‘An Outsider Amongst Outsiders’- Bruce LaBruce

He is a pioneer of Nu Queer Cinema, an internationally acclaimed filmmaker, photographer, writer, and artist and he spoke with us about his new movie and the definition of ‘taboo’.

By Riem Higazi

I remember being about 15 or 16 and in a cafe in downtown Toronto and leafing through some magazines that were laying around at this hip little place (that was downtown so seemed a world away from the suburban part of town where I lived) and that is when I first stumbled across Bruce LaBruce.

I remember being intrigued by his name alone and back then, when I started to discover the now internationally acclaimed filmmaker, photographer, writer, and artist based in Toronto, I was more than intrigued, I was grateful that there was such a thing as underground art.

Bruce and his friend G. B Jones published a queer punk zine called J.D.’s in Toronto which ran for eight issues from 1985 to 1991. This was the zine I happened upon at that downtown café - my introduction to a filmmaker and artist who has been challenging the mainstream and the definition of taboo since.

His new film, Saint-Narcisse, is making the festival rounds, it premiered in Venice and got rave reviews. It hasn’t arrived in Austria yet but was shown in Munich just last week and also in Berlin though... as soon as it gets to Austria, I’ll let you know.

The movie is just his latest of internationally acclaimed films, the most famous probably being up until now “Gerontophilia” which won the Grand Prix at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal in 2013, and then there was “Pierrot Lunaire” which won the Teddy Award Special Jury Prize at the Berlinale in 2014.

Pushing the envelope is what Bruce LaBruce has made into a literal artform. He has absolutely paved his own way own in cultural fusion, blending hardcore pornography with arthouse tradition, creating a body of work that represents a director, an artists ‘at the margins of the margin’ — he said that himself when I got a chance to speak with him.

Bruce LaBruce was and to a large part remains a guerrilla filmmaking hero, a queer porn pioneer, he is definitely a bloody good conversationalist - you can hear my conversation with Bruce LaBruce here.

PS. When we meet in real life, we shall be hugging.