His film Dark Waters is a thriller about a lawyer who took on DuPont over chemical pollution. The director talks about why activism works - and why defeatism is collaborationWhen Todd Haynes was promoting his glam-rock fantasy Velvet Goldmine in 1998, he knew exactly what he wanted. `We have a very modest goal for this film,` he said at the time. `Thatīs just to turn every gay person straight and every straight person gay.` Sitting opposite the 59-year-old director in a London hotel room, I point out that his mission is accomplished. Arenīt we all queer now?`Not quite,` he says in his US east coast croak. `I wish! Itīs true there might be more traffic in that direction. Thereīs certainly more tolerance.` His films have surely played their part, among them Iīm Not There with Cate Blanchett as one of six physically dissimilar Bob Dylans, the melodrama Far from Heaven and the lesbian love story Carol (Blanchett again, this time falling for Rooney Mara). In particular, Velvet Goldmine, which begins with the infant Oscar Wilde arriving in Dublin by flying saucer, looks now like a manifesto for queerness, though it took years to find its audience. Continue reading...
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