Visit our website at www.brightlightsfilm.com . Our companion blog, Bright Lights After Dark , is at brightlightsfilm.blogspot.com.
Bright Lights began life as a print journal in 1974, migrating to the web in 1996. Visit our About Us page for more info.
SAMPLE ARTICLES
Betty Boop
With a head like a giant peanut, vast mascara'd eyes, too-kissable lips, baby-doll voice (courtesy of singer Mae Questel), flattened marcelled hair, and mere threads of a dress exposing miles of hot flesh, she was the perfect celluloid sex toy.
Alfred Hitchcock: A Hank of Hair and a Piece of Bone
A photo study of the Master's fetishes -- uh, motifs
"A Certain Slant": A Brief History of Hollywood Yellowface
The history of blackface has been well documented in American film criticism; the history of yellowface has received much less critical attention, and considerably less public censure
Chatting About Other Things: An Interview with Federico Fellini
The Master speaks on life, art, and Carlos Castaneda
When Is a Kiss Not a Kiss? When It's a Queer Kiss
What is it about the sight of two men kissing that drives Americans insane?
"They Ate His Genitals!": A Sampling of European Sex and Horror Films
These seminal sleazefests -- and a couple of arty classics -- will make you twist and shout
Carmen Miranda
The "lady in the tutti-fruitti hat" brought to American wartime audiences an extravagantly seductive surface: the exoticism of South America, a sensuality tempered by caricature, and outlandish costumes and fruit-laden "hats" that have an unsuspected origin in the black slums of Brazil.
Fuck Housework! The Bad Girls of M-G-M, 1932
Harlow, Bankhead, yes, even patrician, cross-eyed Norma Shearer “strayed†before the Hays Code ended their fun.
The Day the Bronx Invaded Earth: The Life and Cinema of the Brothers Kuchar
Major figures in the American Underground film movement of the 'sixties, George and Mike Kuchar are the acknowledged pioneers of the camp/pop aesthetic that would influence practically all who came after them, from Warhol and Waters to Vadim and Lynch.
Behind the Mask: Sadie Benning's Pixel Pleasures
What mysterious force lay behind the teenage grrrl's crudely drawn but strangely evocative masks?
BRAGWARE
"Anyone who doesn't love Bright Lights doesn't love life." -- GreenCine
"This great site is devoted to exploring film in all its glory -- from indie, obscure and underground flicks to the great classics from cinema’s past. A serious and amazing site." -- Australian Broadcasting Corporation
"One of the best film journals on the Web" -- Images Journal
"Based in Portland, Oregon, this online quarterly brings sharp wit and in-depth knowledge to its politically attuned coverage of independent, exploitation, and international film, a sphere of activity that pays plenty of attention to Amerindie movies." -- The Rough Guide to American Independent Film
A 2003 Webby Award nominee for best film site.
A Forbes.com "Best of the Web" site.