''Postcards from America'' (sometimes styled as ''Post Cards from America'') is a 1994

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film written and directed by Steve McLean, based on the memoirs ''Close to the Knives'' (1991) and ''Memories That Smell Like Gasoline'' (1992) by

David Wojnarowicz David Michael Wojnarowicz ( ; September 14, 1954 – July 22, 1992) was an American painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, songwriter/recording artist, and HIV/AIDS activism, AIDS activist prominent in the East Village, Ma ...

. It has been described as an example of

New Queer Cinema "New queer cinema" is a term first coined by the academic B. Ruby Rich in '' Sight & Sound'' magazine in 1992 to define and describe a movement in queer-themed independent filmmaking in the early 1990s. It is also referred to as the "queer new ...

. The nonlinear film presents sequences from three periods in the protagonist's life. The character, called only David, is portrayed by James Lyons in his adulthood, and by Michael Tighe and Olmo Tighe in his teenage and adolescent years.

Production

This marked the first project on which Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler both worked. Koffler served as post-production producer on this film; the pair would form

Killer Films Killer Films is a New York City-based independent film production company founded in 1995 by film producers Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler. The company has produced many acclaimed independent films over the past two decades including ''Fa ...

, which released its first film the following year. Marc Maurino, the writer and executive producer of '' FreeRayshawn'' (2020), worked on the film as an intern.

Release

''Postcards from America'' premiered at the 1994

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center. Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, NYFF i ...

. It was also screened at the

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Sundance A Sun Dance is a Native American ceremony. Sun dance or Sundance may also refer to: Places ;Canada * Sundance, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * Sundance, Manitoba, a ghost town ;United States * Sundance, New Mexico, a census-designated pl ...

, and

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Film Festivals.About Craig Paull
Accessed 25 May 2021.

Reception

''Postcards from America'' was awarded the International Confederation of Art Cinemas award at the Berlin Film Festival. The film received mixed to negative reviews upon release. Many reviews knocked the film for portraying "Wojnarowicz as a passive, inarticulate victim." ''Variety'' described it as "(a) downer without much compensatory insight or dramatic power" in which "McLean shuffles and deals the cards from his deck in a highly selective manner and leaves far too many of them face down." In a review for ''The Advocate'', Emanuel Levy concluded that ''Postcards'' "a dispassionate, uninvolving film" that "may be drenched in too much style, making the experience even more fractured and remote." Adrian Martin called it "a depressingly poor attempt at making a vivid, iconoclastic, stream-of-consciousness movie about some rather grim, relentless and preening ideas." One favorable review commended it for the use of scenes in which characters address the audience, saying the device was better-utilized in ''Postcards'' than in '' The Sum of Us''.Guthman, Edward
`Postcards' From a Traumatic Life
''SF Gate'', 28 July 1995. Accessed 4 July 2020.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title 1994 films 1994 drama films 1994 independent films 1994 LGBTQ-related films 1990s American films 1990s avant-garde and experimental films 1990s British films 1990s English-language films American drama films American independent films American LGBTQ-related films American nonlinear narrative films British drama films British independent films British LGBTQ-related films British nonlinear narrative films Film4 Productions films Films about male prostitution in the United States Films based on memoirs Films based on multiple works Films produced by Christine Vachon Gay-related films HIV/AIDS in American films HIV/AIDS in British films LGBTQ-related coming-of-age drama films 1990s LGBTQ-related drama films English-language independent films