Film

The Hours and Times

Directed by Christopher Munch

(1991) 60min, HDCAM

Projecting pop-cultural history through a queer lens, Munch’s (The Sleepy Time Gal) debut imagines the goings-on between John Lennon and the Beatles’ gay manager Brian Epstein during their real-life 1963 Barcelona holiday just before Beatlemania exploded. Whiling away the days in their hotel room, the pair engage in a subtle verbal tango about Epstein’s homosexuality, Lennon’s marriage, and their intense and unlikely friendship. Shot in high-contrast black and white that recalls A Hard Day’s Night, the film hit Sundance—and won the Special Jury Prize—at the flashpoint of New Queer Cinema amid a crop that included Edward II, The Living End, and Swoon.

Grapefruit

Directed by Cecilia Dougherty

 (1989) 39min, BetaSP

This largely improvised piece of LGBT pop-cultural appropriation, which makes frequent references to Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit anthology, features an all-female cast in mod-drag acting out the circumstances of John and Yoko’s relationship and the petty squabbles that brought the Fab Four to ruin.