers of Tennessee Williams's swampy Cat on a Hot Tin Roof took to evade the obvious fact that its hero, Paul Newman, was playing it gay. And in spite of the elaborate lengths its producers took to camouflage its lavender aspects, in-the-know viewers during the late '50s realized all along that Joe E. Brown was fully aware that Jack Lemmon wasn’t a biological female (“nobody’s perfect”) in Some Like it Hot (1959).
That kind of baroque subterfuge ended abruptly in 1960, when cinema emerged from its celluloid closet with the release of Boys in the Band. Decades later came Brokeback Mountain, Transamerica, and Milk.
This comprehensive anthology documents it all, bringing into focus a sweeping rundown of cinema’s most intriguing Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, and “Queer Questioning” films that deserves a home next to the DVD player as well as on the reference shelves of public libraries. Crucial to the viability of this book is the fact that new DVD releases have made these films available to new generations of viewers for the first time since their original release.
More than just a dusty library reference, this book shamelessly spills 50 quasi-closeted years of Hollywood secrets--all of them in glorious Technicolor.
"In the Internet age, where every movie, queer or otherwise, is blogged about somewhere, a hefty print compendium of film facts and pointed opinion might seem anachronistic. But flipping through well-reasoned pages of commentary is so satisfying. Add to that physical thrill the charm of analysis that is sometimes sassy and always smart, and this filtered survey of short reviews is a must for queer-film fans. In part one, Porter and Prince provide a succinct "A to Z romp" through 500 films, with quick plot summaries and on-point critical assessments, each film summed up with a pithy headline: Yossi and Jagger is "Macho Israeli Soldiers Make Love, Not War." The films surveyed in part two are quirkier fare -- 160 "less publicized" efforts.
"Startling. This exhaustive guide documents everything from the mainstream to the obscure, detailing dozens of queer films." HX Magazine (New York)
I’ve acquired a book which put me in mind of Ed Murrow when he elevated Churchill. Delete the great man, replace him with Prince and Porter and you’ll have my own quote –
‘They mobilised the English language and sent it into battle against the institutionalised homophobia which has blighted the film industry over the last half century.’
50 Years of Queer Cinema cost me about three hours of quality time when first opened! I intended to give it only a few minutes before picking it up again at the end of my ‘working day’. Clearly it will become the international definitive reference book for all who have more then a passing interest in any film with an LGBT angle. It’s a reference book now available at Derby Central Library - yet a tome I must own. It has to be within reach at a moment’s notice and has to be defaced with hundreds of annotations – my annotations.
Co authors Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince have produced 524 pages which prove the profound truth of Samuel Goldwyn’s lament when he admitted his pictures have ‘little of any real substance’. They depicted a myth. They told a sanitised fairy tale where everybody is heterosexual except for a few dubious characters with personality flaws. We’ve all heard of them - the ones who don’t fit in, suffer a breakdown or kill themselves. Tragically, that part is all too often true. Art not only imitates life, it also shapes life and 1950s Hollywood certainly warped my view of life.
But take heart - 50 Years of Queer Cinema is a big book. It brings us into the 21st century, the advent of Brokeback Mountain and similar efforts which attempt to educate and break down barriers.
I can recommend it. Narvel Annable (UK)
That kind of baroque subterfuge ended abruptly in 1960, when cinema emerged from its celluloid closet with the release of Boys in the Band. Decades later came Brokeback Mountain, Transamerica, and Milk.
This comprehensive anthology documents it all, bringing into focus a sweeping rundown of cinema’s most intriguing Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, and “Queer Questioning” films that deserves a home next to the DVD player as well as on the reference shelves of public libraries. Crucial to the viability of this book is the fact that new DVD releases have made these films available to new generations of viewers for the first time since their original release.
More than just a dusty library reference, this book shamelessly spills 50 quasi-closeted years of Hollywood secrets--all of them in glorious Technicolor.
"In the Internet age, where every movie, queer or otherwise, is blogged about somewhere, a hefty print compendium of film facts and pointed opinion might seem anachronistic. But flipping through well-reasoned pages of commentary is so satisfying. Add to that physical thrill the charm of analysis that is sometimes sassy and always smart, and this filtered survey of short reviews is a must for queer-film fans. In part one, Porter and Prince provide a succinct "A to Z romp" through 500 films, with quick plot summaries and on-point critical assessments, each film summed up with a pithy headline: Yossi and Jagger is "Macho Israeli Soldiers Make Love, Not War." The films surveyed in part two are quirkier fare -- 160 "less publicized" efforts.
