2025 Capilano Universe Lecture: Brian Ganter – Breaking Out of the Frame: Early Queer Cinema, 1894-1933

Event Description

This talk covers the origins of what today we call “Queer Cinema” and touches on the creative contributions of the actors, writers, directors and audiences that shaped its early years. We will primarily look at films which predated the Hollywood “code”: a coercive set of rating and censorship guidelines implemented in the U.S. by government and church authorities in 1930-34. This rating code introduced a new era of repression of non-normative and non-traditional sexual identities on screen. Early “pre-code” films, therefore, offer us a glimpse into both the real-life struggles and the on-screen lives of 2SLGBTQIA+ folks from the streets to the screen.

To attend the event virtually, please join us via this Zoom link: https://capu.zoom.us/j/62740217285?pwd=WxcQpV8x8k8kgD6hHjbs72FoGBbW5i.1

This event is part of the Capilano Universe free lecture series. To learn more, go to: capilanoU.ca/universe

Event Partner

About the speaker: Brian Ganter (they/them) is a Faculty member at Capilano University. They teach in the Departments of English, Film Studies, and Women and Gender Studies. His research is in critical theory, digital literature, 21st century literatures, Marxism and cultural studies. He is currently working on a documentary on Vancouver community and sex worker activist Jamie Lee Hamilton, the first transgender person to run for political office in Canada.

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