Keep the Lights On

In 2012, Ben Walters introduced the concept of “New Wave Queer Cinema”. Films like Keep the Lights On and Andrew Haigh’s Weekend distance themselves from clichéd roles and predictable plots and pose the question of how queer people really live today. In his hugely personal film, Ira Sachs tells the story of the love between director Erik and lawyer Paul, which becomes overshadowed by crack addition and artistic crises. Set in New York in the late 90s and early 2000s, this relationship drama is also a tribute to the queer US metropolis via its references to art figure Avery Willard and the use of the music of Arthur Russell—and offers its audience the chance to enter into a very special kind of a relationship  (Christian Weber) – “Every shot of the film shows a world I belong to or can at least belong to.” (André Wendler, sissy)