Todd Haynes

Todd Haynes (/heɪnz/; 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. 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.\n', '

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…