The Queer Reveries of
James Bidgood

A film by Wolfgang Hastert | 2000

Germany
en
en
31'

The Queer Reveries of James Bidgood

Trailer

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Synopsis

In 1971, a small revolution shook up New York's independent cinema: released anonymously, Pink Narcissus straightforwardly depicts the gay fantasies of a young, sensual Narcissus, filmed in technicolor in a perfect kitsch setting. Quickly become a cult and long shrouded in an aura of mystery - it was sometimes attributed to Andy Warhol, sometimes to Kenneth Anger - this masterpiece, shot on Super 8 film over a seven-year period in a small New York apartment, was reclaimed thirty years later by James Bidgood. A pioneer of the LGBTQ cause, the American photographer and filmmaker born in 1933 influenced a whole generation of photographers with his dreamlike, flamboyant stagings, including Pierre et Gilles and David Lachapelle. This documentary by Wolfgang Hastert takes us into the world of this little-known genius of queer visual culture, who died in poverty in 2022 at the age of 88.

What you will find in this film

A pioneer of queer cinema • the art of portraiture and staging • the visual language that influenced Pierre et Gilles and David Lachapelle • an orgy of color • kitsch and romantic homoerotic reveries • the end of hyper-masculinized nudes • a nod to censorship - some politically incorrect - the genesis of the film Pink Narcissus

Keywords

Nude & Erotism Portrait & Aesthetics Experimental & Alternative Photography History of Photography

I got tired of seeing boys into the posing straps. I thought there should be a little more going on. I had this idea in my head of someone swimming through a wonderland of chiffons, weeds and ostrich plumes, like an Esther William kind of thing.

James Bidgood Photographer

I never thought there was that much about photography that was so complicated. You see what you get. That’s just it. So if you look through a hole and you see the pictures, what’s so hard about that ?

James Bidgood Photographer

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The authors/artists

Wolfgang Hastert

Further exploration

• BIDGOOD, JAMES BIDGOOD ; Bruce Benderson ; Taschen ; 1999

https://archive.org/details/PinkNarcissus
https://www.artsy.net/artist/james-bidgood