Bike Boys, Drag Queens, and Superstars

1960s U.S. avant-garde filmmakers—Anger, Warhol, and Jack Smith—as postmodern recyclers of popular culture.

At the confluence of experimental art and the gay subculture of early 1960s New York, the author discovers a postmodern, gay-influenced aesthetic that "recycles" popular culture. He begins with the intellectual and institutional history, and the cultural politics, of American underground cinema.

"This comprehensive, insightful study demonstrates that 1960s New York underground film fused 'artistic innovation and the exploration of everyday life' and distinctively interacted with mass culture.'" —Choice

" . . . thoroughly researched [and] engaging text . . . " —Library Journal

"This is a very timely and welcome book. . . . intervenes very effectively to rewrite the history of the 1960s American underground cinema." —UTS Review

At the confluence of experimental art and the gay subculture of early 1960s New York, Juan Suárez discovers a postmodern, gay-influenced aesthetic that "recycles" popular culture. Filmmakers Kenneth Anger, Jack Smith, and Andy Warhol epitomize this sensibility, combining the influences of European avant-garde movements, comic books, rock 'n' roll, camp, film cults, drag performances, fashion, and urban street cultures.