Spanish Queer Cinema - Tapa dura

This title examines filmmaking, festivals, queer lives and cultures in Spain since 1998. Since the Catalan government passed the first of Spain's regional governmental laws on same-sex partnership in 1998, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and queer culture in Spain has thrived. Spanish Queer Cinema assesses the impact of this significant cultural expression on Spanish Cinema and evaluates the role LGBTQ film has had in creating and shaping identity and experience. Focusing on films from 1998 to the present day, Chris Perriam skilfully analyses the development of LGBTQ filmmaking and filmwatching in Spain and places this within the wider cultural context. Covering lesbian cinema, gay and queer documentaries and short films, as well as mainstream features, the book investigates how these films are distributed and how audiences react to them. An informative and thought-provoking book, Spanish Queer Cinema is an essential read for students and scholars working in the fields of Film Studies, Spanish Studies and Cultural Studies. It clarifies the issue of what 'queer' can signify in Spanish contexts and privileges non-'gay' cultural production. It takes full account of lesbian film culture in Spain. It covers short and documentary film production as well as commercially-pitched feature films. It makes extensive use of social networking sites and the popular LGBT press to gauge response. It devotes space to the closely related cultural industries of popular fiction and its sales and distribution, and to the relations of script to screen.

Chris Perriam is Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Manchester.