Curating Deviance

"Curating Deviance is a historical study of film programming, arguing that queer curatorial practices of American cinemas in 1968-1990 played a key role in creating a queer sexual counterculture. Rather than close-reading films, Francis delves into the archives of repertory schedules and calendars to show how films were placed in conversation with each other-and importantly, how central they were to art house filmgoing culture outside of a LGBTQ self-identifying audience. The curation of depictions of queer and other "deviant" sexualities (such as nonmonogamy, BDSM, interracial desire and fetishism) both pushed against widespread erotophobia and exposes a wider range of socially alienated and stigmatized practices that are often overlooked by an LGBT-focused queer theory. Extending these historical and theoretical paths, Francis looks to rekindle or reorganize queer utopian imaginaries that have at times felt lost or static as queer thought moved from the movie theater to the academy"--