A list of 16,705 films piled on Letterboxd, cludg The Stunt of Prague (1913), A Florida Enchantment (1914), Zapata's Gang (1914), Filib (1915) and The Wgs (1916). About this list: It’s an LGBTQ+ world and the are my other LGBTQ+ lists on Letterboxd: ➡️Mor Intert Films: In the Closet: A List of Mor Intert LGBTQ+ Films ➡️Short Films: Size Don’t Always Matter: A Collectn of Fe LGBTQ+ Shorts for Boys and Girls All Over the World ➡️Berl: Teddy Award – Berl Film Ftival (1987-2023) ➡️Cann: Queer Palm – Ftival Cann (2010-2023) ➡️Venice: Queer Ln – Venice Film Ftival (2007-2022) ➡️Top 200: MundoF’s Top 200 LGBTQ+ Films of All Time ABOUT THIS LIST The purpose of this list is to offer a chronologil look at the multiple films that have had signifint lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr or queer ntent over the years. Now, there are legns of reasons why a movie might be nsired sential to the LGBTQ+ muny. As such, this broad and prehensive list clus films that al wh or feature signifint LGBTQ+ characters or issu, and may have same-sex romance or relatnships as an important plot vice. The films on the list e om all over the world and they ver the whole spectm of the LGBTQ+ experience. FAQ ▻ How did this list e about? Like everyone else here, I love watchg movi general and, like a few others, LGBTQ+ movi particular. As happens, I uldn’t fd a prehensive list of LGBTQ+ films that tly satisfied me anywhere I looked, so I cid to create one right here, on Letterboxd, Febary 2018. Sce untls LGBTQ+ entri happened to be missg om the TMDB database at the time, took me a uple of months to build the list, and I’m que happy wh the rult as stands today, although ’s still a work progrs sce I’m nstantly addg new tl; not only new releas but smaller films that might have been overlooked along the way. ▻ What kd of films are clud on your list? Generally speakg, films that will likely appeal and speak to LGBTQ+ dienc. Therefore, movi wh overtly – or sometim subtle - gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr, queer ntent or characters ma by LGBTQ+ - or sometim non LGBTQ+ - filmmakers. Films different languag om different parts of the world that exprs general LGBTQ+ experienc, issu, needs, and ncerns. The list is meant to be prehensive, so I didn’t want to impose any sort of rtrictns when creatg . For that reason, the list also clus films that al wh bullyg and homophobia. Movi on this list n be flamboyantly gay or, some s, barely out of the closet. ▻ How did you build your list? This list is pilatn of entri that I gathered om several sourc, namely: • Vo Rso’s The Celluloid Closet. Published 1981, before the Inter ever existed, The Celluloid Closet was a groundbreakg book about the portrayal of homosexualy film. You n check Alex’s The Celluloid Closet (Revised Edn) page for a plete list of entri featured that particular book. • Screengs at notable LGBTQ+ film ftivals om around the world. • Books I personally own, like Raymond Murray’s Imag the Dark: An Encyclopedia of Gay and Lbian Film and Vio & Blood Moon's Gui to Gay and Lbian Film: The World's Most Comprehensive Gui to Recent Gay and Lbian Movi or Inter talogu Fabric Pradas’s Céma gay: un siècle d'homosexualé sur grand écran, and others. • Wikipedia lists and relevant IMDB keywords such as gay, lbian, bisexual, and more. • Amazon Prime, notably the ''Ctomers who watched this em also watched'' feature, which - surprgsgly enough - featur a ton of smaller LGBTQ+ films. • CGiii’s database. The folks at CGiii like to boast themselv as ‘’the most prehensive LGBT film se the entire Universe’’, and I have to adm that they have a solid and thorough database that clus films the Gay, Lbian, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex and Mor Intert tegori.
Contents:
- A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
- RACG TO PRERVE THE HISTORY OF MAE’S 1ST GAY RIGHTS ANIZATN
A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
Steve Bull once raced agast time to try to save the memoirs of one of Mae's gay rights pneers. His trip led him down memory lane. * history of lgbt cinema *
While gay characters were equently ed for lghs or not explicly stated to be queer the earlit mastream Hollywood films, a brief relaxatn Germany's film productn the early 20th century allowed for LGBTQ+ classics like "Different om the Others" and "Mädchen Uniform.
