HOMO HUMOUR
Homo Humour: Gay Male Artist Moving Image curated by Lee Campbell explores the history of comedy as a queer identity defence, a means of expression and storytelling and the subversive and surprising ways that humour can be used on screen. Homo Humour responds to the growing interest in LGBTQ+ folk using film and moving image to tell their stories by focusing purely on humour. Whilst the concept of humour helping LGBTQ+ people is an interesting (and vital) world to explore, this event seeks to also engage wider groups of artists, academics and students interested in film and/or the study of humour. We also invite health/inclusion/wellbeing practitioners who are interested in how comedic storytelling may encourage people’s understanding of LGBTQ+ communities.
Homo Humour was first presented at Edgezones gallery in Miami in January 2020 and then at Sardinia Pride/Queeresima in June 2020. This year, the showreel has already been screened at The Bridge House Theatre, London, Metal, Southend-on-Sea and FRISE Kunstlerhaus, Hamburg, Germany, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool bringing together emerging and established gay male artists/independent filmmakers for the first time from all over the world including Marcel Barelli, Jordan McKenzie, Hamid Waheed, Steve Reinke, Ernesto Sarezale, Harold Offeh, John Walter and Wrik Mead.
Lee presented a talk about Homo Humour at the conference Queer Pedagogies organised by the Queer-Feminist Interdisciplinary Working Group at The European University Institute in Florence at the end of May 2022.
Looking forward to presenting aspects of my @ResearchUAL @CCWResearch funded curatorial short film project 'Homo Humour' @Untold_LGBTQ at University of Surrey (where I used to work years ago) on July 22. Free registration. Details here: https://untoldlgbtqtales.wordpress.com
To extend ideas in Lee's film The Tale of Benny Harris (2022), a film written entirely in Polari (gay slang), visitors to the Homo Humour screening can also take part in
Polari writing workshop given by Lee.
At the start of the workshop, Lee explains how his interest in Polari was triggered when he attended a Polari-writing workshop in Manchester several years ago where he was encouraged to write his own Polari phrases and how this led to the eventual development of a poem he wrote called The Tale of Benny Harris. Participants are then given printed out copies of a Polari dictionary which Lee uses as a basis for discussion including identifying Polari words that they may already be using. Lee then invites participants to write their own rhyming Polari poems and then, invites participants to speak their poems out aloud for everyone to enjoy.
Below are images of Lee giving the workshop at Wimbledon College of Arts Library, University of the Arts London in March 2022. You can also watch an interview with Lee for KMTV (local Kent television) about his Polari film when it was screened as part of Lee's solo exhibition Bona Polari! at The Margate School in February 2022 to coincide with LGBT History Month (click below to play)
Curator (Lee Campbell) and filmmaker discussion (watch below) in 2020
with Peter Bond
***** PREVIOUS SCREENINGS ****
Homo Humour at Brewery Tap Project Space, Folkestone, U.K in February 2023
#folkestone #kent #folkestonepride #shortfilm #indiefilm #LGBTHM23 #queerfilmmakers #LGBTHM #queerfilm #queerfilmmakers
Homo Humour at Northumbria University in November 2022
Films by emerging and established gay male artists/independent filmmakers from all over the world including Marcel Barelli, Jordan McKenzie, Hamid Waheed, Steve Reinke, Ernesto Sarezale, John Walter and Wrik Mead.
Next stop is Centre for Comedy Studies, Brunel University February 2023 chaired by Stefan Moos
#queerwriting #movingimage #queerness #humour #film #videoart #artistfilm #queerhumour #gaycomedy #curator #curating #queerfilm #queerfilmmaker #queercinema #shortfilm
Great screening of my Homo Humour showreel followed by discussion between me and Greg Thorpe at Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool https://openeye.org.uk/whatson/homo-humour-film-screening-qa/
#liverpool #openeyegallery #queerwriting #movingimage #queerness #humour #film #videoart #artistfilm #curating #queerfilm #queerfilmmaker
Me in discussion with Greg Thorpe
Steve Reinke COREY (1994)
Lee Campbell RUFUS (2021)
Lee Campbell
LET RIP: THE BEAUTIFUL GAME (2020)
Lee Campbell
THE TALE OF BENNY HARRIS (2022)
Marcel Barelli
DANS LA NATURE (IN NATURE) (2021)
Jordan McKenzie
MONSIEUR POO-POURRI TAKES A TOUR OF HIS ESTATE,
Bethnal Green, LONDON
(2010)
John Walter
Courtship Disorder (2015)
Ernesto Sarezale
2020: LOCKDOWN EROTICA (2021)
Wrik Mead
HOW TO CLEAN YOUR CLOSET (2020)
HOMO HUMOUR screens at FRISE, Hamburg including discussion with Stefan Moos
