Todd Haynes broke onto the film scene in 1987 with Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, a biopic of the anorexic 70s singer acted out by Barbie and Ken dolls. His breakthrough work was the Oscar-nominated, Douglas Sirk-inspired melodrama Far From Heaven, the story of a 50s-era housewife who begins an affair with her black gardener after discovering her husband is gay. In 2007 he released the Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There. Known for making provocative films that subvert narrative structure and resound with transgressive, complex eroticism, Haynes' work has helped to expose and redefine the contours of queer culture in America and beyond.
This Cornell Cinema event was made possible with the generous support of the Atkinson Forum in American Studies.