Robert Mills (KCL) - 2017-18 Students
Robert.mills@kcl.ac.uk

New Queer Citizenship: Queer Cinema as Direct Activism, 1985 – 1996

My project will explore the intersection between queer cinema and direct activism throughout the North American AIDS epidemic, specifically interested in how queer film of the late 1980s/1990s reproduced and redeployed demonstrative activist strategies, constituted counterpublics, and mobilised spectators. I will expand upon assertions that cinema was an active site of contestation in the fight against restrictive AIDS discourse in the United States, using an analytical approach predicated on the changing social and historical contexts of these films in order to offer new insights as to how film was utilised as an activist tool during a time of cultural/political convergence.