Joan E. Biren Queer Film Museum Collection
name: label: Creator
content: Biren, Joan E.
topic: label: Topic
content: Homosexuality
label: Topic
content: Lesbian and gay experience
label: Topic
content: Bisexuality
label: Topic
content: Documentary films
label: Topic
content: Transgender people
label: Topic
content: Transvestites
label: Topic
content: Motion pictures
label: Topic
content: Lesbianism
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Donated to the Archives Center in 2010 by Joan E. Biren.
creator: label: Creator
content: Biren, Joan E.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Joan E. Biren Queer Film Museum Collection
abstract: label: Summary
content: Joan E. Biren (JEB) is an internationally recognized photographer and documentary artist. She assembled this collection as her Queer Film Museum. It consists of a variety of materials about and associated with queer films, both foreign and domestic.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Joan E. Biren (1944-), also known professionally as JEB, is an internationally recognized lesbian photographer and documentary artist. She grew up in Washington, D.C. graduating from Mount Holyoke College in 1966. She later pursued graduate study at Oxford University and the American University. Biren was a vocal and out lesbian joining the women's liberation in the late 1960s and the lesbian movement in the early 1970s. A member of the Furies, she was an associate of authors Rita Mae Brown and Charlotte Bunch

Biren became known for her photographic documentation of late 20th century lesbian culture.  Biren published two collections of her photography: Eye to Eye: Portraits of Lesbians (1979) and Making a Way: Lesbians Out Front (1987).  Biren pursued filmmaking in the 1990s through her company Moonforce Media, Inc.  She produced and directed the documentaries, For Love and For Life (1990) about the 1987 March on Washington and A Simple Matter of Justice (1993), about the April 1993 March on Washington.  She is the creator (writer, director, and producer) of the award-winning film, No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon (2003) on two pioneers of the LGBT movement.

Over many years she assembled a collection of ephemera and materials relating to queer film.  One of the accepted definitions of the word queer is, "Of or relating to lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, or transgendered people".  "Queer film" may be defined as any film or televised entertainment that has as a part of its subject matter or story line anything having to do with or pertinent to homosexuality (male or female), bisexuality, or transgendered people. Biren named her collection the Queer Film Museum and it was displayed in her home. The sign she created and hung on the basement door leading downstairs to the display of her collection (and coincidentally her laundry room) was meant to be ironic and read, "JEB's Queer Film Museum, Dirty Pictures & Clean Laundry".  Biren amassed her collection, mostly by purchase, over the course of many years.

Some of the titles in the collection classified as "queer" were not specifically produced with the homosexual audience in mind but have come to be identified with homosexual culture, Greta Garbo's 1931 film Queen Christina for instance.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 5 Cubic feet (8 boxes, 13 map-folders)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1931-2019
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.1216
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Posters
label: Type
content: Programs
label: Type
content: Advertising
label: Type
content: Catalogs
label: Type
content: Postcards
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is divided into two series.

Series 1: Posters and Ephemera, 1931-2010, undated

Series 2, Film Festival Programs, Queer Film Museum Files, and Related Material, 1975-2019, undated
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Processed by Franklin A. Robinson, Jr., archives specialist, November, 2010; assisted by Theresa Worden, intern, Erin Walsh, intern, and supervised by Vanessa Broussard Simmons, archivist.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Posters -- 21st century
label: Genre/Form
content: Posters -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Programs -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Advertising
label: Genre/Form
content: Catalogs
label: Genre/Form
content: Postcards
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The collection contains material relating to lesbian-oriented motion pictures. The bulk of the collection consists of ephemera and film posters from theatrical releases in the United States. The collection also contains catalogues from video houses, film festivals, posters, and other material collected by Biren from on-line auction sites. Some of the items have Biren's annotations written within them. The collection contains material associated with United States releases and foreign releases. Production dates are year of first release. An oral history about the collection was conducted by intern Erin Walsh in 2019.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: Materials in the Archives Center

Archives Center Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Collection (NMAH.AC.1146) contains an addendum of material donated by Biren in 2011.

Materials at Other Organizations

Collections of Joan E. Biren's personal and professional papers are located at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts.