The document discusses the 2013 film Blue is the Warmest Color, which tells the story of a lesbian relationship. It won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2013. There is discussion around the male gaze in filmmaking and how the sexually explicit scenes in the film were directed from this perspective rather than an authentic lesbian point of view. The document also questions what queer and LGBT audiences want from films representing their communities and how new technologies may help advance queer cinema.

1. Blue is the
Warmest Color
A discussion

2. The film
 Graphic Novel origins
 Written by an actual lesbian, woah.
 What was the film about?
 Story of growing up, falling in/out of love
 Also, that gay stuff!
 Actresses
 Adele – Adele Exarchopoulos
 Emma – Lea Seydoux
 Director – Abdellatif Kechiche
 Cannes/accolades
 Palme d’Or at Cannes 2013

3. What’s the male gaze?
 Women are typically the objects in films because
heterosexual men, who make the bulk of films, have
power (phrase coined by Laura Mulvey, 1975)
 This affects the shots of the film, content, etc.
Everything.
 “The camera here can be understood as an
extension of the male eye”
 “Looking – which might be considered a relatively
neutral activity – actually carries with it relations of
power, access, and control”
 What are some of examples of this in other media
you watch?
Quotes from Suzanna Waters, Visual Pressures

4. Let’s talk about THAT
scene (aka, The Sex)

5. Why is everyone talking
about The Sex?
 NC-17 Rating
 No better way to promote something than by
banning it
 Taboo/other-ness sex
 Artist disputes – is the director a jerk?
 The search for authenticity
 Hearing a lot of terms like “real lesbians”
 Why the hell are we still talking about this?
NYTimes article (written by a man, FYI)

6. It comes back
to the male
gaze
 “Not only do men as a gender have the
institutional power to control the actual
production of culture and cultural images, but
they also have the ideological power to control
the form and content of the images themselves”
 A film about a queer relationship that is made by
people who are not queer – they’re going to get
things wrong
 Lesbians, the final frontier!
 And whether purposefully or not, this exerts
power over a group that is already marginalized
Quotes from Suzanna Waters, Visual Pressures

7. Queer/LGBT film
 What do “we” want in a film?
 Just who are we? Queer, lesbians, people of color,
really good dancers -- just a few examples
 How would we describe “our” audience?
 Why is this important?

8. What’s next for queer film?
 Is this our Brokeback Mountain moment?
 “Everyone called it 'The Gay Cowboy Movie.' Until
they saw it. In the end, Ang Lee's 2005 love story
wasn't gay or straight, just human.” EWeekly
 Rise of online video/streaming/distribution
 Netflix/Youtube/Indie Distributors
 Technology makes film accessible

9. Fin
Questions? Comments?