"New Queer Cinema" was a term conceived by B. Ruby Rich in numerous publications, notably Sight & Sound, a British film journal that Jose Arroyo regularly reviews on. The term was to describe the appearance of specific films during the early 1990’s at Sundance Film Festivals that indicated a politicized viewpoint towards queer.
In a 2013 interview conducted by 15min with Arroyo, he states that gays in film have been there since the beginning of film. For example, films of nudes by Eadweard Muybridge during the 1890’s. Since before World War 1, homosexual pornography has already existed, being filmed to be screened in brothels in Paris (Waugh 1996). Although such a culture was a taboo in those years, gays and lesbians have always been existent in cinema, apart from the heavily censored American cinema during that time. Arroyo also indicated that there is a gay culture. For instance, in The Bling Ring (2013) by Sofia Coppola, the film portrays a young boy who has already acknowledged
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This scenario is to depict a common audience perception of gays and their lives. However, the film then dives deeper than that, more than what a gay culture seems to be instead of centering it on booze, sex and drugs. Those weren't even glamorized in the the film. Weekend is more concerned about the ordinary life of gays, which may seem common but definitely not a sight seen by the audience when it comes to gays. For example, the film begins with a bathtub scene, where a man washes up to get ready for the night. This film strings together scenes like this to depict life of gays without the chocolate coating, without the glitz and glamour of what society perceives to be the centre of gay culture. For instance, smoking cigarettes, eating take-out and just plain hanging out. While it may seem mundane and uninteresting, this are the scenes which make up most of the film itself, hence the slow and steady pace of the