Lionel Soukaz

France

Lionel Soukaz (1953-2025, France) was one of the pioneers of French queer cinema. The first phase of his work synthetises the various avant-garde movements he was drawn to in the 1970s and 1980s. Affiliated with the activists and intellectuals of FHAR (the Homosexual Front for Revolutionary Action) and the magazine Gai Pied, such as Guy Hocquenghem or Copi, he was also active within the experimental film scene, and organised the first Gay and Lesbian film festival in Paris, Écrans roses et nuits bleues, in 1978. His films, rediscovered in 2004 thanks mainly to the advocacy of French critic Nicole Brenez, display an uncompromising commitment to self-narration and the expression of desire, and embody his unlimited craving for freedom – as a result of which his work has often faced censorship.