But I'm a Cheerleader

Released in 1999, But I’m  a cheerleader is comedy satire that tackles the very sensitive topics of heteronormativity, gender roles, and sexuality. Directed by Jamie Babbit and starting Natasha Lyonne, this film was panned by critics but it still made a modest amount at the box office and has since developed a cult following. This movie is a perfect material to discuss the elements of queer theory.

Queer cinema isn’t something new, it has been existing as a form of avant-garde cinema for years before it was introduced at the Toronto Film Festival 1991 as a concept. This concept t re-examined and reviewed the image of homosexuality. The proliferation of Queer Cinema can be traced to the global epidemic of HIV/AIDS. Gay people were wrongfully accused and stigmatized as the primary cause of the spread of this disease. Due to this queer cinema had become a more marketable commodity. New queer cinema isn’t a single motif or aesthetic but a collection of such that takes pride in their diversity. Be that as it may lesbianism and women don’t get as much representation as their male counterparts. Queer is a blanket term that is used to categorise people who aren’t cis-gendered  or heterosexual.  Although, its partly true, queer theory is much more than that. Queer Theory, creates and understanding and promotes debates on gender and sexuality, branching on the work done by Feminist Theory, and as a critical response to the numerous discourses surrounding AIDS & homosexuality. It also challenges us to think about the labels and stereotypes we have set for the world and question why it is so. Queer theory is totally against arbitrary and heteronormative practices that discriminate and oppress queer people. There are four main approaches when it comes to queer cinema. The first is audience reception. These are queer films made for queer audiences. They are very relatable to queer issues and problems faced by the queer community. The second approach is traditional straight media that appeal to the queer community. Classic movies which display strong female characters and their dominance usually attract queer audiences. The third is when producers and film makers are concerned with representing non-stereotypical queerness. This is a way of them to say that queerness doesn’t have labels. Queerness is not restricted to the archetypes and assumptions that have existed. Lastly the 4^th approach is when movies speak on a much larger scale than mere queerness and sexuality. It questions the reason why we do things in a certain way and what sort of barriers and norms society has placed on us. It challenges heteronormativity and places the question why we don’t allow thing due to arbitrary conventions set by man.

But I’m a cheerleader is the story of Megan a high school cheerleader who is lesbian but doesn’t know it yet. Her friends and family find out and send her to a conversion camp called True Directions that aims to “cure” homosexuality. In here she finds other gays like her in which some are actively trying to “change” and other are there merely to please their parents. This camp teaches the kids that being gay is wrong and enforces gender roles through practice gender activities such as cleaning in an attempt to turn them straight. The movie is about the journey of Megan as she falls in love and comes to accept her sexuality and eventually gets her parents support as well.

This movie actually uses a combination of approaches. Namely approach number 3 and approach number 4, We can see that Megan is portrayed as a stereotypical  blonde cheerleader who is in a  relationship with a boy. In actuality she’s actually a lesbian and this representation is meant to shed light on the fact the queer people exist in all shapes and forms. This point is further emphasized at the conversion camp where you had the stereotypical representation of gay people and also the non-stereotypical ones, further driving the point that gays can exists without labels.  These aspects are in line with approach 3 as in it challenges heteronormativity. The other part that this films bring in to question is the assigned gender roles and how men and women should be in society. This is frequently brought up as the adults in this movie keep reinforcing gender stereotypes ion the queer kids. For example, the girls at the True Directions camp are forced to undergo seemingly womanly activities such as cleaning and cooking. This enforces and unnecessary stereotype that all women are good for is housework and tending to men which is obviously far from the truth. Another thing this movie brings to light is the seemingly unprecedented taboo of being queer. Megan’s entire community started to shun her and took it upon their hands to set her on a straight path as if her being herself is somewhat of a crime. The concept that people can love someone of the same gender is so taboo and out of place they feel the need to impose their backward and outdated views on them. This was shown with the number of enrolled kids at the conversion camp.  This film advocates that people can be themselves and should be truthful to what they are and this is illustrated in the final scene where Graham ditched the graduation to be with Megan. This is what approach 4 is all about. Challenging so called societal norms and stigmas that have been ludicrously put in by arbitrary conventions.

Queer Theory is a very important aspect of life as it helps us understands oppression and look at the world beyond ourselves. This seeping of reality into film produced new queer cinema which brings light upon these under represented issues because what better way to make a statement than through film.

