KNOWhomo

LGBTQ* Films to Keep(!) On Your Radar

Any Day Now

saving-sergius:

Winner of 10 Audience Awards at film festivals around the country and starring the amazing Alan Cumming, ANY DAY NOW is a powerful tale of love, acceptance and family. When a teenager with Down syndrome (Isaac Leyva) is abandoned by his mother, a gay couple (Alan Cumming and Garret Dillahunt) takes him in and becomes the loving family he’s never had. But when their unconventional living arrangement is discovered by authorities, the men are forced to fight a biased legal system to save the life of the child they have come to love as their own. Inspired by a true story from the late 1970s, ANY DAY NOW touches on legal and social issues that are as relevant today as they were 35 years ago.

LGBTQ* Film History You Should Know

WINGS (1927, Academy Award Winning Film)

What is it about?

Two young men, one rich, one middle class, who are in love with the same woman become fighter pilots in World War I.

Why is it important?

This film is the oldest surviving footage of a same-sex onscreen kiss and often believed to be the FIRST same-sex kiss on film. WINGS is an important addition to film and queer history with its honest portrayal of the bond and interaction between two men as watched by an audience via celluloid prior to the “macho - men are men” attitude which would go on to flood mentality and film a decade later.

LGBTQ* 2011 Movies You May Have Missed

1. Tomboy (French Film) — following a move, a 10-year introduces himself to his classmates and friends with pronouns he feels more comfortable with. Things become tense when adults and other children learn that his biological sex doesn’t reflect his presentation
2. Beginners — a series of flashbacks carries the audience through a young man’s current life and his father’s coming out promise (which begins in  his golden years)
3. Pariah — story of 17-year old African American teenager Alike and her experiences as she embraces her identity as a lesbian 
4. Albert Nobbs — Glenn Close stars in this period drama about gender expression, sexual orientation, gender roles and class structure
5. Every Day — the story of a family under strain after years of marriage and a son’s coming out process and desire to find love
6. Weekend (British) — film about a one-night stand that turns into something neither party expected and everything that can change someone’s outlook

Quintessential Movies from the Gay (male) Film Canon You Should Know

1. The Broken Hearts Club — West Hollywood gay softball team learns how to love, the power of friendship and coping with loss (actors include Zach Braff, Andrew Keegan and Dean Cain)
2. Get Real — gay teen comes out (and being a gay teen means drama will follow)
3. A Single Man — based on the Isherwood novel, this film follows what it means to be gay in the 1960s and what we do to keep on after tragedy
4. Latter Days — A promiscuous gay man from California meets a private Mormon and their encounters rearrange both of their lives
5. Looking for Langston — split film crossing back and forth between 1920s Harlem and 1980s England, this film invites you to explore the ways people express themselves and the places they find comfort
6. Brokeback Mountain — the life story of two men who meet while sheep ranching 
7. Milk — biopic about the life of Harvey Milk, S.F. first openly gay elected city official
8. Shelter — a young man returns home to care for his family, finding companionship in a place least expected
9. Brother to Brother — taking place during days of the Harlem Renaissance, this film follows a young artist and aging poet 
10.  Walk on Water —  following the suicide of his wife, an Israeli intelligence agent is assigned to befriend the grandchildren of a Nazi war criminal

Quintessential Movies from the Trans* Film Canon You Should Know

1. Ma Vie En Rose (My Life in Pink) — story of a young MAAB child and her expression 
2. Hedwig and the Angry Inch — Transexual punk rocker Hedwig leads us through her life, Eastern Europe, mega-stardom and love in this rock opera
3. Boys Don’t Cry — biopic about Brandon Teena and the final days of his life
4. Beautiful Boxer — biopic story of Nong Thoom (born  Parinya Kiatbusaba), a famous kathoey, Muay Thai fighter, actress and model. 
5. Soldier’s Girl — biopic about Barry Winchell, his relationship with Calpernia Addams, and the events of his fellow soldiers
6. Breakfast on Pluto — follows the life of Patrick “Kitten” Braden in the fictional Irish town of  Tyrellin in the 1940s
7. Orlando — based on V. Woolf’s novel of the same name, this film follow the forever young Orlando through life (an all it’s incarnations)
8. Transamerica — follows Bree as she travels cross-country with her son 
9. The Adventures of Sebastian Cole — Sebastian returns to the US to reunite with his father after his sexual reassignment surgery 
10.  20 centímetros (20 Centimeters)— Spanish film following a woman as she works towards surgery to fix her “20 centimeters of problems”

