Gay Cinema In The 90's

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 12th grade February 2008

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Introduction film, like other art forms, is a work of an artist, and the artist is a result of the era, culture geographical location and social background in which he was brought up.

In that sense, even if a film breaks social conventions, portrays the future or depicts a period in the past, it is still a product of the era in which it was made.

By watching films and looking at the social- historical background from which they emerged, we can see how social- historical developments within society are reflected in those films.

One of the more significant social- political developments that have been happening in the last decade is the acceptance of gays and lesbians, as socially and politically equal.

Within this essay, I will aim to explain how the progress of social and political acceptance of gay and lesbians as equals in our society can be seen in three films that were made in the last decade.

Gay and lesbians has been working behind and in front of the camera since the very beginning of cinema, but only in the recent decade we can see quiet a big number of gay films, films that were made by gay people and for gay audience.

The Second World War is the event that is usually noted by historians of homosexuality to be a crucial point in the widespread of homosexual identities.

? The war involved mass mobilization, throwing men together with men in the military and women together with women in both the military and on the home front? (Dyer 1990:111). This situation created conditions in which both men and women could discover their homosexuality and experience it.

Since the 1940?s many productions of gay and lesbian films started to bloom.

Those productions were all underground and were recognized...