Thank you Frise Künstlerhaus for screening my curatorial project Homo Humour - queer male artist moving image in Hamburg (27/03/22) - wonderful atmosphere, great discussion with Stefan Moos and thanks to Eske Schlüters for inviting me and and making this happen, finally after lockdown. Great also seeing Stefan Canham after so many years after All For Show (another curatorial project I created 2005-7) which screened in Hamburg. Next stop for the project: Liverpool
Me in discussion with Stefan Moos
Steve Reinke COREY (1994)
Steve Reinke COREY (1994)
Steve Reinke COREY (1994)
Lee Campbell
RUFUS (2021)
Marcel Barelli
DANS LA NATURE (IN NATURE) (2021)
Marcel Barelli
DANS LA NATURE (IN NATURE) (2021)
Jordan McKenzie
MONSIEUR POO-POURRI TAKES A TOUR OF HIS ESTATE,
Bethnal Green, LONDON
(2010)
Jordan McKenzie
MONSIEUR POO-POURRI TAKES A TOUR OF HIS ESTATE,
Bethnal Green, LONDON
(2010)
Jordan McKenzie
MONSIEUR POO-POURRI TAKES A TOUR OF HIS ESTATE,
Bethnal Green, LONDON
(2010)
LOUNGING (After Teddy Pendergrass, 1981) (2018)
Hamid Waheed
I WANNA WRITE YOU LOVE SONGS (2017)
John Walter
Courtship Disorder (2015)
John Walter
Courtship Disorder (2015)
Courtship Disorder (2015)
2020: LOCKDOWN EROTICA (2021)
Wrik Mead
HOW TO CLEAN YOUR CLOSET (2020)
Wrik Mead
HOW TO CLEAN YOUR CLOSET (2020)
SCREENING at THE BRIDGE HOUSE THEATRE, LONDON IN FEBRUARY 2022
Me, Kate Jessop and Liberty Antonia Sadler (discussion chair) at yesterday’s LGBT Film Screenings I curated with Deb Espect at The Bridge House Theatre, London. Deb curated The Funny Side of Lesbianism and I curated Homo Humour #movingimage #queerness #homosexuality #humour #film #videoart #artistfilm #gayhumour #queerhumour #gaycomedy #curator #curating #queerfilm #queerfilmmaker #queercinema #shortfilm
SCREENING at METAL, SOUTHEND-ON-SEA IN FEBRUARY 2022
An evening of short comedy films marking February 2022’s LGBT History Month, followed by a Q&A. Curated by Lee Campbell and Deborah Espect
*
SCREENING at QUEERESIMA (ITALY) IN JUNE 2020
'We were THRILLED to have you and Homo Humour on our platform! Your curation was impeccable, the movies were great and you hosted a brilliant Q&A which was one of the highlights of Queeresima. And we got to discover so many new talents!'
Giorgio Simbula, Queeresima/USNexpo Sardinia Queer Short Film Festival 2020
Queerguru.com promotion:
** FIRST SCREENING **
As part of PerforMIA 2020
Edge Zones Presents an evening of Performance, noise, videos and experimental sound.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/performia-2020-tickets-93174215587
Sat, February 15, 2020
7:00 PM – 11:00 PM EST
Edge Zones
3317 NW 7th Ave. Cir.
Miami, FL 33127
United States
CURRENT FILM SHOWREEL
Total length approx. 45 mins
Marcel Barelli
DANS LA NATURE (2021)
5 mins
In nature, a couple is a male and a female. Well, not always! A couple is also a female and a female. Or a male and a male. You may not know it, but homosexuality isn’t just a human story.
Lee Campbell
LET RIP: THE BEAUTIFUL GAME (2020)
6 minutes 37 seconds
As a gay teenager growing up in 1990s suburban Britain, I had to come to terms with my homosexuality and the realisation of finding men attractive. Whilst Dad could be open back then about how he experienced us enjoying football together, it is only now, as this film reveals, can I be honest and open about my preoccupations; that I found football a means to explore homosexual desire in secret.
RUFUS (2021)
4 mins 12 seconds
This short comedy poetry film is about me, my partner Alex and Rufus, the dog we dog-sit who intrudes somehow in our relationship. I share my experience of me almost sharing Alex with Rufus whenever he is around with Rufus dominating and me battling this creature by me becoming him by me dressing up in a dog costume. The poem is humorous in tone and uses end of sentence rhyming couplets for poise and wit to dramatic effect.
THE TALE OF BENNY HARRIS (2022)
5 mins 44 seconds
This is a poetry film that is an imaginary tale written in Polari - gay slang language. It tales the tale of Benny Harris (in Polari, a 'bene aris' means a guy has a nice/sexy ass/arse). Comedy historically comes from a queer identity defence, when it was harder to be gay in public, to be funny like Kenneth Williams (British gay male comedian famous in the 1960s/70s) who used gay slang Polari to communicate with other gay men covertly. As a means to express as well as emotionally protect, homosexual men have historically and to this day embraced and used camp, daftness and a range of comedy forms in subversive and often surprising ways. For example, Polari hovers being blunt and not and allows users ‘to get away with’ being very rude. Historically so, when used in abundance on mainstream radio when the majority heteronormative listener would be oblivious to the innuendo they were listening to / they were laughing at.
