The Watermelon Woman ve Brother to Brother Filmlerinde Siyah Queer Deneyimi ve Yenilenme Olgusu

Year 2019, , 431 - 453, 30.10.2019

Serdar Küçük

https://doi.org/10.32001/sinecine.639730

Abstract

Doksanlı yılların başından günümüze, tarihe olan yoğun ilgi queer sinemasının belirleyici özelliklerinden biri oldu. Derek Jarman ve Tom Kalin başta olmak üzere birçok queer yönetmen resmî tarihi yeniden yazmak için uğraştı ve tıpkı onlar gibi yeni kuşak yönetmenler de sinemanın gücünü kullanarak yeni bir gelecek inşa etme çabasıyla aynı yöntemi benimsemeye devam ediyor. Aynı anda hem beyaz hem de hetero tarihselciliğin tehdidiyle karşı karşıya olan Afro-Amerikalı yönetmenler Marlon Riggs ve Isaac Julien de Tongues Untied (Çözülen Diller, 1989) ve Looking for Langston (Langston’ı Ararken, 1989) filmlerinde, bugün Queer Yeni Dalga sineması olarak bilinen dönemin ilk evresinde, aynı yöntemi post-modern bir tarzda uyguladı. Onların izinden giden Cheryl Dunye ve Rodney Evans ise The Watermelon Woman (Karpuz Kadın, 1996) ve Brother to Brother (Kardeş Kardeşe, 2004) filmlerinde geleneği, biçim olarak aynı oranda sıra dışı fakat içerik yönünden daha radikal, yeni bir boyuta taşıyor. Aşağıdaki metinsel analizlerde, Dunye ve Evans’ın tarihi manipüle etmekle kalmayıp, Siyahîliği ve eşcinselliği yerleşik ırk, toplumsal cinsiyet ve cinsel yönelim kimliklerini tartışmaya açacak şekilde konuşlandırarak, sinemacılığı Amerikalı Siyahî gey ve lezbiyenler için bir tür umut ve yenilenme aracına dönüştürdüğü iddia edilmektedir.

Keywords

Siyahi, queer, cinema, Dunye, Evans

Black Queer Experience and Regeneration in The Watermelon Woman and Brother to Brother

Abstract

Since the early 1990s, a strong preoccupation with history has been one of the defining features of queer cinema. Many filmmakers, including Derek Jarman and Tom Kalin, have revisited and rewritten official histories, and many others incessantly continue to do so with the aim of constructing a new future via the powerful medium of cinema. Against obliteration by two oppressive historicisms at once, i.e., white and straight, black queer filmmakers Marlon Riggs and Isaac Julien have embraced the same method in postmodern terms in Tongues Untied (1989) and Looking for Langston (1989) in the earlier phase of the so-called Queer New Wave. Following in their footsteps, Cheryl Dunye and Rodney Evans have carried the tradition to a new level with The Watermelon Woman (1996) and Brother to Brother (2004) in such a way that is still unconventional in form, yet more radical in content. In the following textual analyses, it is argued that both filmmakers not only manipulate history but also posit filmmaking as a means of hope and regeneration for black lesbians and gays of the United States, deploying blackness and queerness provocatively to problematize sanctioned identities of race, gender, and sexuality.

Keywords

black, queer, cinema, Cheryl Dunye, Rodney Evans

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