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When Does A Film Become Camp?

July 30, 2026 · 49 min

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What makes a film camp? Is it something filmmakers create, or something audiences discover?

To celebrate Pride Month and LAB111's Camp, Cult & Queer programme, filmmaker Kiriko Mechanicus is joined by film programmer Alicia Bergamelli to unpack one of cinema's most elusive ideas. Drawing on Susan Sontag's famous essay Notes on "Camp", they explore where camp came from, why it has become inseparable from queer culture, and how audiences can completely reshape a film's meaning over time.

Through films including Bound, Cruising, Pink Flamingos, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, they discuss the difference between intentional and accidental camp, why works once dismissed or condemned can become beloved classics, and what these changing reputations reveal about cinema, identity and the communities that keep films alive.

Get tickets to Camp Cult & Queer @ LAB111

Get tickets to Y Tu Mama Tambien @ LAB111

Get tickets to Cine Of The Times: No Country For Old Men @ LAB111

Get tickets to The Departed @ LAB111

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