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Bruce LaBruce: Tender and Transgressive

September 12th, 2022

SEPTEMBER 27 TO OCTOBER 26 AT THE CINÉMATHÈQUE QUÉBÉCOISE

THE MOST IMPORTANT RETROSPECTIVE EVER PRESENTED IN CANADA

Montreal, September 12, 2022From September 27 to October 26, Canadian director Bruce LaBruce will be the focus of a major retrospective at the Cinémathèque québécoise. Entitled BRUCE LABRUCE, TENDER AND TRANSGRESSIVE, the cycle will celebrate the bold and exuberant work of the Toronto filmmaker. Since the 1990s, LaBruce has been making queer and delightful films that leave no one indifferent. Presented in collaboration with the Festival du nouveau cinéma, the program features more than 20 films, including his most recent work, THE AFFAIRS OF LIDIA, which will be part of the official program of the 51st edition of the festival. For the opening of the cycle on September 27, Bruce LaBruce will be at the Cinémathèque to present HUSTLER WHITE, co-directed with Rick Castro. Although celebrated at prestigious festivals, the filmmaker's films are not widely known in the land of the maple leaf. This retrospective - the most important one presented to date in Canada - is therefore the ideal opportunity to discover this essential work.

The filmography of this leading figure of queer cinema spans more than 30 years and includes sulphurous and transgressive feature films, auteur pornos, dramatic comedies, melodramas, horror films, pastiches referring to great works of cinema history... and in some cases, all of these at once! His propositions, which sometimes brought him controversy, bans and vehement criticism, arouse reflection and astonishment at times by their political purpose, at others by their corrosive humor, eroticism and shamelessness. The troublemaker continues to write and direct to fight against conformism. From early features NO SKIN OFF MY ASS and SUPER 8 ½, restored by TIFF from prints held at the Cinémathèque québécoise, to those aimed at audiences 13 and up like GERONTOPHILIA (Grand Prix Focus for Best Feature Film at the FNC 2013) or SAINT-NARCISSE, both produced in Quebec, the Cinémathèque québécoise will present a total of 26 productions by Bruce LaBruce, including some pornographic works shot for the Erika Lust Studio that have rarely been shown on the big screen, as well as a carte blanche.

"Bruce LaBruce is a gay non-conformist. He is tender because he is a humanist who presents all the facets and outrages of love, and he is transgressive, having always stood against dogma and sexual conservatism. He does not try to please everyone. LaBruce is also an ardent cinephile, with each of his films referencing the history of the 7th art, from Billy Wilder to Federico Fellini to Robert Altman and Francis Mankiewicz. By presenting this almost complete collection of LaBruce's work, whose films are not all easily accessible, we wanted to highlight a coherent career path, an atypical approach and a strong signature," says Marco de Blois, programmer-curator at the Cinémathèque québécoise.

Filmgoers will have a month to discover a different kind of work, often explicit, sometimes disturbing, but oh so striking!

Bruce LaBruce: Tender and Transgressive
From September 27 to October 26, 2022 at the Cinémathèque québécoise
Presented in collaboration with the Festival du nouveau cinéma

Tickets on sale now at cinematheque.qc.ca