Clueless

Starring Alicia Silverstone , Paul Rudd, Birttany Murphy, and Stacey Dash, Clueless is a 2005 movie written and directed by Amy Heckerling. It’s a coming of age romantic comedy that feature mainly around the kids that go to Bronson Alcott high school. Grossing  $56.1 million in the box office, this critically acclaimed movie went on to develop a cult following and is still as popular as ever. This movie is a great feminist film as it portrays women as people with supreme independence.

Feminism’s origin can be traced back to the  1920s and it looked at women subjectivity through their own expression. Feminism basically can be boiled down to the analyses of the social or historical position of women.  Throughout history, women were often subordinates, subjugated, oppressed by the dominant patriarchy. This movements aims to dismantle this regime.   Feminist film theory grew in prominence in 1960s due to a more radical and upfront feminist movement that focused on sexual liberation female representation. Some themes that are explored is stereotyping,  objectification, oppression, and patriarchy. The Gaze is a concept introduced by Laura Mulvey which basically says that, film regards the female character as an exhibitionist that people would want to look at. They are a symbol of eroticism and visual pleasure. The Gaze originates from viewers particularly male who wish relate with the on screen male actor and his interaction with the female. Mulvey claims that cinema is a form of voyeurism  and that there are 3 ways of looking at things Male character looking at the female character in the film, audience in cinema looking at the female character in the film, and audience in cinema looking through the eyes of the male character who is looking at the female

character. There are several ways we can look at feminism in film, first we can assume predetermined roles and identities set for women by the patriarchy and see how the film challenges those. Then we can look at the various female characters represented in the films  and finally select a preferred representation. Lastly, look at the female representation from a female perspective.

Clueless entails the story of the Cher Horowitz and her best friend Dionne Davenport as they navigate high school as the super popular and highly fashionable students. To see herself pass her classes Cher sets up her 2 teachers to fall in love and likes the thought of helping people and begins to take freshman Tai Fraser under her wing. Mocked by her ex step brother, Josh for her selfishness and fake altruism  Cher eventually falls for him and decides to do some real good by running a donation drive for a disaster relief.  They eventually confess their feelings for each other and kiss.

The approach we are using to analyse this movie is approach 2 which is discussing the individual female characters present in this film. Let’s first start with Cher Horowitz, who is pretty and popular. She loves shopping and is extremely fashionable. She is super confident and uses here words to get her way. She argues her way out of tricky situations and uses it to get whatever she wants for example, her grades. She’s also a blonde and blondes are stereotypically portrayed as dumb. However, Cher is shown to be extremely intelligent in her own way although she initially is shown to be kind of an airhead. Cher is also shown to be altruistic as she wants to help the people around her. Cher also chooses to change her life around from caring only when it benefits her, to caring unconditionally. This is important as Cher’s character breaks many stereotypes and the element of choice is very clear and is left up to her. Choice is a very important aspect of feminism. Next up is Dionne Davenport who like Cher, is very pretty, confident, and popular. She’s very adventurous in fashion and doesn’t care what anyone thinks. She’s is also very bossy with her boyfriend and often wants him to listen to her. This is stark contrast to what the patriarchy normally expects of women. Besides that, she also control the sex life of the couple, only having done lighter stuff and then moving on to full blown sex only when she wants. This element of choice is very important for Dionne and the movie in regards to feminism. 

 The next character we are going to dissect is Tai Fraser who is brunette. Brunettes are usually portrayed as the brains of the movie however Tai is very dumb and clueless. She was very timid in nature until Cher built her confidence. She got so confident to a point she chose to isolate Cher and then chooses to get back with her. She chose what she wanted to do with her relationships. Lastly on the list is Amber who is kind of Cher’s rival per se. She’s a redhead who is also very pretty. She’s is also very confident and always challenges Cher when ever she doesn’t agree with her although the rest of the class doesn’t. she also chooses to wear whatever she wants even though she is constantly chastised for it by Cher. The movie successfully quashes certain stereotypes about women and reinforces the concept of choice and shows that women can do whatever they put their minds to.

Feminism is a very important movement that has shaped our present world the way it is today. It has shaped things from government legislations to film which are a reflection of society. Feminism in film is what all the women centric roles we see in Hollywood today. Although many strides have been made, however we still have a long way to before we have proper representation in film but I believe we are on the right track.

