Bruce LaBruce began his career in the mid-eighties making a series of short experimental super 8 films and co-editing, with G. B. Jones, a punk fanzine called
J.D.s, which launched the queercore movement. From 1991 to 1996, he directed and starred in three feature-length movies,
No Skin Off My Ass,
Super 8 1/2 and
Hustler White. Since 2000, he has directed three art/porn features,
Skin Flick,
The Raspberry Reich and
L.A. Zombie; as well as the independent feature
Otto; or, Up with Dead People. In 2010 LaBruce directed two episodes of the ARTE documentary series Into the
Night with…, one featuring Harmony Korine and Gaspar Noé, the other featuring Béatrice Dalle and Virginie Despentes. In 1997, LaBruce wrote a premature memoir entitled
The Reluctant Pornographer. The following year, the Plug-In Gallery in Winnipeg, Canada, published a book on his work,
Ride Queer Ride. LaBruce has directed three theatrical productions:
Cheap Blacky (2007),
The Bad Breast; or, The Strange Case of Theda Lange (2009) and
Macho Family Romance (2009). He is a regular contributor to many magazines and newspapers, as both a writer and photographer. LaBruce held his first solo photography show at the Alleged Gallery in New York in December 1999, while his latest, entitled "Bruce LaBruce Retrospective," premiered at MoMa in New York in 2015. The versatile artist also directed his first opera, an adaptation of Arnold Schönberg's
Pierrot Lunaire, in Berlin in 2011. Three years later, the screen adaptation of
Pierrot Lunaire earned LaBruce the Teddy Award Special Jury Prize at the 2014 Berlinale. In 2016 LaBruce served as jury president for Giornate degli Autori, the section that had selected his 2013 film
Gerontophilia for the competition lineup. In 2017 he directed two feature films:
Ulrike's Brain (Berlinale, Forum) and
The Misandrists (Berlinale, Panorama).
