1st Edition

Immortal, Invisible Lesbians and the Moving Image

By Tamsin Wilton Copyright 1995
    252 Pages
    by Routledge

    256 Pages
    by Routledge

    Immortal, Invisible: Lesbians and the Moving Image is the first collection to bring together leading film-makers, academics and activists to discuss films by, for and about lesbians and queer women. The contributors debate the practice of lesbian and queer film-making, from the queer cinema of Monika Treut to the work of lesbian film-makers Andrea Weiss and Greta Schiller. They explore the pleasures and problems of lesbian spectatorship, both in mainstream Hollywood films including Aliens and Red Sonja, and in independent cinema from She Must be Seeing Things to Salmonberries and Desert Hearts. The authors tackle tricky questions: can a film such as Strictly Ballroom be both pleasurably camp and heterosexist? Is it ok to drool over dyke icons like Sigourney Weaver and kd lang? What makes a film lesbian, or queer, or even post-queer? What about showing sex on screen? And why do lesbian screen romances hardly ever have happy endings? Immortal, Invisible is splendidly illustrated with a selection of images from film and television texts.

    List of Plates Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction: On Invisibility and Mortality 1. What is a Nice Lesbian Like You, Doing in a Film Like This? 2. The Meaning of Treut 3. Oranges are Not the Only Fruit: Reaching Audiences Other Texts Cannot Reach 4. Salmonberries: Consuming kd lang 5. Sex in the Summer of '88 6. `If You Don't Play, You Can't Win': Desert Hearts and the Lesbian Romance Film 7. Portrait of a Production 8. The Space Between: Daughters and Lovers in Anne Trister 9. On Not Being Lady Macbeth: Some (Troubled) Thoughts on Lesbian Spectatorship 10. Girl's Camp? The Politics of Parody 11. Looking at Pumping Iron II: The Women 12. Desire and Design - Ripley Undressed 13. Interview with Andrea Weiss and Greta Schiller

    Biography

    Tamsin Wilton is Senior Lecturer in Health and Social Policy at the University of the West of England, where she also teaches Women’s Studies and Lesbian Studies.