In the first of our Q&A’s with Behind the Curtain filmmakers, we find out that Bruce LaBruce does NOT like being asked for his favourite film, but we love his final word. The Misandrists screens on Sat 14 October at The Cornucopia Room in Hawick. More info here. First, a few words about the man himself.
“For over a quarter-century the auteur/provocateur known as Bruce LaBruce has been disrupting, dissecting, and disrobing in the name of cinema. Blasted into the demimonde of underground punk moviemaking with his feature debut, No Skin Off My Ass, LaBruce quickly established that, while he was certainly game for exploring the messy, sticky zones of fringe film, he was actually the unholy product of arthouse auteurism.
From Robert Altman to Federico Fellini and Werner Herzog, LaBruce mines the sacred texts of the canon and inserts his own revolutionary gay-sex-positive narratives. Layered with scathing wit and a fundamental rejection of capitalist control over the mind and body, his films take to task the mainstream porn industry as well as Hollywood.
In this spirit, he has collaborated with actors—like Slava Mogutin, Tony Ward, and Francois Sagat—who swing between art and commerce, fashion and filth, the avant-garde and the boulevard. Bruce LaBruce’s particular brand of regal queer fecundity has spawned a generation of feral filmmakers (and ravenous audiences) willing to go a step beyond where Jack Smith, John Waters, and Andy Warhol brought us.” MoMa, New York
1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
I don’t believe in perfection. I am most happy when I’m making a movie.
2. What lies at the heart of your own desire to make films?
Cinephilia.
3. What are the first things you do in developing a film idea in response to a subject?
Examine my ambivalence, then search for the ambiguities.
4. What’s your favourite film and why?
A cruel question. Today, I will say Looking For Mr. Goodbar, because it had an enormous impact on my sexuality, and the film never ceases to amaze me.
5. Choose 1, 2 or 3 of your all-time favourite music tracks!
Do What You Want, Be Who You Are by Hall & Oates. Edith and the Kingpin by Joni Mitchell. Furry Sings the Blues by Joni Mitchell.
6. From your favourite poem – could you give us a few lines that mean something to you?
From Sylvia Plath’s poem “Child”
Not this troublous
Wringing of hands, this dark
Ceiling without a star.
7. If you were to die and come back as a person, animal or a thing, what would it be?
Francois Sagat’s jockstrap
8. What is your final word?
Freedom for Female People!
behind-thecurtain.com 