Descriptions:
Actor Grace can’t understand why every role she lands ends in her untimely death-until a mysterious agent explains the ‘Bury Your Gays’ trope. Now, trapped in a genre-hopping battle for survival, Grace has one mission: do not die.
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Bury Your Gays by Charlotte Serena Cooper
“It was while watching the Killing Eve series finale during lockdown. We had spent many series rooting for Eve and Villanelle, and just as their relationship was finally realised—at the very moment a happy ending seemed possible—Villanelle was killed in a dull, uninspired way. What made this even more frustrating was the showrunner’s explanation that Villanelle’s death represented a rebirth for Eve, allowing her to move on to something bigger and better. The ending left many viewers deeply disappointed; a billboard was even funded and put up in London, reading “Let the trope sink to the bottom of the Thames.” This reaction sparked my interest in why storytellers so often rely on doomed and tragic queer characters, leading me to research the history of censorship and the Hays Code.
I also want to briefly clarify the difference between a gay character dying and a Bury Your Gays death. If a lesbian character dies and it makes sense within the story’s world, she’s fully developed, her death isn’t framed as punishment, and she isn’t reduced to being the token gay, then it’s simply a gay person dying. But when a queer character is killed shortly after finding love or happiness, used to advance a straight character’s arc, and denied narrative dignity or resolution—especially when they’re one of the only queer characters—that’s when it crosses into the cliché.”
🎙️ Dive deeper into the making of Bury Your Gays with our exclusive interview with writer/director Charlotte Serena Cooper
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// Credits //
Starring Jude Mack, T’Nia Miller and Harry Trevaldwyn
Written and Directed by Charlotte Serena Cooper
Produced by Charlotte Brownlee
Cinematography by Dale McCready BSC NZCS
Produced by Charge Films and Deadbeat Films
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