Warhol Film Screening—Queer Performativity

Floor 3, Theater

The infamous social space of Warhol’s Factory—and the dramas that unfolded there—were in fact still marginal within the art world in its time. Homosexual activity was illegal in the 1960s and, in contrast to the strictly heteronormative and repressive outside world, the Factory was a space in which one could both embody and perform queerness. Nothing was deemed an inappropriate subject for the camera’s scrutiny. In Vinyl, amphetamine queens played out S&M fantasies in an adaptation of Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange. The Factory troupe hosted their own queer variety program in Camp, complete with a drag performance from Mario Montez, a unique pantomime from Jack Smith and a dance extravaganza from cult dance legend Paul Swan. In My Hustler, high camp reached its zenith, as an aging john battles his straight female neighbor for the affections of the young stud hustler he hires for the weekend.  If Warhol’s painting and drawing work often necessitated coded queerness, his film was a medium in which he, and his performers, could explore the various aspects of their queer selves.

Films
Camp, 1965
16mm, black-and-white, sound; 67 min. at 24 fps

Vinyl, 1965
16mm, black-and-white, sound; 66 min. at 24 fps

My Hustler, 1965
16mm, black-and-white, sound; 67 min. at 24 fps

Total running time: 200 minutes

Saturday, February 9, 2019
7 pm 

Wednesday, February 13, 2019
2 pm

Tickets are required ($12 adults; $10 members, seniors, students, and visitors with disabilities).  See all screening programs for just $99 with the Warhol Film Package ($89 members, seniors, students, and visitors with disabilities). 

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