Cruising the Movies is a new monthly podcast and screening series at IFC Center in New York from the creators of Ask Any Buddy. In each episode, Elizabeth Purchell and KJ Shepherd take a look at a different film from the fringes of queer cinema history. Through interviews, archival sources, and conversations with filmmakers, critics, and historians, this podcast and screening series will uncover how cinema is inextricable from queer history at large.
Episode 12: Rosa von Praunheim's TRANSEXUAL MENACE
This month on the podcast, Liz and KJ return to the well that is Rosa von Praunheim's vast filmography to take a look at a film that (sadly) has been becoming more and more relevent with each passing day this year: his 1996 documentary TRANSEXUAL MENACE. A companion piece of sorts to his earlier ARMY OF LOVERS OR REVOLT OF THE PERVERTS (1979), the film is a sprawling portrait of America's trans arts and activist movement that features everything from icons like Leslie Feinberg and Virginia Prince to events like the Southern Comfort conference in Atlanta and the Fantasia Fair in Provincetown. We'll be presenting a rare screening of the documentary at IFC Center in New York on Thursday, March 13th at 7pm!
26 Feb 2025
Episode 11: Richard Benner's OUTRAGEOUS!
Hello, welcome—and in the spirit of our neighbors to our north, bonjour bienvenue. In this month’s episode, we discuss a film that almost defies belief: a highly popular and critically acclaimed queer film from the 1970s about a drag queen’s ambitions for stardom and his tumultuous friendship with a mentally ill gal-pal—all produced through a deliberate and infamous loophole in the Canadian tax code. The story, and the film, is truly outrageous.
Liz and KJ spend this episode discussing Richard Benner’s true gem of a film OUTRAGEOUS!, including how it actually made its star Craig Russell an international drag superstar. They dive into the era of Canadian tax shelter films, and discuss why the kinda-genre doesn’t entirely deserve its bad rap. Your hosts also consider the film’s provocative advertising campaign, what made this film take off as the beloved and acclaimed film in its time versus other 70s gay films, and what issues may have kept this from being seen as a key moment in drag and queer film history.
You can catch OUTRAGEOUS! at the IFC Center in Manhattan on Thursday, February 27 at 7PM. If you’re in the New York City metro area, we’d love to see you there!
6 Jan 2025
Episode 10: Gregg Araki's THREE BEWILDERED PEOPLE IN THE NIGHT (1987)
This month on the podcast, Liz and Keegan take a look at queer filmmaker Gregg Araki's first film. You might know it, it's about two HIV+ gay men on the run after killing a cop, who—oh, wait, no it's not THE LIVING END, it's Araki's actual first film, 1987's THREE BEWILDERED PEOPLE IN THE NIGHT. Shot for $5,000 with a crew of one and a wind-up Bolex, this no-budget wonder follows a gay performance artist, his video artist best friend, and her sexually confused photographer boyfriend, who fall into a disorienting bisexual love triangle over the course of a series of long dark nights in the coffee shops and bedrooms of Los(t) Angeles. Rarely screened theatrically and only ever released on VHS in Japan, THREE BEWILDERED PEOPLE IN THE NIGHT is a forgotten landmark of 80s queer cinema and a fascinating origin for one of the most beloved queer filmmakers of the past several decades. We'll be showing it TONIGHT at IFC Center in Manhattan at 7pm — it's the film's very first screening in New York in about a decade, so hope to see you there.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.8 / 5
72 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
48 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 58 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
79
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
92
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