Queer Inclusion in Film Stagnates
White gay bit players predominate in cinema representations
BY MATT TRACY
Racial and gender diversity among LGBTQ
characters in Hollywood productions
regressed signifi cantly last year
and queer representation overall remained
stagnant, according to GLAAD’s breakdown
of 118 fi lms from major studios last year.
Compared to some bright spots in TV shows
and documentaries —ranging from “Pose” on
FX to “Disclosure” on Netfl ix, as well as “The
Politician” — annual numbers continue to show
that movies led by major studios are a completely
different story.
While the percentage of LGBTQ-inclusive
fi lms marginally increased from 18.2 percent
to 18.6 percent, that statistic was not an indication
of queer representation across all demographics.
Gay male characters were seen in 58
percent of inclusive fi lms, a 13 percent uptick
from the year before, while lesbian representation
dipped from 55 percent to 36 percent and
bisexual folks saw a one percent drop to 14 percent
in representation. For the third straight
year, there were no transgender characters in
fi lms led by major studios, which included Lionsgate,
Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures,
STX Films, United Artists Releasing, Universal
Pictures, the Walt Disney Studios, and Warner
Bros.
There were some transgender and non-binary
actors in fi lms, such as Trace Lysette in “Hustlers,”
Indya Moore in “Queen & Slim,” and Asia
➤ BLACK CINEMA, from p.18
series “Remington Steele,” St. John was never
able to direct another fi lm.
As different as Bill Duke’s “The Killing
Floor”is from “Emma Mae,” they start with
the same conception of their protagonist: a
naïve young person arrives to a big city from
the South. In this case, Frank Custer (Damien
Leake) comes to Chicago in 1917 to work in its
stockyards. As he relates in an enthusiastic
voice-over — which the fi lm relies on too heavily
— he sees this as an opportunity to live out
his dreams. And that seems possible until the
end of World War I, when white men return en
masse and the Black workers, no longer needed,
are fi red. He then becomes involved in union
organizing.
The fi lm examines the subtle gradations of
American immigrant identity — its Polish-
American characters don’t seem nearly as white
as its Irish-Americans — and how racism has
prevented working-class Americans from uniting
REUTERS/ ANDREW KELLY
dya Moore was among the trans actors who starred in a fi lm but did
not play a trans character.
Kate Dillon in “John Wick 3,” but those movies
did not identify their characters as trans or
non-binary.
Racial diversity among queer characters
continued to plummet, with the percentage of
LGBTQ characters of color dropping from 57
percent in 2017 to 42 percent in 2018 and just
34 percent in 2019. Even those who are counted
in defense of their common interests. Made
for the venerable PBS production company
American Playhouse in 1984, it feels limited by
the made-for-TV budget. It sticks to indoor sets,
with few exteriors.
But “The Killing Floor” devotes careful attention
to this country’s history of unionization,
using Custer as a stand-in for audience members
who don’t know much about the subject.
Leilah Weinraub’s 2018 “Shakedown”
made its streaming premiere on Pornhub in
March before migrating to the Criterion Channel
in May as part of its “Tell Me: Women’s Stories,
Women Filmmakers” series. Those two
worlds are rarely bridged. But “Shakedown” is
a dreamy documentary about a strip club in LA
run by and for queer Black women, not porn.
Although it includes interviews with the owners
and dancers, it’s built around video footage
of nights at the club. The grainy look adds an
immersive texture to the fi lm, showing a world
where Black lesbians’ sexual desire is treated
as the norm and they’re as entitled to make it
CINEMA
within those numbers received very little
screen time: Just four of the 17 LGBTQ characters
of color counted this year received more
than three minutes of screen time, and just one
— Pepe in “Perfect Strangers” — got at least 10
minutes in.
Overall, 66 percent of LGBTQ characters in
fi lms counted in 2019 were white, 22 percent
were Black, eight percent were Latinx, and four
percent were Asian/ Pacifi c Islander.
“The entertainment industry is currently facing
a moment of great change as new content
platforms are launching, the model of business
is being redefi ned under the global pandemic,
and companies are facing a deserved reckoning
of their part in the structural and systemic racism
of the industry, most particularly towards
Black creatives and audiences,” Kate Ellis,
president and CEO of GLAAD, said in a written
statement. “We stand alongside our partners
in the Black Lives Matter movement and other
underrepresented populations to demand that
tomorrow’s stories include all of us.”
Queer characters that did get screentime
last year were barely noticed. GLAAD found
that only nine of the 22 LGBTQ-inclusive fi lms
across eight studios had queer characters that
received 10 minutes of screen time, and the majority
— 56 percent — were on screen for less
than three minutes. The report notes that LGBTQ
characters in fi lms such as “Rocketman”
➤ HOLLYWOOD, continued on p.25
rain as straight men. Indeed, it is a basis for
community.
“Shakedown” is reminiscent of both “Paris Is
Burning” and Derek Jarman’s night-at-a-disco
documentary “Will You Dance with Me?,” but
it’s not an ethnographic explanation. White
men are a structuring absence till the LAPD
starts continually harassing the club. Always
run as an underground operation, it couldn’t
keep going under that pressure. “Shakedown”
makes one wonder if the club’s utopian aspects
could’ve continued if it were a permanent legal
institution.
TOP OF THE HEAP is streaming on Amazon
Prime.
EMMA MAE streams on Amazon with a membership
to its Brown Sugar and can also be seen for
free through Solidarity Cinema at youtube.com/
channel/UCsMe8xHZsJKR_HqDWI7u6tQ.
THE KILLING FLOOR is streaming through fi lmforum.
org.
SHAKEDOWN is streaming through criterionchannel.
com.
GayCityNews.com | July 30 - August 12, 2020 19
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