Filmmaking Has Experienced a Series

Filmmaking has experienced a series of advancements with time and to this day countless movies have been made on nearly every possible theme that one can think of. One of the most controversial topics involved in filmmaking is queer cinema, with its rebellious methods of condemning the heterosexual film business and the heterosexual society. Despite the fact that queer cinema has recently turned into a commercial product, filmmakers such as Gregg Araki have proved that its true concept has not been affected among its true followers.

During the early ages of film, directors and producers had only based their movies of conventional stories that did not involve any eccentric acts. As the film business evolved, though, filmmakers started be more confident in their powers and reached the conclusion that movies could be done on any topic. Moreover, movies could even have topics that would condemn certain communities or certain events in our society.

Queer cinema has emerged as a result of independent filmmakers wanting to express themselves and the people that they represented. The early tendencies were simply to put forward a new method of thinking through movies with open topics. Later movies from the queer cinema started to pay more attention to gay-related subjects. This meant that queer cinema producers initiated a graduate movement to movies that were associated with gay people.

Queer cinema has had some negative effects on certain communities which were actually supposed to receive advantages from it. The fact that white gay men and women promote their communities through queer movies does not mean that all minorities will be seen well after the event. Colored people for example do not benefit from queer cinema, as the business merely refers to the encouraging of gay people and not of people belonging to certain minorities. Moreover, the gay men community benefits more from queer cinema than lesbians most probably due to the fact that men hold the advantage of belonging to a more privileged gender.

Queer cinema has been around for several decades, but, according to B. Ruby Rich, it started to be acknowledged by the worldwide public during the year of 1992. (B. Ruby Rich 164) the year brought several successful queer gay movies for the audience.

Paul Verhoeven's Basic Instinct and Derek Jarman's Edward II opened in New York City. Within days, the prestigious New Directors/New Films Festival had premiered four new 'queer' films: Christopher Munch's the Hours and Times, Tom Kalin's Swoon, Gregg Araki's the Living End and Laurie Lynd's R.S.V.P. (Rich 164)

Gregg Araki is one of the most contentious film directors because of his movies that treat issues which are not easy to accept by any normal audience. Araki is more prominent when in comparison with other queer cinema directors because of his nature. All of his films present life from the point-of-view of people that choose to act differently from the rest of the world. Greg Araki's characters prove to have immoral beliefs and to lead unorthodox lifestyles. Most of the happenings in Araki's movies also take place in the normal life, despite of the expressive deviant sexual behavior pictured in his films.

Apparently, in spite of his contributions to the new queer cinema industry, Araki claims that he is not a gay filmmaker. Furthermore he does not believe that he even played a part in the coming out of queer cinema. The director is not appreciated by the gay community because of his firm refusal of promoting gay beliefs.

Despite being born of Japanese parents, Araki was born in Los Angeles and grew in Santa Barbara where he got a masters degree in film production. He started as a music critic and much of his early job can be seen when viewing his movies and the way that he combines different shots with the right music. (Esther, John 1) the music that he chose to be played in his early movies was mainly composed of punk-related songs which were expressing his personality as a gay director wanting to go up against the normal world.

Subsequent to becoming interested in films, Araki began to study film history and to be fond of movies which were different from the standard ones. (Richard Bartone)

As he made his first movies, Araki gradually developed his nature as a rebellious filmmaker by not having a real stage for his films and by filming in any location regardless to the equipment that he had. His movies proved to be extremely unusual for the public and the action in the movies had been highly exaggerated to the point where a normal viewer would be left confused and revolted somehow.

One of Araki's early films, "The Long Weekend" involved plenty of gay/bisexual material gathered into a creation meant to open the way for the genre. The movie's action revolves around the vain efforts to separate, done by three couples which chose to do so because of their abnormal sexual behavior. The movie quickly raised critiques after it has been issued, and, apparently, the gay public did not seem very fond of it either.

Araki's first accomplishment came with the screening of "The Living End," a movie released in 1991 along with several gay-related movies. Because of the plain timing coincidence, critics labeled Araki as being part of the new queer cinema directors. (Bartone) the movie is yet another of Araki's controversial works of art and it is based on the love story of two aids-infected young men that come from different backgrounds. Across the film, the two have to face a society that hates them, and, in addition, they have to fight their own scruples. Araki supposedly wished to present the world with a new view of gay people.

