Homo Promo

An early video-collage work by San Francisco-based author, campaigner and queer film historian Jenni Olson, HOMO PROMO is both great fun and a fascinating piece of pop-culture scholarship. Olson’s fast-moving compilation gathers the trailers for dozens of gay-themed movies from 1956 through the 1980s, plotting a chronological overview of how studios and filmmakers have worked with censorship, taboo topics and changing social attitudes over the decades. With classic titles including THE CHILDREN’S HOUR (1961), MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969) and CRUISING (1980), the juicy trailer selection covers the full LGBTQ+ rainbow from lurid to lyrical, coy to camp, famous to infamous.