Jordan McKenzie
MONSIEUR POO-POURRI TAKES A TOUR OF HIS ESTATE, Bethnal Green, LONDON (2010)
2 MINS 42 SECS
A short film featuring a hobby horse and the artist dressed up as jockey riding the horse through the estate he lives on in London.
Wrik Mead
HOW TO CLEAN YOUR CLOSET
Password: wsmto2021
4 mins 14 secs
Bucking the trend, “How to Clean your Closet” celebrates the sexy dirtiness of the queer closet. Glitched clips from adult films combined with instructions about closet cleanliness brings delightful irony and sensual pleasure to this hidden space.
Harold Offeh
LOUNGING (After Teddy Pendergrass, 1981) (2018)
5:38 mins
Lounging is an extension of Harold Offeh’s ongoing series Covers. Covers has explored representations of black figures as depicted on album sleeves from the 70s and 80s as a starting point for a series of live and documented performative re-enactments.
Steve Reinke
CORY (1994)
Ernesto Sarezale
2020: LOCKDOWN EROTICA (2021)
A short film about intimacy during lockdown
Hamid Waheed
I WANNA WRITE YOU LOVE SONGS (2017)
04:24
A type of lecture on observations in the field of lying down, dying and love.
About the Curator
Dr Lee Campbell is an artist, experimental filmmaker, writer, Senior Lecturer at University of the Arts London, curator of regular performance poetry night POW? Play on Words in South London and founder of Homo Humour, the first of its kind project on contemporary queer male film and moving image practices that explore humour and LGBTQ+ storytelling.
Lee’s experimental performance poetry films have been selected for many international film festivals since 2019 including Queerbee LGBT Film Festival, The Gilbert Baker Film Festival, Kansas 2020 and 2021, HOMOGRAPHY, Brussels and STATES OF DESIRE: Tom of Finland in the Queer Imagination, Casa de Duende, Philadelphia, USA, 2020 WICKED QUEER 2021, Boston, USA, FilmPride - Brighton & Hove Pride's official LGBTQ+ film festival, Brighton, UK, Splice Film Festival 2021, Brooklyn, USA and Darkroom Festival, London.
He has won several awards/nominations for these films including Best Psychedelic Fantasy film winner for 'See Me' (2020), Retro Avant Garde Film Festival NYC 2021, Semi-Finalist at Serbest International Film Festival 2021, Honorable Mention and Semi Finalist winner at Splice Film Festival, New York (2020 and 2021), Nominee for Best Original Concept and Best Atmosphere Independent Horror Movie Awards 2021, Honorable Mention Award, Screener Short Films 2020, Best Kent Film nominee, Margate Bookie Film Festival, 2020 and Special Mention Award, London-Worldwide Comedy Short Film Festival, 2019.
Lee has been interviewed numerously about his current film/performance work including interviews with Tim Kirk, Matt Skallerud for I Love Gay Today/Pink Media LGBT, Hamish Downie’s Five Questions With – Lee Campbell (March 2021) BBC Radio Kent- Interview with Dominic King for The Dominic King Show January 2021. His film work has received critical acclaim with recent review features of his film work by Francesca de Luca in Cut Frame Magazine and James Clark in Lost Creatives.
His live Zoom poetry performances have been showcased this year at events including Disturbance#2, Ugly Duck, London, Theatre Deli, London Festival ECRÃ Edition 5, Rio de Janeiro, and the Immersive Storytelling Symposium, Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham. In October 2021, Lee headlined Forum+ Incite! Lee currently performs regularly at poetry events across London including Poetry Shack, Mind Over Matter, Poetry LGBT, The Word Zoo, Mother Wolf Club and Gob Jaw. He is a regular performer at Paper Tiger Poetry at Tea House Theatre where he recently won Best Poem of the Night (September 2021).
His poem ‘Clever at Seeing without being Seen’ was recorded for Sometimes, The Revolution is Small, Disarm Hate x Poetry project by Nymphs & Thugs Recording Co. UK
and recent publications of his poetry include Queerlings: A Literary Magazine for Queer Writing, First Times, Powders Press, Gob Jaw Zine 8, You Are Here - The Journal of Creative Geography and Otherwise magazine.
Lee has a long history of curating performance and fine art exhibitions internationally. For example, between 2005-2008, he curated All for Show, an internationally touring film showreel of emerging and established British moving image artists whose work exposed the banalities of everyday life through humour, self-introspection, and serious play. In 2020, Lee curated Radical Ventriloquism at Kelder, London and presented a compilation of short films by queer male filmmakers entitled Homo Humour in Miami and Italy (Online) with a further screening planned for FRISE, Hamburg, Germany in 2022. Lee runs a regular monthly experimental poetry /spoken word night, POW! Play on Words, at The Bridge House Theatre in South London where he is currently curatorial poet in residence. In January 2021, he curated a set of queer poetry evenings for BBC Radio.
For further information:
lee.campbell@arts.ac.uk
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