The critics did not have time to rest after Araki presented "The Living End," as the eccentric director provided more material for the audience to analyze. This time, he decided to issue three movies which would reproduce the typical events in the lives of teenagers as seen from Araki's point-of-view. "Totally F**ed up" was issued in 1993, followed shortly by the "The Doom Generation" in 1994 and ending with "Nowhere" in 1997. The films received a lot of critiques and most of the reviewers felt that Araki had a negative approach when making the movies. (Bartone) Counter to what critics might say, the movies in fact leave the viewers with an image of teenagers being certain that true love does exist. However, Araki's characteristic touch turns most of the love stories in his movies into tragedies with the characters failing from reaching their ideals. All movies have a large amount of vivid colors present in them, which, most probably, is used in order to give an unreal touch to the stories.

Araki's "Nowhere" is a combination of teenager deviant behavior at its best and friendly aliens that enjoy a beer at a party when they are not busy kidnapping people. Apart from having a weird outline, the movie is also remarkable due to the fact that it brought Araki into the heterosexual camp with the director falling in love with the actress playing Claire.

The movie's title reflects the outcome of all the events in the movie and refers to all of the actions as being in vain with none of the characters eventually reaching their goal. Similar to the other two movies from the trilogy, "Nowhere" is meant to reproduce normal occurrences from the lives of rebellious teenagers.

The first scene from the movie shows Dark, played by James Duval, showering and fantasizing about several boys and girls, and masturbating. Suddenly, he is interrupted by his mother, played by Beverly D'Angelo, that hurries him out of the shower. Dark's mother is the typical unsatisfied mother raising a delinquent teenager that most probably ended up the way that he did because of her in the first place. Araki presents Dark in the beginning as an unconventional modern teenager daydreaming in an abnormal sexual way.

As he lives in a Los Angeles poverty-stricken part of town, 18-year-old Dark does the usual things that one in his condition would do. Unlike a normal teenager, Dark skips school, gets high on drugs and goes to parties that involve orgies and murders. Araki possibly wanted to show that society has reached an alarming level when considering the occurrences in the life of a teenager.

Starting his day depressed and wanting to change his life, Dark goes through a series of weird and disturbing events. Despite the fact that he and his girlfriend have the same feelings for one another, the relationship between Dark and Mel does not go as he would wish for. Mel confesses to her boyfriend that in spite of the fact that she is in love with him, she feels the urge to sleep with other people also because of the pleasure that the act brings. Along with having Dark as a boyfriend, Mel has a lesbian girlfriend named Lucifer. Lucifer also dislikes the idea that Mel sleeps with other people. Moreover, she hates Dark and will stop at nothing from offending him as they stay together.

Dark does not want just Mel as a girlfriend, as he often dreams about Montgomery, his shy and weird colleague from school. Montgomery is lonely and his only friend is Alyssa, a teenager obsessed about the coming of the end of the world. Alyssa's girlfriends, Dingbat and Egg, are two normal and somewhat shy girls, but her boyfriend is a deranged criminal.

Montgomery might be Dark's only chance at ever finding happiness and Dark is aware of that. However, the conditions present when the two are together prevent them from expressing their feeling towards each-other.

Across the movie, the audience observes that Dark is simply the most down-to-earth person in the whole film. Being passionate about filming, Dark occasionally films his friends and edits the movies that he makes. His passion has no limits as he takes his camera along with him everywhere that he goes. His explication for the act is that he had a premonition telling him that he is going to die soon, and, thus, he wants to tape his death.

Araki just wants to present the teenager world from his point-of-view, but in an attempt to show people that the story is only fictional, he uses several cliches to prove that the depictions are only imagined. Jaason Simmons is used by Araki to play the role of a Baywatch TV star that has had enough of fans that make him feel as if he were a freak. He appears to be very peaceful in "Nowhere" as he becomes friends with Egg and they both go to his house. Later, however, in a typical Araki manner, things go berserk with Simmons beating and then raping Egg's innocent character. Nothing is what it seems to be in Araki's surreal world.

An extraterrestrial being also takes part in the movie (giving more proof that Araki has created a fantasy world) and it occasionally abducts people. The weird thing about the alien is that Dark is the only one that can see it, and, that it does not show any sign of aggression towards him. The fact that the rest of the people cannot see the alien gives further proof that Dark is more realistic than the other characters in the movie. It is also possible that Araki wished to use the alien as an image of the devil which corrupts and transforms people.

During the film all of the characters plan on going to a party at Juicyfruit's where all the important persons are going. The most innocent couple from the movie is made out of Mel's younger brother and his girlfriend, Zoe. Even with their innocence, they also want to go at Juicyfruit's party and become a part of the rest of the group. From the beginning, the two stumble on several problems which prevent them from reaching the party, but eventually they manage to get there with the help of a drug-dealer. Handjob, the drug-dealer, is yet another cliche used by Araki in order to show how innocence can be altered by apparently well-intended people.