Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
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Bruce LaBruce is a 2025 winner of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts.
Video directed by Anushay Sheikh and David Willem Boot.
A presentation of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Independent Media Arts Alliance.
The Canada Council for the Arts is a federal, arm’s-length Crown corporation created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 (Canada Council for the Arts Act) “to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.”
For more information, visit https://en.ggarts.ca.
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Transcript:
I have a tendency in my work to make the audience self-conscious of their viewership and the way that they’re watching my movies. Part of that, I think, is a kind of theatricality or camp aesthetic where you can indulge in those extremes and take them further and further, because then it becomes kind of campy and obvious that you’re pushing the limits of the audience. You’re testing their patience or trying to get a real strong response from them.
My name is Bruce LaBruce, and I’m a filmmaker, photographer, writer, artist.
I was in the punk scene, and the punk scene was very homophobic and sexist. And so, my friends and I started making films that were very ‘in your face’ about gay, queer sex, gay sex.
The idea was that we were confronted by these radical punks who were supposedly politically subversive. Then when they’d see anything remotely gay, even if it was like a gay kiss or something, they would be freaked out and not so radical anymore. And so, that kind of provoked me, in a way, to take it further and say, if you’re so radical, you should be able to see gay sex unapologetically presented in a very raw way.
Even when you look at my films over the period of 30 years, it almost seems like I’m making the same film over and over again: the same motifs, the same ideas, the same obsessions. They are kind of reiterated over and over again.
Sometimes it comes out in radically different forms. I’ve made zombie movies, I’ve made porn movies, I’ve made more… almost like, romantic comedy movies.
The point is to just keep doing… where your muse takes you and listen to that muse and not be distracted by ideological stuff or cultural stuff that might be going on.
#GGArts2025 #BruceLaBruce #CanadaCouncil
Connect with us on social media:
Canada Council for the Arts
Instagram - instagram.com/canada.council
Facebook - facebook.com/canadacouncil
X - twitter.com/CanadaCouncil
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canada-council-for-the-arts
Website - canadacouncil.ca
Art Bank
Instagram - instagram.com/artbank_banquedart
Facebook - facebook.com/CCartbank
YouTube - youtube.com/watch?v=x9fGIx7hZYk
Website - artbank.ca
CCUNESCO - Canadian Commission for UNESCO
Instagram - instagram.com/ccunesco
X - twitter.com/CCUNESCO
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canadian-commission-for-unesco
Website - en.ccunesco.ca
Please like this video and subscribe to support the arts in Canada.
Bruce LaBruce is a 2025 winner of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts.
Video directed by Anushay Sheikh and David Willem Boot.
A presentation of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Independent Media Arts Alliance.
The Canada Council for the Arts is a federal, arm’s-length Crown corporation created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 (Canada Council for the Arts Act) “to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.”
For more information, visit https://en.ggarts.ca.
****
Transcript:
I have a tendency in my work to make the audience self-conscious of their viewership and the way that they’re watching my movies. Part of that, I think, is a kind of theatricality or camp aesthetic where you can indulge in those extremes and take them further and further, because then it becomes kind of campy and obvious that you’re pushing the limits of the audience. You’re testing their patience or trying to get a real strong response from them.
My name is Bruce LaBruce, and I’m a filmmaker, photographer, writer, artist.
I was in the punk scene, and the punk scene was very homophobic and sexist. And so, my friends and I started making films that were very ‘in your face’ about gay, queer sex, gay sex.
The idea was that we were confronted by these radical punks who were supposedly politically subversive. Then when they’d see anything remotely gay, even if it was like a gay kiss or something, they would be freaked out and not so radical anymore. And so, that kind of provoked me, in a way, to take it further and say, if you’re so radical, you should be able to see gay sex unapologetically presented in a very raw way.
Even when you look at my films over the period of 30 years, it almost seems like I’m making the same film over and over again: the same motifs, the same ideas, the same obsessions. They are kind of reiterated over and over again.
Sometimes it comes out in radically different forms. I’ve made zombie movies, I’ve made porn movies, I’ve made more… almost like, romantic comedy movies.
The point is to just keep doing… where your muse takes you and listen to that muse and not be distracted by ideological stuff or cultural stuff that might be going on.
#GGArts2025 #BruceLaBruce #CanadaCouncil
Connect with us on social media:
Canada Council for the Arts
Instagram - instagram.com/canada.council
Facebook - facebook.com/canadacouncil
X - twitter.com/CanadaCouncil
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canada-council-for-the-arts
Website - canadacouncil.ca
Art Bank
Instagram - instagram.com/artbank_banquedart
Facebook - facebook.com/CCartbank
YouTube - youtube.com/watch?v=x9fGIx7hZYk
Website - artbank.ca
CCUNESCO - Canadian Commission for UNESCO
Instagram - instagram.com/ccunesco
X - twitter.com/CCUNESCO
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canadian-commission-for-unesco
Website - en.ccunesco.ca
