Bruce LaBruce’s newest film, LA Zombie, is screening at TIFF. LaBruce sat down with film critic Matthew Hays to talk about his continuing interest in zombies and porn. LA Zombie, you may recall, was recently banned in Australia.

Watch the video below or read excerpts from the interview below the video player:



On zombies: “They’re viral – so it’s the perfect metaphor for not only AIDS but the paranoia about homosexuality and how it can be contagious or how it can be that kind of negative influence on society.”

On his motivation: “As the gay movement becomes more and more conservative and conventional, for me, the last refuge of gay radicalism is pornography. There are certain things you just can’t escape when you work in gay pornography. The very fact of ass-fucking or man-on-man sex, cocksucking, whatever… it’s an inescapable kind of visual image that is confrontational for an audience. A lot of liberals can say they accept homosexuals if they behave themselves… but they don’t want to see this kind of hardcore sex. There’s still something about gay sex that’s… about abandon and hedonism and really pushing sexual boundary.”

On gay films: “The state of gay cinema is quite dire now, because if people are only making films that mirror what goes in conventional society, then it’s just kind of like a pale imitation. There’s nothing intrinsically interesting about it.”

Bruce LaBruce's LA Zombie screens Sept 16, 18 and 19 - click here for showtimes.

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