Brontez Purnell Presents "TOTALLY F***ED UP" Film Screening

TOTALLY F***ED UP
1993. 85 minutes. Directed by Gregg Araki.

Totally Fucked Up is a “rag-tag story of (the) fag-and-dyke teen underground…a kind of cross between avant-garde experimental cinema and a queer John Hughes flick,” explains Gregg Araki who wrote and directed this 1992 cinematic ode to queer adolescent angst. But unlike a Hughes film, these teens aren’t worried about losing their virginity or going out with the most popular person in school. Instead, they are dealing with homophobic violence, the tyranny of being different in the homogeneous backdrop of Los Angeles, and the ecstasy and nightmarish pain of young love. Brontez Purnell remembers “watching this as a teenager in my shitty Southern town and praying that I would move to California one day and be as cool as the kids in this movie.” Totally Fucked Up is the first film in Araki’s "Teen Apocalypse trilogy" of the 1990s, queer teenage nihilism with a heart of gold.

Visual AIDS Artist Member Brontez Purnell on TOTALLY F***ED UP

“So Totally F***ed Up is the first installment of director Gregg Araki's ICONIC Teen Doom Trilogy (Doom Generation (1995) and Nowhere (1997) being the latter two concluding the series). Part narrative, part fake documentary, it encapsulates the Gen x queer angst aesthetic that is now a product of yore in these oh so boring times where the term "queer" has been completely co-opted by fuckin' poseurs! (oh c'mon! you know it's true!) I remember watching this as a teenager in my shitty Southern town and prayed that I would move to California one day and be as cool as the kids in this movie- and sure a fuckin' nuff- I did. This movie is like if "Kids" had been queer and had a story line that made sense- if you get the picture. A New Queer Cinema CLASSIC through and through!”

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QUEER|ART|FILM

Organized by curators Adam Baran and Heather Lynn Johnson, the second “stay-at-home” season of Queer|Art|Film— titled Queer|Art|Film: There’s No Place Like Home— takes a close look at chosen family and notions of "home" during a time when America is forced to examine its atrocities against Black lives and the devastating effects of COVID-19. Adam Baran and Heather Lynn Johnson have curated a season of artists and performers who are boldly, creatively engaging with their communities through social media modalities and are reimagining connection through healing, personal acts of freedom, and cultural self-care. Join us for another thought-provoking season of fabulous films and conversation. Who says New York is dead? There's no place like home.