Thinking Otherwise: the Politics of Black Queer Filmmaking
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THINKING OTHERWISE: THE POLITICS OF BLACK QUEER FILMMAKING CHRISTOPHER G. SMITH A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER'S OF ARTS GRADUATE PROGRAM IN INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES YORK UNIVERSITY, TORONTO, ONTARIO DECEMBER 2009 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de Pedition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-62424-1 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-62424-1 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduce, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. •+• Canada Abstract Thinking Otherwise: the Politics of Black Queer Filmmaking This thesis examines black gay men's cultural production as a site of black queer theorizing. Through a critical re-reading of the filmmaking of Isaac Julien, Marlon Riggs, and Edimburgo Cabrera I discuss their artistic contributions as a textual/theoretical resource for the emergent field of Black Queer Studies. Divided into three case-studies this thesis explores each artists' informative insights on the intersections of race, gender, class, sexuality and national belonging. Critical attention is paid to the manner in which current black queer scholars mobilize these insights to demand a paradigm shift within the fields of Black Studies and Queer Studies. IV For her continual love and support, I dedicate this work to my mother (a.k.a. "mummy"). V Acknowledgements Many people have provided substantial support to ensure the successful completion of this study. First, I would like to thank Leslie Sanders, Warren Crichlow, and Janine Marchessault. Each of these scholars have leant their expertise to enrich this project in ways I had not imagined. I am eternally grateful to the three of you for what you have brought to bear on my intellectual and scholarly development. The success of any scholarly project is dependent on a strong administrative support system. Over the years Ouma Jaipaul-Gill has been a stellar administrator who has made this a journey full of genuine support and encouragement. Any student who passes through the Graduate Programme in Interdisciplinary Studies comes to the end of the tunnel knowing that our success is in part due to your guidance through this process. Thank you. Similarly, I am indebted to the overwhelming support of Prof. Marlene Kadar. Through her leadership as Program Director, Prof. Kadar has provided a level of support for the graduate students under her guidance that is unmatched in my imagination. I am certain that I am neither the first nor the last person to share this sentiment. Many friends and colleagues have provided support for this endeavour whom I am proud to acknowledge here. The following individuals stand out as stellar scholars and great friends; Rinaldo Walcott, Katherine McKittrick and John vi Grundy. I have cherished out critical dialogues over friendly cocktails and look forward to future engagements of plotting and conspiring. Lastly, I would like to thank the filmmakers that are examined in this study; Isaac Julien, Marlon Riggs (R.I.P.) and Edimburgo Cabrera. Their provocative insights on all matters black and queer have been inspirational. Your artistic contributions continually challenge us to think otherwise. Vll Table Of Contents Abstract iv Introduction: Thinking Otherwise: Black Queer Filmmaking and The "beginnings" of Black Queer Studies 1 1. Isaac Julien: Autography, and the Articulation of Black Queer Thought 15 i) Autography: A Primer 16 ii) The Politics of Autography in/of Young Soul Rebels 19 iii) Young Soul Rebels and the cultural context of its inception 22 iv) Enter Julien's Motley Crew 2. Marlon Riggs and "our" Historical Routes 40 i) Autography, Marlon Riggs and The Politics of Black Queer Filmmaking 41 ii) From Ethnic Notions to Black is Black Ain't - Marlon Riggs' . Legacy 44 iii) Black Studies/Queer Studies -convergences and extrapolations..51 iv) Is "Quare Studies" still "quare" by another name? 53 v) Once You Go Black... a cautionary tale 57 Vlll 3. "Usable Routes": Edimburgo Cabrera and The Movements of Black Queer Studies 61 i) Unfinished Stories 63 ii) "Where" is the love?, ... is the question 69 Conclusion: Towards a Black Queer Studies in/thru Canada 78 Bibliography 83 Filmography 89 IX Introduction - Thinking Otherwise: Black Queer Filmmaking and The "beginnings" of Black Queer Studies. To think, on the contrary, is to pass through; it is to question that order, to marvel that it exists, to wonder what made it possible, to seek, in passing over its landscape, traces of the movement that formed it, to discover in these histories supposedly laid to rest "how and to what extent it would be possible to think otherwise." - Michel de Certeau, The Laugh ofFoucault1 De Certeau's astute insights on the critical work of Michel Foucault have much to tell us about what is at stake in the practice of interdisciplinary scholarship. Indeed, much of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century is marked by such critical interventions that have sought to trace specific histories, narratives and knowledge that fall outside of the pale of conventional and legitimated academic disciplines. To posit that such an intervention is potentially a political one would be an understatement. Much of the recent pursuit towards interdisciplinary scholarship has been driven in part by the desire to excavate the histories of social subjects who have been marginalized from or misrepresented by the canons of established academic disciplines.2 Whether we refer to the inauguration of Black Studies, Women's Studies or Lesbian and Gay Studies (herein referred to as Queer Studies) in North American contexts, interdisciplinary praxis is indelibly an act of an interventional politics. The Foucauldian position which de Certeau elucidates is not solely a 1 Michel de Certeau, "The Laugh of Foucault" Heterologies: Discourse on the Other. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997) 194. 2 To be clear interdisciplinary praxis has a longer history and disciplines such as Sociology have themselves emerged through such a process. When I refer to "recent pursuits" I am signalling primarily subject-based fields (i.e. Women's Studies, Black Studies etc..) that focus on a specified set of social subjects. 1 performance of impertinence toward the disciplinary constraints of the human sciences. It is a reminder that in our current times the humanities are challenged by the heterogeneous and fluid forms of cultural practice, sociality and politics that are constantly at play. How, for instance might we account for the arts, politics and expressive cultures of black gays and lesbians when at the insistence of their performative practices one is indeed compelled to confront the contours of a variety of scholarly endeavours that oftentimes imagine themselves epistemologically as mutually exclusive? In the 1980s a renaissance of cultural production by black queer authors, filmmakers, and visual artists occurred that contested prevailing notions of what constituted "race" and "race-relations". Reminiscent of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, various artists in Canada, the United States, and the U.K. sought to produce artwork that insisted on a more pluralistic vision of identity, in particular "black identity". By situating questions of racial and ethnic identity in critical dialogue with questions of gender and sexuality, such work challenged the prevailing notion of a homogenous and unified black identity that had structured black communal and political life. One of the primary contentions was that in a post-civil rights movement era, one cannot address "race-relations" in Western nation-states, without examining the confluence of systems of oppression that stratify societies based on race, gender, sexuality, and class. 2 This artistic movement can be characterized by (but certainly not limited to) the work of author/poets such as Essex Hemphill, and Courtnay McFarlane, and filmmakers such as Isaac Julien and Marlon Riggs. In conjunction with the resurgence of black queer cultural production, scholarly initiatives (often by the artisthemselves) sought to critically engage this moment by mobilizing the insights of black queer artists in the academic fields of literary studies, film studies, African-American studies, and lesbian and gay studies, to name a few. Upon an initial glance, the prevailing understanding among black queer artists was that cultural production can be instructive in realms outside of the arts.