"Startling. This exhaustive guide documents everything from the mainstream to the obscure, detailing dozens of queer films." HX Magazine (New York)
I’ve acquired a book which put me in mind of Ed Murrow when he elevated Churchill. Delete the great man, replace him with Prince and Porter and you’ll have my own quote –
‘They mobilised the English language and sent it into battle against the institutionalised homophobia which has blighted the film industry over the last half century.’
50 Years of Queer Cinema cost me about three hours of quality time when first opened! I intended to give it only a few minutes before picking it up again at the end of my ‘working day’. Clearly it will become the international definitive reference book for all who have more then a passing interest in any film with an LGBT angle. It’s a reference book now available at Derby Central Library - yet a tome I must own. It has to be within reach at a moment’s notice and has to be defaced with hundreds of annotations – my annotations.
Co authors Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince have produced 524 pages which prove the profound truth of Samuel Goldwyn’s lament when he admitted his pictures have ‘little of any real substance’. They depicted a myth. They told a sanitised fairy tale where everybody is heterosexual except for a few dubious characters with personality flaws. We’ve all heard of them - the ones who don’t fit in, suffer a breakdown or kill themselves. Tragically, that part is all too often true. Art not only imitates life, it also shapes life and 1950s Hollywood certainly warped my view of life.
But take heart - 50 Years of Queer Cinema is a big book. It brings us into the 21st century, the advent of Brokeback Mountain and similar efforts which attempt to educate and break down barriers.
I can recommend it. Narvel Annable (UK)
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Paperback 9781936003-09-9 $25.95 E-Book 9781936003211 $0 -
Category Movies/TV Publication Date 2010-04-01 -
Publication Status In Print Trim Size 7x10 Page Count 524
More Books by this Author
 | Hollywood Babylon Strikes Again! All those celebrities! All those Scandals! All that Nudity! And all that Sin! |
 | The Kennedys From those who knew them…their power, their peccadilloes, and their porn. |
 | Blood Moon's Guide to Gay & Lesbian Film (Volume One) Brilliant, Witty, Defiant, Proud -- an important historic archive that just happens to be a helluva lot of fun. |
 | Blood Moon's Guide to Gay & Lesbian Film (Volume Two) Brilliant, Witty, Defiant, Proud -- an important historic archive that just happens to be a helluva lot of fun. |
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Australian TV (Network Nine) puts its spin on Blood Moon's THE KENNEDYS
10/10/2011
G'Day Mates! Australian TV's spin on THE KENNEDYS
K-News Radio, Palm Springs, PRESIDENTIAL SEX: An Interview with Danforth Prince
8/27/2011
What They're Saying in Palm Springs About THE KENNEDYS. Click here for news from California's Desert Gossip Pros
Those permissive hosts at K-News talk radio in gossipy "sin city" (glamorous PALM SPRINGS, California), invited Blood Moon's president, Danforth Prince, to get up front and personal about his company’s newest celebrity exposé, THE KENNEDYS, All the Gossip Unfit to Print.
Here's what the biggest radio mogul in the Coachella Valley, "Bulldog Bill" Feingold, elicited on July 25, 2011, about marital infidelity, the presidency, and the hot new book that assembles into 426 photo-studded pages the embarrassments and indiscretions of seven key members of America's most entertaining (and horniest) political tribe.
Danforth was in Palm Springs in the aftermath of receiving a literary award from the HOLLYWOOD BOOK FESTIVAL for this book. His tour also involved working with a film crew for the production of Blood Moon's newest promotional video, now out and available on YouTube.com: JACKING WITH JFK IN HOLLYWOOD, Where the President Played: a cinematic preview of THE KENNEDYS, All the Gossip Unfit to Print.
Here's what Danforth had to say about the book, Palm Springs, and the brouhaha associated with the Golden (50th) Anniversary of JFK's ascension to power.
