Benjamin Crotty: Fort Buchanan

Benjamin Crotty’s debut feature Fort Buchanan is a virtuoso hybrid, blending queer cinema and American soap operas with the traditions of French arthouse cinema.

The film follows Roger (Andy Gillet star of Eric Rohmer's last film) who is struggling to cope in the fictional US Army base of the title in the Alsace region of France. His husband Frank is stationed in Djibouti leaving him caught between the demands of their wayward adolescent daughter Roxy and the advances of the promiscuous wives also stationed at the base (played with abandon by Pauline Jacquard, Mati Diop and Judith Lou Lévy).

American-born, Paris-based writer-director Benjamin Crotty’s beautifully crafted film is finely balanced between absurdity and sincerity. Structured over the four seasons, Fort Buchanan recasts the military melodrama as an arena to explore sexual and racial politics, reflecting both narrative and cultural presumptions slipping between domestic struggles and foreign conflicts. 

Benjamin Crotty will present and discuss his work following the UK premiere screening of Fort Buchanan.

Benjamin Crotty, Fort Buchanan, France / Tunisia 2014, 16mm transferred to HD, colour, sound, 65 min

French with English subtitles

This screening is part of Scalarama, a celebration of cinema across the UK and beyond throughout September.