The performer, comedian, and author praises Hedwig and the Angry Inch as a drag-queen staple, discovers a lacerating self-portrait by Richard Pryor, and talks about the immense cultural impact of Paris Is Burning.

Nov 29, 2022 — Nina Menkes is a filmmaker whose works radically synthesize inner dream worlds with brutal outer realities. Her films have screened at major international film festivals, including Sundance, the Berlinale, Locarno, and Toronto. Menkes’s narrative films include Magdalena Viraga, Queen of...

Jul 9, 2021 — A raucous, fast-talking diva, the actor had a remarkable ability to convey both glamour and silliness, a gift that made her the queen of screwball comedy before her untimely death in 1942.

Oct 29, 2018 — Supporting roles bring potent flavor to classic Hollywood’s darkest genre. In the first installment of a series, Imogen Sara Smith pays tribute to the queen of character actors: Thelma Ritter.

Sue Harris is a UK film academic and the author of numerous articles, essays, and books on French films, filmmakers, and production practices. She is Professor Emerita of Film at Queen Mary University of London.

Alexander Chee is most recently the author of The Queen of the Night and How to Write an Autobiographical Novel.

Lucy Bolton is a lecturer in film studies at Queen Mary University of London. She is the author of Film and Female Consciousness: Irigaray, Cinema and Thinking Women.

Geoffrey Nowell-Smith is Senior Research Fellow in the Department of History at Queen Mary, University of London, where he directs a research project on the history of the British Film Institute. He is the editor of The Oxford History of...

Jul 2, 2026 — I first met Courtney Love in 1994. I was twelve years old, and I felt ugly and confused pretty much all the time. I was slouching through the locker bay at Calle Mayor Middle School in Torrance, California, when I...

Jun 17, 2026 — Channel Calendars This month on the Criterion Channel, celebrate the hundredth birthday of the great Harry Dean Stanton, delight in the twists and thrills of our Murderous Melodramas collection, or binge the surreal cult-favorite TV series The Prisoner. There’s so...