Quarantine

Quarantine a 2008 remake of the Spanish film REC. It features the cast of, Jennifer Carpenter, Jay Hernandez, Columbus Short, Greg Germann, Steve Harris, Dania Ramirez, Rade Sherbedgia, and Johnathon Schaech. It’s a found footage horror film that is shot like a documentary. This movie was critical and commercial success by earning $ 41.3 million in the box office. This film is a made in a mockumentary approach which is a subdivision of the documentary style.

A documentary is filmed events which are generally not staged. Documentaries are generally non-fiction films. They provide a more authentic outlook to the story. Documentaries are rather hard to classify as they are a type of filmmaking. Bill Nichols however proposed a theory whereby we look at documentaries by focusing on the techniques employed by the film maker. He came up with 6 modes of representation; poetic, expository, observational, interactive, reflexive, and performative. Poetic documentaries focus on experiences, images and showing the audience the world through a different set of eyes namely the film makers. Abstract and loose with narrative, a poetic documentary can be very unconventional and experimental in form and content. This type of film stressed on the mode and tone  and is a way of representing reality via a series of fragmented visuals and subjective representations. Ambiguity is a prominent feature in these films. The ultimate goal is to create a feeling rather than a truth. The second type is called the expository documentary. This style utilizes the voice of god commentary. A disembodied narrator imparts information, facts, and figures. Films like this address the viewer directly with visible imagery and unseen information through voiceover. Next is the observational documentary, which true to its name is all about observation. No intervention by the film maker is present beside for the fact of recording the whole thing. Everything from sound to visuals are recorded from what’s available. 

The aim of this type of documentary is to have an overall effect of neutrality and non-judgemental appeal. Interactive documentary, is a subdivision where the film maker makes their presence known to the viewing audience. This is usually done by interviewing people present in the scene. The film makers power over the documentary and their ability to control the narrative is clearly exhibited. Reflexive documentaries are a style whereby the film making techniques are exposed to the audiences. This is to create a situation where the documentary’s means of revealing the truth is challenged as the techniques employed for representations are shown. These films inform and remind audiences that besides watching a certain issue they are above all watching a film that attempts to present reality. Lastly, performative documentary is when indirect method of representing reality are employed. Reenactment is such an example. This is used to evoke a more emotional and empathetic and also question the integrity of said film. Overall objectivity is compromised in  favour of projecting a perceived reality.

 Quarantine entails the story of  reporter Angela Vidal and her cameraman Scott, as they are tasked to follow fire fighters on the daily routine. Things start to go haywire as the firemen are dispatched to an apartment building where a call is received about an old lady. The old soon attacks the fire men and is soon revealed that there is a rabies like virus that zombiefies  spreading and infecting the people present in the apartment. Cut off from the outside world by the authorities, the occupants must figure a way out. Slowly as the movie progresses everyone is eventually turned into a zombie.

Quarantine is a bona fide mockumentary. This means that it is a fictional film that is shot in a style that you’re average documentary would be in. It has the few of the approaches used in documentary film making. The first being, interactive. The supposed film maker in this movie, Angela interacts heavily with her interviewees. She follows them around asks questions about their lives and is even present in most of the shots. And later when she gets trapped in the apartment, she becomes on of the main survivors who attempt to find an exit. Secondly, this film also employs observational approach and this can be seen when  Angela and Scott secretly filmed the CDC personnel drilling the skulls of the infected. This is observational as the film makers didn’t intervene and merely recorded events as they unfolded on their own. The performative representation. This is highlighted in the aspect that this fictional story was set up and filmed in a documentary way. The events did not happen and were staged to give the desired feel of a found footage film. In essence, the film makers were not trying to tell you the truth, but trying to give you an idea of it. Lastly, this film also employs the reflective representation. In this approach, the film makers are constantly making it obvious that the audiences are watching a film. They do this by highlighting techniques used to break the illusion. For example, when they were interviewing the fire men, the told them that they could edit out and cut certain voice recordings. The host also constantly reminded the cameraman to constantly record the events unfolding. And Scott also informed out loud that he was turning on the night vision to enable them to see in the dark.

In conclusion, documentary film making is very  interesting art form that bring attention onto much disregarded issues by the masses. It’s a form of activism that often fights for the voiceless. In the evolution of the modern era, mockumentaries have become popular and is done by many film makers. Its is interesting to see what other genres will coopt this mockumentary style to tell their stories.