Although one uld argue that such a gelg terview procs was exploative, Holliday's mgs about his life, dreams, and art the face of societal anti-Blackns and homophobia provi the kd of tersectnal look at LGBTQ+ inty that '60s media sorely lacked.
However, throughout 150 years of homosexual social movements (roughly om the 1870s to today), lears and anizers stggled to addrs the very different ncerns and inty issu of gay men, women intifyg as lbians, and others intifyg as genr variant or nonbary. Such eyewns acunts the era before other media were of urse riddled wh the bias of the (often) Wtern or Whe observer, and add to beliefs that homosexual practic were other, foreign, savage, a medil issue, or evince of a lower racial hierarchy. Biblil terpretatn ma illegal for a woman to wear pants or a man to adopt female drs, and sensatnalized public trials warned agast “viants” but also ma such martyrs and hero popular: Joan of Arc is one example, and the chillg origs of the word “faggot” clu a stick of wood ed public burngs of gay men.
RACG TO PRERVE THE HISTORY OF MAE’S 1ST GAY RIGHTS ANIZATN
From 1894, when the very first gay film premiered to this year when a mastream children's movie featurg a ma character who is queer beme available to stream, look back at the history of * history of lgbt cinema *
This creasg awarens of an existg and vulnerable populatn, upled wh Senator Joseph McCarthy’s vtigatn of homosexuals holdg ernment jobs durg the early 1950s outraged wrers and feral employe whose own liv were shown to be send-class unr the law, cludg Frank Kameny, Barbara Gtgs, Allen Gsberg, and Harry Hay. Fstrated wh the male learship of most gay liberatn groups, lbians fluenced by the femist movement of the 1970s formed their own llectiv, rerd labels, mic ftivals, newspapers, bookstor, and publishg ho, and lled for lbian rights mastream femist groups like the Natnal Organizatn for Women. The creasg expansn of a global LGBT rights movement suffered a setback durg the 1980s, as the gay male muny was cimated by the Aids epimic, mands for passn and medil fundg led to renewed alns between men and women as well as angry street theatre by groups like Aids Coaln to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and Queer Natn.
Wh greater media attentn to gay and lbian civil rights the 1990s, trans and tersex voic began to ga space through works such as Kate Boernste’s “Genr Outlaw” (1994) and “My Genr Workbook” (1998), Ann Fsto-Sterlg’s “Myths of Genr” (1992) and Llie Feberg’s “Transgenr Warrrs” (1998), enhancg shifts women’s and genr studi to bee more clive of transgenr and nonbary inti.
Decrimalisatn changed the way homosexualy and gay culture were portrayed on screen. * history of lgbt cinema *
The days we’re seeg more openly gay characters who aren’t jt a punchle or stereotyped (an example beg the flamboyant gay bt iend every rom-), nor are their stori purely tragic, but stead are celebratory and as romantic and plex as any other character – TV shows like It’s a S, Brooklyn 99 and Sex Edutn are perfect illtratns of this. The tle translat to “Different From the Other, ” and follows a gay vlist who tak his life after beg blackmailed by someone who knew about his sexual orientatn a time where beg homosexual was still illegal Germany, as well as much of the world. Hchck played wh this theme several more of his films, cludg Psycho (1960), which se Norman Bat cross-drsg as his mother, and Rope (1948), which follows the story of two men (who are portrayed as gay, although ’s never nfirmed the script) who murr someone for the fun of – to name a few!
Not only was Rebel Whout a Cse a huge box office h, but also featur an obv, d gay subtext between the rebell Jim Stark (played by Jam Dean, who was also supposedly bisexual), and Plato, who was played by Sal Meo, one of the first big Hollywood actors to openly adm to beg gay.
It was the first English-speakg film to e the term ‘homosexual’ and explor the stggl queer people would go through at the time and the lengths they were forced to go to nceal their sexualy, om payg off blackmailers to mtg suici rather than be outed. It’s based at a birthday party New York attend by a close-kn group of gay men, but when a straight iend (who don’t know the host is gay) unexpectedly arriv, old tensns bubble to the surface of the group as the host tri to nceal his sexualy. Tellg the story of a young Black gay man g to grips wh his inty om childhood to adulthood, this tenr g-of-age drama ma history as the first LGBTQ+ film and the first film wh an all-Black st to w Bt Picture 2017 for s stunng cematography, clivy and groundbreakg script.