Faber to publish It Used to be Witches: Under the Spell of Queer Cinema by Ryan Gilbey
28 February 2025
Faber is to publish It Used to be Witches: Under the Spell of Queer Cinema by award-winning film critic Ryan Gilbey.
Faber has announced the publication of It Used to be Witches: Under the Spell of Queer Cinema, an authoritative celebration of the past, present and future of queer cinema. Walter Donohue, Senior Editor, acquired UK & Comm. + EU (excluding Canada) rights from Matthew Marland at RCW. Publication is scheduled for 5 June.
Playfully blending personal memoir, criticism and candid new interviews with filmmakers from across the LGBTQ+ spectrum, Ryan Gilbey’s engaging and dynamic It Used to be Witches is a non-chronological treasure-hunt through queer cinema past and present. Andrew Haigh (All of Us Strangers), Cheryl Dunye (The Watermelon Woman), Isabel Sandoval (Lingua Franca) and Bruce LaBruce (No Skin Off My Ass) are among the directors who reveal how queer artists use film to express their most personal truths—and to challenge, defy and outrage a world that would rather they didn’t exist.
That world might look rainbow-coloured from some angles, with the likes of Brokeback Mountain, Call Me By Your Name, Moonlight and Portrait of a Lady on Fire winning awards and acclaim. But as queer and trans people find themselves increasingly under attack, It Used to Be Witches asks whether cinema can be an effective weapon of resistance and change, and celebrates an outlaw spirit which refuses to die.
Ryan Gilbey said:
‘When I started writing It Used to be Witches, I knew I wanted to interrogate not only queer cinema but its power to shape queer identity, including my own. Working out how to do it in a form which incorporated criticism, memoir and interviews has been the most fulfilling experience of my writing life. Crucial to that are Faber and Walter Donohue, who published my debut more than 20 years ago and have now given me the freedom to explore and experiment with a new kind of film book.’
Walter Donohue said:
‘With over 30 years of experience writing on film, Ryan brings a knowledge, nuance and personal perspective which is unparalleled. It Used to be Witches is a book which opens your eyes to the richness of other voices, other lives.’
Ryan Gilbey has been writing on film for more than 30 years. He was named the Independent/ Sight and Sound Young Film Journalist of the Year in 1993, won a Press Gazette award for his reviews at the New Statesman, where he was film critic from 2006 until 2023, and has written for the Guardian since 2002. He is the author of It Don’t Worry Me, about 1970s US cinema, and a study of Groundhog Day in the BFI Modern Classics series. He lives in London.
Photograph by: Chris Butler
An authoritative celebration of the past, present and future of queer cinema.