There is a lot more to Spanish Queer Cinema than Pedro AlmodoĢvar or the gay comedies of the 1990s. A wealth of short films, documentaries and features -- many by, for, or about lesbians -- is at the core of a creative culture responding to exceptionally intense social changes. The country has moved from institutionalising same-sex unions at the regional civic level (from 1998) to legal recognition of same-sex marriage (in 2005). Moving images and the debates and conversations around them have made a stand against homophobia and exclusion, responded to health and welfare crises, questioned or affirmed the value of same-sex marriage, and constructed new forms of love and community. They, and their audiences, build a new Spanish queer imagination. The book opens all this up, and shows some of the wider social contexts and forms of communication which underpin it. |