 Quintessential Movies from the Lesbian Film Canon You Should Know

1. But I’m A Cheerleader — camp, gender and sexuality! — this film was the 2000s cult lesbian classic
2. Better Than Chocolate — 90s film (bit dated) that put camp, lesbianism, indie bookshops, living in your van, and indie women’s soundtracks on the map
3. Fire — banned in India, focusing on religion, gender roles, family, and the power of communication, this film lit up theatres and television screens with a world view many have never seen before
4. D.E.B.S. — Angela Robinson’s(writer/director on L Word series, Herbie: Fully Loaded) quirky spy-mock film. FIRST lesbian film to receive a PG-13 rating
5. Desert Hearts — 1985 film and one of the most famous kisses shared between two women on screen 
6. I Can’t Think Straight — Jumping between England and Jordan, Muslim and Christian, engagements and family, this comedy serves plenty of drama while still making you smile from ear to ear.
7. Saving Face — Heartwarming Chinese-American comedy about family traditions and taking time for your own journeys
8. If These Walls Could Talk 2 — this  HBO film, made up of three episodes (1960s, 1970s, 2000), focuses on three pairs of lesbian relationships. Pull out your tissues for the first, gender and sexual expression for the second, and fall madly in love with Ellen and Sharon in the third.
9. Bound — tough women, get rich plots, cocky, sexy, and very 90s, Bound is the movie you don’t watch with your parents but do invite all your friends over for
10. Imagine Me & You — 2005’s ultimate romantic comedy. Luce and Rachel will steal your heart and leave you quoting the movie for days

LGBTQ* Documentaries You Should Know (Part 2)

1. Chris & Don
2. The Brandon Teena Story
3. The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye 
4. Fabulous: A Story of Queer Cinema
5. Gendernauts: A Journey Through Shifting Identities 
6. Out of the Past: A Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Rights in America
7. For the Bible Tells Me So
8. Lesbian Sex & Sexuality
9. Trembling Before God
10. Our House: Kids of Gay and Lesbian Parents

LGBTQ* Documentaries You Should Know

1.  Before Stonewall/After Stonewall (2 separate documentaries, now packaged together)
2. A Jihad for Love
3. Through My Eyes
4. The Life and Times of Harvey Milk
5. Two Spirits
6. The Celluloid Closet
7. Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria
8. Paragraph 175
9. Paris is Burning
10. Southern Comfort

LGBTQ* Movies/Films To Keep On Your Radar

FIRE (1996)

Ashok runs a family business that sells takeout food that also has a video rental store at the side. Ashok’s extended family includes his wife Radha, his brother Jatin, their ailing mother Biji and their manservant Mundu, all living under the same roof.  Ashok agrees to marry the beautiful Sita in an arranged marriage, although he is actually in love with Julie, a Chinese-Indian. At first glance, you see a happy middle-class family going through the normal paces of everyday life. However, as the layers are slowly peeled back, we find a simmering cauldron of discontent within the family, with almost every family member living a lie. Marriages in the family turn out to be emotionally empty, without love or passion. Sita and Radha become fast friends, and, in time, much more than that. But their love is not without its share of painful obstacles. Written by Hariharan

LGBTQ* Films and Documentaries

The Celluloid Closet (1995- HBO)

Author Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City) wrote Lily Tomlin’s narration for this superb documentary, based on a book by the late Vito Russo, about Hollywood’s treatment of homosexual characters in the 20th century. Never pointing a finger at anyone in the film community, The Celluloid Closet presents clips from more than 100 mainstream features (including The Children’s Hour,Advise and Consent, The Boys in the Band, and The Hunger) that speak loudly in their respective images of gays and lesbians. The film makes a persuasive case for patterns of sexual mythology in Hollywood, such as presenting homosexuals repeatedly as tragic, helpless figures redeemed only through death or as back-street monsters cavorting in the shadows. Things change, of course, and clips from more recent films by gay and lesbian filmmakers suggest a more vital, diverse, autobiographical approach. There are lots of great interviews with screenwriters (Gore Vidal), filmmakers (John Schlesinger), actors (Tom Hanks, Whoopi Goldberg), and others to enunciate the major themes. —Tom Keogh

Respect or Nothing.

From: Torch Song Trilogy (1988)

written by and starring Harvey Fierstein