Partner James K. Lyons
Queer Places:
Brown University (Ivy League), 13 Brown St, Providence, RI 02906
Todd
Haynes (born January 2, 1961) is an American independent film director,
screenwriter, and producer. He is considered a pioneer of the New Queer Cinema
movement of filmmaking that emerged in the early 1990s.[1][2]
Haynes first gained public attention with his controversial short film
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987), which chronicles singer Karen
Carpenter's tragic life and death, using Barbie dolls as actors. Haynes had
not obtained proper licensing to use the Carpenters' music, prompting a
lawsuit from Richard Carpenter, whom the film portrayed in an unflattering
light, banning the film's distribution. Superstar became a cult
classic.[2][3]
Haynes was born January 2, 1961, in Los Angeles, and grew up in nearby
Encino. His father, Allen E. Haynes, was a cosmetics importer, and his mother,
Sherry Lynne (née Semler), studied acting (and makes a brief appearance in
I'm Not There). Haynes is Jewish on his mother's side.[4][5]
His younger sister is Gwynneth Haynes of the band Sophe Lux.[6]
Haynes developed an interest in film at an early age, and produced a short
film, The Suicide (1978), while still in high school. He studied
semiotics at Brown University, where he directed his first short film
Assassins: A Film Concerning Rimbaud (1985), inspired by the French poet
Arthur Rimbaud
(a personality Haynes would later reference in his film I'm Not There). Haynes studied art and semiotics at Brown University prior
to his bigger roles on the big screen. At Brown, he met Christine Vachon, who
would go on to produce all of his feature films. After graduating with a BA in
Arts and Semiotics, Haynes moved to New York City and became involved in the
independent film scene, launching Apparatus Productions, a non-profit
organization for the support of independent film.[2]
James K. Lyons (1960–2007),
aka Jim, was an American film editor and actor who frequently collaborated
with his then partner Todd Haynes. At the time they lived in Brooklyn, from
1989 until the late '90s.
Haynes' feature directorial debut, Poison (1991), a provocative,
three-part exploration of AIDS-era queer perceptions and subversions,
established him as a formidable talent and figure of a new transgressive
cinema. Poison won the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize and is
regarded as a seminal work of New Queer Cinema. Haynes received further
acclaim for his second feature film Safe (1995), a symbolic portrait of
a housewife who develops extreme allergic reactions to her suburban life.
Safe was later voted the best film of the 1990s by The Village Voice
Film Poll. Haynes' next feature, Velvet Goldmine (1998), is a tribute
to the 1970s glam rock era, drawing heavily on the rock histories and
mythologies of David
Bowie, Iggy Pop,
and Lou Reed. The film received the Special Jury Prize for Best Artistic
Contribution at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival and an Academy Award nomination
for Best Costume Design.
Haynes gained critical acclaim and a measure of mainstream success with his
2002 feature, Far from Heaven. Inspired by the cinematic language of
the films of Douglas Sirk, Far From Heaven is a 1950s-set melodrama
about a Connecticut housewife who discovers that her husband is gay and falls
in love with her African-American gardener. The film received four Academy
Award nominations, including Best Original Screenplay for Haynes. His fifth
feature, I'm Not There (2007), marked another shift in direction. A
nonlinear biopic, I'm Not There depicts various facets of Bob Dylan
through seven fictionalized characters played by five actors and an actress.
I'm Not There received critical acclaim and an Academy Award nomination
for Best Supporting Actress for Cate Blanchett. In 2011, Haynes directed and
co-wrote Mildred Pierce, a five-hour mini-series for HBO, which
garnered 21 Emmy Award nominations, winning five, as well as four Golden Globe
Award nominations and a win for lead actress Kate Winslet.
In 2015, Haynes returned to the big screen with Carol, his sixth
feature film and the first film not written by him. Based on
Patricia
Highsmith's seminal romance novel The Price of Salt, Carol
is the story of a forbidden love affair between two women from different
classes and backgrounds in early 1950s New York City. The film received
critical acclaim and many accolades including a nomination for the Palme d'Or,
six Academy Award nominations, five Golden Globe Award nominations, and nine
BAFTA Award nominations.
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