With each new volume, Queer Qlassics has aimed to explore new methods and modes of storytelling. This year, we’re taking a dialectical approach, examining contradictory impulses that lead to captivating and complicated narratives.

Whether well-meaning straight people tackling a revered queer text (THE COLOR PURPLE) or gifted queer talents taking a poison pen to those beloved despoilers of Hollywood and capitalism (THE LAST OF SHEILA), a down-and-dirty exploitation film granted whole new realms of resonance by real-life circumstances (HARD CANDY), a beloved classic of speculative history gussied up and sprayed down with a whole new intersection with song and dance (HAIRSPRAY) or that old warhorse the biopic exploded from the inside out with all the swag and sex that history would so dearly love to excise (SAINT LAURENT) — there’s no continuously straight path to entertainment and information. In Queer Qlassics this July, we explore unexpected avenues with five films embodying concepts, collisions and combinations that thwart easy provenance. It’s Dialectrifying!