Queering Storytelling: Challenging Normative Storytelling Methodology and Building a Queer Approach

As representations of queer people on screen grow, so too has the violence for queer folks at the margins. This project looks at four films that cover key moments in LGBTQ history to see how filmmaking methodologies and choices can further the harms of institutional violence. Key themes include homonormative and assimilationist representations in film, the formation of a reductive cultural memory of queer politics, and the obscuring of the global crises of AIDS. Through an analysis of these films, I argue for the formation of queer documentary methodologies that are grounded in the ideas put forward by queer theorists and activists. My documentary, When You Ask Me About the Memories, seeks to put these theories into practice and discusses the role of grief in queer memories.