Event

Screen Queen Presents: Poison

Screen Queen Presents is a Monday night queer film series hosted by Josh Vogelsong at Suns Cinema. Guests can expect to see a wide range of both mainstream & underground selections, working to cover the entire film & queer spectrum.

POISON
1981
TODD HAYNES
85 MIN

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival

The second feature directed by Haynesthe Oscar-nominated filmmaker of Far from Heaven, Im Not There and the upcoming HBO mini-series Mildred Piercethis groundbreaking American Indie was the most fervently debated film of the 1990s and a trailblazing landmark of queer cinema. A work of immense visual invention, Haynes spectacular follow-up to his legendary Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story is audacious, disturbing and thrillingly cinematic.

Inspired by the writings of Jean Genet, Poison deftly interweaves trio of transgressive tales-Hero, Horror and Homo-that build toward a devastating climax. Hero, shot in mock TV-documentary style, tells a bizarre story of suburban patricide and a miraculous flight from justice; Horror, filmed like a delirious 50s B-movie melodrama, is a gothic tale of a mad sex experiment which unleashes a disfiguring plague; while Homo explores the obsessive sexual relationship between two prison inmates.

A runaway hit which made national headlines when it was attacked by right-wing figures including Dick Armey, Ralph Reed and minister Donald Wildmon, Poison is unsettling, unforgettable and thoroughly entertaining.