Artist

Bruce LaBruce

Bruce LaBruce is a Toronto based filmmaker, writer, director, photographer, and artist. He began his career in the mid-eighties making a series of short experimental super 8 films and co-editing a punk fanzine called J.D.s, which begat the queercore movement. He has directed and starred in three feature length movies, "No Skin Off My Ass" (1991), "Super 8 1/2" (1994), and "Hustler White" (1996). More recently he has directed two art/porn features, “Skin Flick” (2000)(hardcore version: “Skin Gang”) and “The Raspberry Reich” (2004)(hardcore version: “The Revolution Is My Boyfriend”), and the independent feature “Otto; or, Up with Dead People” (2008). After premiering at Sundance and Berlin, “The Raspberry Reich” took off on the international film festival circuit, playing at over 150 festivals, including the Istanbul, Guadalajara, and Rio de Janeiro International Film Festivals. He was also honoured with retrospectives at the end of ’05 at the Madrid and Hong Kong Gay and Lesbian Film Festivals. “Otto; or, Up with Dead People” also debuted at Sundance and Berlin and played at over 150 film festivals, culminating in a screening at MoMA in New York City in November of 2008. His new film, L.A. Zombie, starring French star Francois Sagat, premiered in competition at the Locarno International Film Festival in August, 2010. It will have it’s French premier at the L’Etrange Film Festival in Paris and its North American premier at the Toronto International Film Festival in Septemer. 2010. The hardcore version, L.A. Zombie Hardcore, will be released at Halloween, 2010.

LaBruce has written a premature memoir entitled “The Reluctant Pornographer”, from Gutter Press. The Plug-In Gallery in Winnipeg, Canada published a book on LaBruce’s work, “Ride Queer Ride”, in 1998. In the past several years, LaBruce has written and directed three theatrical productions. “Cheap Blacky” (2007) and “The Bad Breast; or, The Strange Case of Theda Lange” (2009) were both produced at the Hau 2 and featured Susanne Sachsse and Vaginal Davis. “Macho Family Romance” (2009), commissioned by Theater Neumarkt in Zurich, also featured Ms. Sachsse and Ms. Davis. LaBruce was a contributing editor and frequent writer and photographer for Index magazine, and he has also been a regular contributor to Eye and Exclaim magazines, Dutch, Vice, the National Post, Nerve.com. and Black Book. He was also formerly a frequent photographer for the US porn mags Honcho and Inches, and has recently contributed to Butt, Kink, Jack, Currency, Kaiserin, and Slurp. As a fashion photographer he has contributed stories to such magazines as Dazed and Confused, Bon, Tank, Tetu, Fake, Attitude, Blend, Tokion, Purple Fashion, and the National Post.

LaBruce had his first solo show of photographs presented by the Alleged Gallery in New York in December 1999. He has had subsequent solo exhibits of his photographs at the Pitt Gallery in Vancouver, MC MAGMA in Milano, Italy, Bailey Fine Arts Gallery in Toronto, Peres Projects in San Francisco, and at John Connelly Presents in New York. His show “Heterosexuality Is the Opiate of the Masses” opened on July 16th/05 at Peres Projects in Los Angeles. In July/06 he mounted “Polaroid Rage: A Survey of Polaroids, 2000-2006” at Gallery 1313 in Toronto. He has also participated in numerous group shows. In October of 2006 he was the featured artist at the Barcelona International Erotic Festival. His latest solo shows include “Untitled Hardcore Zombie Project”, which opened at Peres Projects in Culver City, LA, on May 23rd, 2009, and “L.A. Zombie: The Movie That Would Not Die”, which premiered at Peres Projects Berlin on January 30th, 2010. LaBruce has also made a number of popular music videos in Canada, two of which won him MuchMusic video awards.

Artist Code: 008

Videography

Ulrike's Brain

2017, 55:16 minutes, Colour, English, German

"Obscenity" Commercial

2014, 01:30 minutes, Colour, English

Pierrot Lunaire

2014, 56:00 minutes, B&W, English, German with English subtitles

Defense de Fumer

2014, 04:15 minutes, Colour, English

Legs - Danko Jones Music Video

2013, 04:11 minutes, B&W, English

Offing Jack

2011, 14:00 minutes, Colour, B&W, English

Weekend in Alphaville

2010, 21:00 minutes, Colour, English

The Bad Breast; or, The Strange Case of Theda Lange

2010, 20:00 minutes, Colour, English

Give Piece of Ass A Chance

2007, 15:00 minutes, Colour, English

Slam!

