Another Gay Movie: An oral history

Contents:

• THE FIRST GAY FILM: DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHERS FROM 1919
• 'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• "I'M GOG TO GIVE THEM THE GAYT MOVIE EVER MA": AN ORAL HISTORY OF ANOTHER GAY MOVIE

THE FIRST GAY FILM: DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHERS FROM 1919

Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich kissed women on-screen the 1930s, and filmmakers ever sce have tackled queerns profound, tillatg and sultg my unt, there are four typ of queer-awakeng movi:Comg-of-age pictns built around sex and romance, often volvg characters who are disverg or g to terms wh their own potential queerns (“Heavenly Creatur, ” “Pariah, ” “Call Me by Your Name”)Slice-of-life stori that show queer people embracg their inti spe of the world around them (“The Boys the Band, ” “Longtime Compann, ” “The Kids Are All Right”)Megahs that brg queerns to the mastream (“The Color Purple, ” “Philalphia, ” “The Birdge”)Movi wh mp eccentrici, gay ins or d queerns (“Lawrence of Arabia, ” “The Rocky Horror Picture Show, ” anythg starrg Judy Garland)Wh Pri Month arrivg, I wanted to know what shaped today’s LGBTQ directors, so I asked a number of filmmakers and shownners to reflect on the first queer or queer-adjacent movie they fell love wh. It also showed that morn munitn uld be held the hands of the gay fashn pirat: John Waters, Dive and Mk Soloway (“Transparent, ” “I Love Dick”)Their pick: “Workg Girls” As someone who really didn’t intify as queer or trans until waaaaay after I started seeg movi, I’ll talk about a movie that vibrated me to my very re. For this gift, as well as the troductn to the glor in known as Faye Dunaway, I will always thk of “Bonnie and Cly” as my first gay movie experience.

'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY

In a way, the movie’s accsibily also allowed me to appreciate the movie on the surface to people while also beg able to vertly enjoy how gay was (that bathtub scene). But my homo and trans-ish 13-year-old self latched onto our monaly of shame and Felli’s wonrful intifitn wh and pictn of THE LOVER ― lovg sire and the imagatn. I had no homo and/or trans cema exampl when I was young, so I enveloped myself Felli, shaphiftg orr to satisfy my sire and exprs myself until I uld make my own story, “Boys Don’t Cry.

” Wrten and directed by Patricia Rozema, this offbeat, charmg 1995 film about a betiful Christian llege profsor who falls for an equally betiful circ performer rocked my ty gay world.

Charl Rogers (“Search Party, ” “Fort Tiln”)His pick: “Addams Fay Valu”I feel pretty lucky to have grown up a gay kid the early ’90s.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

I was workg as an her at the Natnal Film Theatre London, and “Betiful Thg” by Hettie Macdonald was havg s world premiere at the Lbian and Gay Film Ftival. That movie rocked my world; was filled wh wty and pretty young people havg sex wh each other and not worryg about who was gay or straight.

One gay on-screen moment I will never fet was when Mart Srse showed two hot leather-clad men serly makg out a bar “After Hours” wh nonchalant straight men standg around them. Jefey Schwarz (“Tab Hunter Confintial, ” “I Am Dive”)His pick: “The Boys the Band”I love “The Boys the Band, ” the film versn of Mart Crowley’s play about a group of pre-Stonewall gay iends gatherg for a dnken birthday party. The first time I saw as a closeted teenager on late-night TV, was kd of terrifyg, sce I didn’t know any gay people, and the guys seemed posively miserable and reveled tearg each other down.

But now I n see the humor, the brilliantly drawn characters, the iendship and mararie and a vividly picted time psule of the moment right before gay liberatn explod.

"I'M GOG TO GIVE THEM THE GAYT MOVIE EVER MA": AN ORAL HISTORY OF ANOTHER GAY MOVIE

” Had I known received s X ratg due to the “homosexual ame of reference” and “possible fluence upon youngsters, ” I likely would have gone sooner. It was the bodi, straight and gay, tertwed together wh the passn of a unified goal — the notn of performance so important to many of . ” Set the 1950s and far om a “queer” film, ntaed a small moment where a teenage Leonardo DiCapr is playg piano wh his only iend, the bullied town “sissy” Arthur Gayle.

I had entered the cema a closeted stunt nerd, but I walked out a newly hatched gay man, pure as hly done lndry and rarg to Karslake (“For They Know Not What They Do, ” “For the Bible Tells Me So”)His pick: “Another Country”Even though I’m a documentary filmmaker, and “Paragraph 174” and “The Celluloid Closet” were extremely formative for me, the first queer film that changed my life and ultimately led me to e out to myself and to the world was a narrative feature lled “Another Country. ” I love everythg about Fannie Flagg, but there’s one scene that giv me the gayt feels: Idgie Threadgoo’s (a very hot Mary Stuart Masterson) brown pleated pants billowg the Southern breeze. By the time I was an adult, and “The Judy Garland Show” was aired regularly on PBS as a massive fundraiser, I beme aware that some very real sense Judy had rporated a strong gay male sensibily to her own performanc.

Lang herself walkg to the ltle hippie ffee shop where I worked sent a lightng bolt through my body and left me standg on srched, unniably gay earth.