A journalist and broadcaster, his work has appeared in The Times, The Guardian, Time Out and on Channel 4. He is a frequent contributor to TV and radio.

Named one of the 1001 most influential gay people in Britain by The Independent in 2007, Paul's new novel The Gay Divorcee will be published by LittleBown in May 2009.

His website is www.PaulBurston.com or you can contact him on My Space here.

Paul Burston, who was also on the judging panel of the 2008 Outrate Online Short Film Festival, spoke with Mark Adnum in October 2008.

MARK ADNUM: Paul, I sometimes wonder if it's worth keeping this site open. I established it four years ago when the deluge of execrable gay rom-coms and over-earnest gay politik films were coming at us left right and centre and there had to be some gay media presence that called them for what they were worth (ie, not worth watching). Now, after Brokeback Mountain (which we won't go into right now) and the general ennui and plethora of comatose gay cinema, I honestly can never think of a thing to say about current indie or studio gay-themed films. What's your view?

PAUL BURSTON: Well I was and still am a huge fan of Brokeback Mountain, if only because it starred two Hollywood leading men you might actually want to fuck. Seriously though, it was a powerful film, and probably helped a lot of people. 

I wish there'd been films like that when I was coming out. As for the state of gay film generally, I think  gay culture as a whole is going through a period of complacency. There doesn't appear to be anything that needs saying, especially in the UK where we've won so many legal battles. Of course the truth is very different. Gay people are still murdered on our streets. Gay men are killing themselves with drugs like G and crystal. Younger gay men are contracting HIV in massive numbers. And gay stories still aren't being told, at least not often.

MA: I do find, though, that gay-themed films from South and South-East Asia, are generally pretty good, and free of the need to, say, feature Paris Hilton singing a song to grab some box office cash. Do you appreciate gay-themed films from this region?

PB: I do. I suspect the reason for this is that there's a greater sense of urgency there, less of a commercial imperative, and more sense of an emerging community that needs to see itself reflected on screen in order to feel validated. I'm not knocking this. It's very important, the whole visibility issue. People have a genuine desire to see themselves on screen. The trouble is when film-makers take that desire for granted, and produce mindless drivel in the name of gay entertainment.

MA: I always loved your essay on Alien 3 where you proposed that that film could be read as a film about AIDS. Certainly, no gay-oriented film has touched the ideas of dormant bugs waiting to explode, a holocaustic sense of entrapment, etc, with a barge pole. Scholar Alan Sinfield has stated (correctly, in my opinion) that though we have moved, via anti-retorviral drugs, beyond AIDS, we haven't actually moved through it. Why do you think there's such a reluctance to make a film - or discuss at all- subjects like, for example, the gay resistance to the early years of the AIDS epidemic, which matched the allergies of the US government and the medical establishment in the US and other countries with, say, the burnign of safe sex pamphlets at the forecd closure nights of San Francisco gay bathhouses? Why do you think the visceral horrors of the AIDS epidemic are abesnt from gay cinema from 1989-present and, perhaps, do you think it was present but somehow displaced ?

PB: I agree that we haven't moved through AIDS. I don't think we've moved beyond it either. I still know of people dying as a result of the medications they're on - not from AIDS, but from cancers. Personally, I think a bit more visceral horror might not be such a bad idea. Those of us old enough to have seen the horrors of AIDS for real won't ever forget them. But a lot of people could benefit from being reminded that HIV is no picnic. 

The ubiquity of bareback porn presents unsafe sex as just another gay lifestyle choice, no different than choosing between Calvin Klein or Aussiebum underwear. Meanwhile, safer sex education has become pretty laughable, what little of it exists. Telling people to fuck like a porn star and pull out before they come isn't going to prevent the spread of HIV. A stark reminder of the realities of living on combination therapy might.

MA: What are your expectations of Gus Van Sant's biopic of Harvey Milk?

PB: I'm a huge fan of the original documentary. In fact I chose it as the film I'd like people to see in 75 years time as part of the BFI's 75th anniversary celebrations. It's a powerful story and I'm sure Gus Van Sant will do it justice 

MA: Back to Brokeback Mountain (we will never escape it), what was your take on the virtually complete dismissal of Phillip Seymour Hoffmann winning the third Best Actor Oscar for a gay role due to the tragedy of Brokeback not winning Best Picture? Like William Hurt before him, it seems to me that many gay commentators aren't really interested in dandy roles, regardless of their quality of level of recognition. As I asked Camille Paglia, why do you think gay commentators and gay film goers insist on their big-screen representation being Marlboro Man despite this archetype having very little to do with, say, Friday afternoon drinks at G.A.Y?

PB: I thought Phillip Seymour Hoffman was fantastic in that role, and thoroughly deserved the Oscar. I suspect the reason people long for the Marlboro Man fantasy is because it's sexy and so rarely seen. For years, gay men have always been represented as flaming queens. I have nothing against flaming queens. 

I've been known to flame myself on the odd occasion. But not everyone feels comfortable with that stereotype, and there are a lot of gay men out there who aren't remotely like that. They're just less visible. The best gay drama I saw recently was an episode of The Street by Jimmy McGovern and was all about a gay builder coming to terms with his sexuality. These men exist. My stepdad is a builder and I've met these people in real life. You just never see them on screen. 

MA: Let's talk about you. What's your new novel about? Why did you feel a need to write about friends and acquaintances in a less-than-flattering way?

PB: The new novel is called The Gay Divorcee and it's about a gay man who's getting married for the second time. He was married once before - to a woman. Now he's about to get married again - to a man. What he doesn't know is that his straight past is about to come back to haunt him. It's a gay comedy of manners, very contemporary, and very much focussed on ordinary people instead of the celebrity types who've dominated my last two novels. There are some familiar characters in there too.  

As for writing about friends in a less than flattering way, I'm not sure what you mean. Although I partly base characters on people I meet, all of my books are about myself. I take great pleasure in putting the worst bits of myself into some of my characters, and then punishing them for it.  It's better than therapy, and cheaper.

MA: Living in Thailand, I find that once you're older than 25, you're a target for money boys who see you as a desperado client with a beer belly and a very full wallet. How are you experiencing aging - as a gay guy - in Europe?

PB: I'm a whole lot happier at 43 than I was at 23. Age brings a lot of compensations. You know yourself better. Hopefully you've learned to curb your worst character traits, and you care less what other people think of you. A beer belly isn't an inevitable part of growing older, and nor is a full wallet. I could go into a long Freudian analysis of the whole 'daddy thing', but really if that's what floats people's boat and they're not hurting anyone, who am I to judge? 

Personally I feel lucky to still be around. A lot of people I knew 20 years ago aren't.

Main photograph by Miguel Sobreira

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