“What is the purpose of resisting corporate globalization if not to protect the obscure, the ineffable, the unmarketable, the unmanageable, the local, the poetic and the eccentric? So they need to be practiced, celebrated and studied too, right now.” Rebecca Solnit

I'm a UK-based writer, editor, educator and activist with a passionate commitment to arts and social justice. I publish with independent presses Arc, Lark Books, Salt, Shearsman, IB Tauris, and Wallflower. I am a member of queer feminist film curation collective Club des Femmes and feminist film activists Raising Films, a lecturer in film at LCC and Queen Mary University of London, and a film journalist for Sight & Sound and The F-Word, where I focus on independent, experimental, and feminist films and film culture. 

In my critical work, I explore the political potential of experimental literature and cinema, with an emphasis on feminist artists like Sally Potter, who is the subject of my first critical book The Cinema of Sally Potter: A Politics of Love. As well as teaching university courses on topics ranging from transgender cinema to Anne Carson, I've facilitated workshops for youth organisations like Leave Out Violence and taught creative writing at Anglia Ruskin University, King's College, London, and Middlesex University. I have worked with non-profit organisation English PEN and was the Poet in Residence at the Archive of the Now.

For workshops, creative consultancies, editorial or writing work, contact me at: sophie [at] sophiemayer [dot] net

Derek by Isaac Julien

Thu, 03/26/2009 - 13:49 — sophie

A review of the BFI's DVD release (loaded with extras) of this doc -- a sort of introductory post to a series blogging the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, which I'll be covering from Tuesday.

Queer British Poetry: The Controversy Starts Here

Thu, 03/19/2009 - 14:44 — sophie

Apparently my article for Horizon Review, subtitled "Hanging Out Under Orlando's Oak Tree," has been getting some attention on the Poets on Fire list. I'm excited that people are reading the magazine, which has recently -- and magnificently -- risen phoenix-like under Jane Holland's editorship. It's a juicy issue, and I was glad of the opportunity to cover a juicy topic, and gladder still that the topic -- where are the out and proud queer British poets and poetry? -- has taken on a life of its own, as the article is a plea for a reconfigured public space for lively debate and provocative poetry. Also, for more sexy bodies finding their way into striking, new-fangled language!

Eonnagata @ Sadler's Wells: Review for Chroma

Mon, 03/09/2009 - 20:12 — sophie

Shapeshifting dancers in Alexander McQueen costumes (and just a little old-school panto naughtiness): Eonnagata almost pulled off the dance-theatre, male-female hybrid it hoped to be. Read more on the Chroma blog... 

First Person Jewish: Take Two

Thu, 02/26/2009 - 12:22 — sophie

Chroma offered me a second opportunity to review Alisa Lebow's First Person Jewish, and to approach it as a book about queer Jewish identities.

Guardian Books Blog names PEN Atlas "Site of the Week"

Wed, 02/25/2009 - 17:54 — sophie

Hooray! Thanks to Alison Flood for drawing attention to the Atlas in her blog, and especially to the Atlas' Voices from Gaza portfolio of new writing, running throughout February. Reservations are now open for the free PEN/Palestine Film Festival/Poetry Translation Centre Refuge in Words: Voices from Gaza event on 22nd May. Come and hear words speak louder than bullets and bombs!

Shirin Neshat's Women Without Men @ re:frame

Sun, 02/22/2009 - 15:04 — sophie

Re:frame have been refashioning their excellent site, so it's taken a while for this blog about Shirin Neshat at the Barbican in December 2008 to appear. But the short films and excerpts have stayed incredibly fresh in my mind... 

Berlinale Round-Up in Chroma: Every Good Boy Deserves Teddies

Sun, 02/22/2009 - 14:55 — sophie

Reflections on the Teddy competition and why Berlin is the queerest festival of all. Congratulations to John Greyson, whose deliriously wonderful Fig Trees won the Teddy for Best Essay. It's coming to the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival -- and hopefully I'll be blogging for Chroma from there as well! 

Berlinale reports

Tue, 02/10/2009 - 01:29 — sophie

Live, from Berlin, and more or less coherent... There's posts going up at Little White Lies over the next few days that include interviews with directors Sally Potter, Catherine Breillat, Julie Delpy, Yun Suh, Esther Rots and reviews of their films (and many others) at this dizzyingly busy festival. In the most recent post, I hail John Greyson's Fig Trees and invite Michael Winterbottom to call me... All the BFF blogs can be found here.

Vertigo 4:2: Two on First-Person Documentary

Thu, 02/05/2009 - 00:06 — sophie

A big interview with filmmaker Jennifer Reeves, whose very personal yet abstract documentary about the world in all its glory When It Was Blue blew me away at Toronto (read it online here if you're a subscriber); and a review of First Person Jewish by filmmaker and educator Alisa Lebow.

Start some Sybil Unrest

Mon, 02/02/2009 - 19:14 — sophie

 ... with an awesome collaborative poetry book by that witty title, co-created by Larissa Lai and Rita Wong. Read my review of its lush anti-corporate cyborg poetics on the Chroma blog and order the book from LineBooks.

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