7 Queer Films That Should Have Been Nominated For An Oscar This Year

From: NewNowNext

6

Best Documentary

“Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures”

In 1989, archconservative Jesse Helms advised voters who didn’t believe the photography of Robert Mapplethorpe was obscene to “look at the pictures.” The iconic gay artist died of AIDS-related illness that same year.

More than a quarter-century later, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato revisited the work and legacy of the boundary-pusher with Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures.

Coinciding with Mapplethorpe retrospectives at the Getty and LACMA, Look at the Pictures explores Mapplethorpe’s work and the interplay of his personal and professional lives. Friends and colleagues like Mary Boone, Carolina Herrera, Brooke Shields and Debbie Harry are interviewed, as are Mapplethorpe’s older sister, Nancy, and younger brother, Edward, who assisted him on many shoots.