1998, 12:00 minutes, Colour, English

Super 8 1/2

1994, 108:00 minutes, Colour, English

No Skin Off My Ass

1991, 73:00 minutes, B&W, English

Bruce and Pepper Wayne Gacy's Home Movies

1988, 15:00 minutes, Colour, English

I Know What It's Like To Be Dead

1988, 15:00 minutes, Colour, English

Boy/Girl

1987, 15:00 minutes, Colour, English

Critical Writing

Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists who Make Zines
by Branden W. Joseph and Drew Sawyer. London: Phaidon Brooklyn Museum, 2023.
Super Queeroes
by Peter Knegt et al. CBC ARTS, 2019.
Super Queeroes
by Dodie Bellamy et al. Dirty Looks Volume 4, 2019, v. 4. New York: Dirty Looks, 2019.
The Work of AA Bronson: A Queer Politic Expressed Through Art
by Jonathan Valelly. Xtra!, July 28, 2011, no. 698.
25th year of Boston LGBT Film Festival is a hit
by Melissa Woods. The Somerville News, May 20, 2009.
Because zombies are people, too.
by Nadja Sayej. The Globe and Mail, Sept. 12, 2008.
Bruce on Bruce: Iconic Internationalist (and Torontonian)...
by Bruce LaBruce. EYE WEEKLY, Dec. 4, 2008, v. 18, no. 8.
Queerly Provocative: Bruce LaBruce fucks up the bourgeoisie
by Jon Davies. Xtra!, Dec. 4 Winter, 2008, no. 624.
Cinematic Folds: the furling and unfurling of images
by Firoza Elavia. Toronto: Pleasure Dome, 2008.
"Hitting Below the intellect"
by Sholem Krishtalka. Xtra!, May 10, 2007, no. 588.
The Romance of Transgression in Canada: Queering Sexualities,...
by Thomas Waugh. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006.
Word to the Fatherfucker
by Bruce LaBruce. C Magazine, Spring 2004, no. 81.
Feelings: The Italian snow job
by Bruce LaBruce. EYE WEEKLY, June 13, 2002, v. 11, no. 36.
Bruce LaBruce: The Italian snow job
by Bruce LaBruce. Mix, Summer 2001, v. 27, no. 1.
Feelings: About a girl
by Bruce LaBruce. EYE WEEKLY, Nov. 22, 2001, v. 11, no. 7.
Feelings: About a girl
All Queer All Canadian All Night Long, 2001 Tour, 2001. Regina: Queer City Cinema, 2001.
Bad Boy Swaggers to the top: Bruce LaBruce's new indie hit Hustler...
by Steven Davey. Xtra!, Aug. 29, 1996, no. 309.
No skin off his ass: Bruce LaBruce stars as a past-it porn star on...
by Marc Morrison. Xtra!, Apr. 1, 1994, no. 246.
Philadelphia not a "gay film": There are plenty of homosexual...
by Sky Gilbert. The Toronto Star, Jan. 21, 1994.
Queer Looks: Perspectives on Lesbian and Gay Film and Video
by Martha Gever et al. Toronto: Between the Lines, 1993.
Queer Is Smart
by Lynna Landstreet. Xtra!, Apr. 17, 1992, no. 195.
Gay and Lesbian Film Fest Suddenly a Must
by Cameron Bailey. NOW, Apr. 30, 1992, v. 11, no. 35.
No Skin off His Ass
by Michael Jones. Edge 212, Aug. 28, 1991.
No Skin off My Ass
by Amy Taubin. Voice, Nov. 12, 1991.
Skinhead Love
by Christopher Frey. Varsity, Feb. 28, 1991.
Two Fists Up
by Manohla Dargis. The Village Voice, June 11, 1991, v. 36, no. 24.
Colin Campbell Interviewed
by Kathleen Maitland-Carter and Bruce LaBruce. CineAction!, Summer 1987, no. 9.