Foundations of LGBTQ+ Cinema
Trace the history of LGBTQ+ representation in film with this list of movies directed and/or about LGBTQ+ people and characters. From documentaries to romance to drama and beyond, these key films depict a broad range of LGBTQ+ experiences and perspectives. (Created June 2022)
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High Art
An early feature film from director Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are Alright), High Art stars Ally Sheedy as Lucy Berliner, a worldly, internationally known photographer and Radha Mitchell as Syd, the naïve 20-something who falls under her spell.
Format: DVD
Availability: No Longer Available
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La ley del deseo
This 1987 melodrama from noted Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar was the first of his films to specifically focus on gay relationships and a critical and commercial breakthrough.
Format: DVD
Availability: Available
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Love! Valour! Compassion!
Based on the award-winning Terrence McNally play of the same name, this 1997 drama centers on the lives of eight gay friends who spend three summer weekends together in upstate New York.
Format: DVD
Availability: Available
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My Own Private Idaho
Starring River Phoenix as Mikey, a narcoleptic gay hustler, and Keanu Reeves as Scott, his privileged best friend, My Own Private Idaho is loosely based on Shakespeare's Henry IV & V plays, and remains a landmark of New Queer Cinema.
Format: DVD
Availability: All copies in use
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Pariah
Dees Rees' first feature-length film won widespread acclaim for its nuanced and sensitive depiction of a young Black teenager coming to grips with her identity as a lesbian.
Format: DVD
Availability: Available
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Paris Is Burning
This influential 1990 documentary of Black and Latinx gay and transgender ball culture in 1980s New York has a complex legacy. It remains a key document of a vibrant and marginalized subculture but some critics have considered it exploitative.
Format: DVD
Availability: All copies in use
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Parting Glances
Director Bill Sherwood's only feature film is a revealing look at the upper-class gay male community in New York in the early days of the AIDS epidemic, featuring Steve Buscemi in an early and lauded role as Nick, a young man dying of AIDS.
Format: DVD
Availability: Available
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Pink Flamingos
No LGBTQIA cinema classics list would be complete without a film from John Waters, the King of Filth. Pink Flamingos, starring the legendary drag queen Divine, is the first of his so-called Trash Trilogy. Not for the faint of heart!
Format: DVD
Availability: All copies in use
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Poison
Director Todd Haynes (Carol, Far From Heaven) was one of the leading lights of the 1990s New Queer Cinema movement, and Poison remains one of his most influential (and controversial) films. A must-see for all queer cinephiles!
Format: Streaming Video
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The Queen
Released a year before the Stonewall uprising, this pioneering documentary follows several drag queens as they prepare and participate in the 1967 Miss All-America Camp Beauty Contest in New York City.
Format: DVD
Availability: Available
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