A Thought about Leni Riefenstahl, Maya Deren, and Gay and Lesbian Film

Schulman, Sarah, Millennium Film Journal

I was recently working on a syllabus for a course at the City University of New York Graduate Center on Gay and Lesbian Experimental Film from Edison to Haynes. After making my selections, I decided to watch them all in chronological order to see what was revealed.

I began with Dickson Experimental Sound Film, an 1895 short of two men dancing. This product of the Edison empire is a romantic evocative film, entirely unaware of the meaning it would have for a gay viewer. Then I watched Watson and Webber's Fall of the House of Usher (1928), a deliberately Gothic work about the power of forbidden sexuality to distort form as well as character. The men in Dickson had nothing to hide, …

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Publication information: Article title: A Thought about Leni Riefenstahl, Maya Deren, and Gay and Lesbian Film. Contributors: Schulman, Sarah - Author. Journal title: Millennium Film Journal. Issue: 41 Publication date: Fall 2003. Page number: 45+. © Millennium Film Workshop Inc. Fall 2006. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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