Killer Films 30th Anniversary
Forged in tandem with the New Queer Cinema of the early nineties, the nascent Killer Films weathered controversy for such bold, unabashedly gay films as Todd Haynes’s “Poison” (1991). Today, the production company’s titles—“Carol” (2015), “First Reformed” (2017), and “Past Lives” (2023) among them—are more likely to attract Oscars consideration. But founding producers Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler have retained their fierce independence and taste for subversion—a rare feat, and one worth celebrating. In keeping with the company’s LGBTQI+ roots, this selection brings together three of those seminal early works, including “Poison,” with the 2014 documentary “Mala Mala.”
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Swoon
Directed by Tom Kalin | 94 mins | 1992
Tom Kalin’s coruscating debut returns to the scene of the infamous Leopold and Loeb murder case, likewise a key inspiration for Hitchcock’s Rope, but in this telling the unspoken homosexual undercurrent of the crime is put boldly front and center. A heavily ... -
Poison
Directed by Todd Haynes | 85 mins | 1991
With his first feature, Haynes took his influence from the patron saint of all queer outlaw art, the French writer and director Jean Genet. The result, a landmark of New Queer Cinema, was a trio of intercut, stylistically distinct stories drawn together by... -
Postcards from America
Directed by Steve McLean | 87 mins | 1994
Based on the autobiographical writings of David Wojnarowicz and coming hot on the heels of the firebrand artist-activist’s death from AIDS in 1992, Steve McLean’s feature debut remains an underseen landmark of New Queer Cinema. Interwoven are fictionalize... -
Mala Mala
Directed by Antonio Santini | 90 mins | 2014
With nods to "Paris Is Burning" and the films of Pedro Almodóvar, directors Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles craft a bold and richly affecting document of what it means to be transgender in twenty-first century Puerto Rico. Through the personal journeys...
