Todd Haynes and Christine Vachon: Queer Collaborations
Sponsored by the Department of Film and Media Studies and the Sager Series
For more than two decades Academy-Award nominated writer-director Todd Haynes and powerhouse producer Christine Vachon, co-founder of the New York-based Killer Films, have made some of the most artistically innovative and intellectually challenging films in world cinema. Poison (1991), the first feature they made after graduating from Brown, won the Grand Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, launching the wave of American indies known as New Queer Cinema. Haynes’ films with Julianne Moore, Safe (1995) and Far From Heaven (2002), used the traditions of the classic Hollywood women’s picture to look at AIDS, homophobia, and racism. In Velvet Goldmine (1998) and I’m Not There (2007), identity, oppression, and resistance are explored through the prisms of rock music and celebrity culture. The 2011 HBO mini-series Mildred Pierce earned Emmy awards for Kate Winslet and Guy Pearce, with a total of twenty-one nominations. Currently collaborating on Carol, a film adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s classic lesbian love story, The Price of Salt, starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara,the pair will speak individually about queer politics and aesthetics, and about how their collaboration has helped them remain Hollywood outsiders.
All events were held in the Lang Performing Arts Center Cinema and were open the public.
A Citizen-Kane inspired phantasmagoria of queer love and betrayal set in the world of 1970s glam rock. Velvet Goldmine won a special award for Best Artistic Contribution in the main competition of the Cannes Film Festival. Starring Christian Bale, Ewan McGregor, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, and featuring a killer soundtrack including Brian Eno, Bryan Ferry, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Pulp.
Independent Producing: Master Class with Christine Vachon
Tuesday, October 21 - 4:15 PM
Christine Vachon is an Independent Spirit Award and Gotham Award winner who co-founded indie powerhouse Killer Films with partner Pamela Koffler in 1995. Over the past decade and a half, the two have produced some of the most celebrated American indie features including FAR FROM HEAVEN (nominated for four Academy Awards), BOYS DON'T CRY (Academy Award winner), ONE HOUR PHOTO, KIDS, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, HAPPINESS, VELVET GOLDMINE, SAFE, I SHOT ANDY WARHOL, CAMP, SWOON and I’M NOT THERE (Academy Award nominated). In television, Vachon recently executive-produced the Emmy and Golden Globe winning miniseries MILDRED PIERCE for HBO.
Recent work includes: KILL YOUR DARLINGS starring Daniel Radcliffe, directed by John Krokidas, MAGIC MAGIC starring Michael Cera, directed by Sebastian Silva; STILL ALICE directed by Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer starring Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, and Kirsten Stewart and the upcoming CAROL directed by Todd Haynes starring Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Kyle Chandler, and Sarah Paulson.
Talk by Todd Haynes
Tuesday, October 21 - 7:30 PM
One of the most praised and innovative directors in world cinema today, Todd Haynes has been making queer films—formally original work about non-normative identities and sexualities--since high school. Made shortly after graduating from Brown, Superstar: the Karen Carpenter Story became an instant cult classic, and Poison (1991), his first feature film produced by Christine Vachonlaunched the movement known as New Queer Cinema and drew fire from the religious right. In Safe, Far From Heaven, Mildred Pierce and the forthcoming Carol (based on Patricia Highsmith’s lesbian love story The Price of Salt), Haynes, producer Vachon, and stars Julianne Moore, Kate Winslet, and Cate Blanchett bring out the feminist critiques and erotic energies implicit in Hollywood melodramas. Haynes is an Academy Award nominee whose films have won awards at major festivals including Sundance, Cannes, and Venice.