Here's what the biggest radio mogul in the Coachella Valley, "Bulldog Bill" Feingold, elicited on July 25, 2011, about marital infidelity, the presidency, and the hot new book that assembles into 426 photo-studded pages the embarrassments and indiscretions of seven key members of America's most entertaining (and horniest) political tribe.
Danforth was in Palm Springs in the aftermath of receiving a literary award from the HOLLYWOOD BOOK FESTIVAL for this book. His tour also involved working with a film crew for the production of Blood Moon's newest promotional video, now out and available on YouTube.com: JACKING WITH JFK IN HOLLYWOOD, Where the President Played: a cinematic preview of THE KENNEDYS, All the Gossip Unfit to Print.
Here's what Danforth had to say about the book, Palm Springs, and the brouhaha associated with the Golden (50th) Anniversary of JFK's ascension to power.
Blood Moon Releases History's First Cinematic Overview of "Gay Life in New York's Forgotten Outer Borough" as its contribution to PRIDE 2011
6/18/2011
See History's First Cinematic Overview of Gay Life on Staten Island, without charge, by clicking HERE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEBlood Moon Productions, a Staten Island-based publishing enterprise that focuses on celebrity biographies and film guides, proudly announces the release of a 27-minute documentary and infomercial it filmed at the June 4, 2011 celebration of Gay Pride in Staten Island. To see the film, click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN00Mw9wQ6E
The project was conceived, scripted, and narrated by Blood Moon's president and founder, Danforth Prince, who was designated in early June as 2011's PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR by the directors of THE BEACH BOOK FESTIVAL, an association of literary critics and booksellers from coastal communities across America.
As stated by Prince, "Blood Moon already has a history of crafting videotaped infomercials and documentaries as a means of advancing public recognition of its literary products. As such, we were intrigued by the cinematic possibilities of a street celebration that included aspects of both a trade fair and a social revolution. And how else could someone not physically present watch an articulate interaction between the Unitarian Church, the winner of the 'Miss New York' beauty pageant, and Dykes on Bikes?"
"Staten Island is the least visible and perhaps the most conservative borough within the otherwise liberal mass of New York City," Prince continued. "But based on this month's battle for marriage equality in New York State, and the extroverted passions of the island's gays and lesbians, this film has implications that go way beyond the borough."
"Insofar as we know," Prince continued, "no one else has ever attempted a coherent cinematic overview of Staten Island's gay subculture. And it was the clearly expressed passion and politicized fervor of the people we interviewed that became the most surprising and most gratifying part about making this film."
Blood Moon's GAY LIFE IN NEW YORK'S FORGOTTEN OUTER BOROUGH supplements other infomercials it will release this month, including BOOK EXPO 2011, BLOOD MOON'S VIEW FROM THE FLOOR. A 60-minute documentary filmed in May, 2011 at the world's largest literary marketplace, BOOK EXPO AMERICA, it's the newest installment in a series of lessons about how a small press or an author can navigate the shark-infested waters of the book trades.
During the crafting of both of these films, Blood Moon was assisted in the direction, editing, and camera work by Polish-born cinematographer PIOTR KAJSTURA, winner of several awards and grants from, among others, the Tourism Board of South Carolina.
For more information about Blood Moon's other successes and embarrassments, and how its authors are re-defining how celebrity biographies and film guides are written and marketed in America today, click on www.BloodMoonProductions.com
On Friday, March 4, the Awards Committee of the LOS ANGELES BOOK FESTIVAL awarded two Honorable Mentions to Blood Moon Productions for titles released in 2010.
In preparation for this event, Danforth Prince, Blood Moon's president, assembled a Hollywood-based film crew, as directed by the distinguished Independent Filmmaker MS. CRYSTAL CALLAHAN, to videotape the event. Conducted with fanfare from within Hollywood's historic Roosevelt Hotel, the awards ceremony attracted about a thousand distinguished members of L.A.'s publishing and film communities. Blood Moon plans a release of this video, without charge, as part of its ongoing roster of sales promotions, in about two weeks.
As stated by Danforth, "Blood Moon's corporate mission involves the publication of carefully researched new insights into the entertainment industry. The fact that these book awards originate from a panel of judges based in Los Angeles makes them particularly valued and appreciated. We are genuinely honored with these awards, and we thank everyone associated with this event tonight."
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