Forgotten sequins: gay identity in New Zealand queer cinema 1980-1993

Abstract

This thesis explores the changing representation of 'gay' male identity within 'queer' New Zealand cinema as it developed through the 1980s and into the 1990s.New Zealand's Queer Cinema is a much neglected part of our country's film history. Yet it offers a wealth of information on cinematic representation of sexual identities and the importance of such representation for those identities themselves. And the story of 1980s/early 1990s queer cinema tells of, and is itself a tale of, the increasing visibility of gay male identity in a time of great upheaval for the country's queer communities, both politically and socially. The first two queer films appeared when New Zealand film industry was diversifying and gaining momentum. Richard Turner's feature length film Squeeze (1980) was quickly followed by Peter Wells' experimental short Foolish Things in 1981. Both were made at a time when homosexual acts and other non normative sexual identities were either illegal or socially unacceptable. Both depict a homosexuality mostly confined to late night urban environments, away from the gaze of regular 'straight' society. Both offer an insightful reading of the construction of queer sexuality in a hostile world. Wells' Jewel's Darl (1985) and Stewart Main's My First Suit (1985) coincided with the successful campaign for homosexual law reform and are influenced by that historical context. Each makes reference to the debates surrounding the law reform and their representations of gay men reflect these issues are shaped accordingly. They both offer glimpses of marginalised groups within the queer community, but both stories are played out in the light of day in a way that distinguishes them from their two predecessors. Wells and Main's first co-directorial collaboration, A Death In The Family (1987), and Garth Maxwell's first lengthy film debut Beyond Gravity (1988) deal with the impact of the AIDS epidemic on the queer community offer differing political messages, pointing perhaps to the reality of a community that, with law reform achieved, did not need to be cohesive. In both films queer sexualities are not constricted in the way they were in the previous films, homosexuality coexists with mainstream society. Main and Wells' follow up to A Death In The Family, was Desperate Remedies (1993). It came at a time when the gay community was recovering its resilience in the face of an ongoing AIDS epidemic and taking confident steps into 'mainstream' society. This film, subscribing as it did to many of the conventions of the new queer cinema emerging out of North America and Europe, is often seen as the watershed moment in New Zealand queer cinema. The script was transformed into a 'high camp' Victorian melodrama on screen, allowing the directors to produce a unique and unaltered vision. This thesis has drawn on gay studies and queer theory, film studies and cinema history and theory to craft its account. Gay studies highlight the emancipationist story that runs through those years and informs many sequences in the films. Queer theory reminds us that even a minority community like that of gay men is not a unified, homogenous entity, but one with multiple facts and identities - this too is played out in the films. Film studies reminds us of the infrastructure - investors, producers, directors, technicians, actors and audiences - that had to be in place before these films could be made, survive or thrive. Cinema history and theory reminds us that these films are representations that shape as well as being shaped by it.