Another Gay Movie: An oral history

Contents:

• 8 GAY DIRECTORS WHOSE MOVI AND TV SHOWS YOU SHOULD KNOW
• "I'M GOG TO GIVE THEM THE GAYT MOVIE EVER MA": AN ORAL HISTORY OF ANOTHER GAY MOVIE

8 GAY DIRECTORS WHOSE MOVI AND TV SHOWS YOU SHOULD KNOW

Billy Eichner is headg up the first gay rom- om a major stud wh “Bros, ” “Heartstopper” is a tween smash on Netflix, and Jerrod Carmichael, one of the folks on our list of the 10 LGBTQ Film and TV Creators on the Rise 2022, me out on an HBO special. ” The HBO Max edy seri, -created wh Schneir, about a warped brother and sister pair tryg to make the dtry fearlsly took on gay taboos this past Season 2 — cludg an entire episo about the social-media fallout of accintally postg a “hole pic.

The Chigo-based filmmaker is bt known for 2015’s “Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party, ” which was hailed by crics as a naturalistic and nuanced look at a teenage boy rencilg his burgeong homosexualy wh his relig upbrgg. 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. 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.

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

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. 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.

His work didn’t always al wh homosexualy, but the on that did were, once aga, ntroversial, most notably his adaptatn of the Marquis Sa’s The 120 Days of Sodom, Salò, which turned out to be his last movie before beg assassated obscure Almodovar name has bee synonym wh larger than life characters, trite stori, passn and pop culture. He’s always ma a pot of beg subversive and transgrsive which has ma for greatly ventive and fun films a s long Foster Foster has been around for so long as an actrs, might seem strange to put her a list of LGBT directors, pecially sce her output as a director has been rather srce and has rarely tackled gay issu. Also starred as probably one of the first « post-gay » characters: the fact that he was gay didn’t drive any part of the plot, nor was his ma personaly tra -his obnoxns was so apparent that nothg else really mattered.

His 2002 film 8 women, which is a quirky mix of spense, mp and grandse drama, has veloped a strong followg as a cult Cholonko has been directg featur sce the 90’s, and is most known for her 2010 edy-drama The Kids are All Right, which this is not a gay movie that gay is not the issue here, nor is even really discsed. That clip appears The Celluloid Closet, Rob Epste and Jefey Friedman’s documentary based on Vo Rso’s study of homosexualy the movi, along wh untls exampl of how gay characters showed up, per narrator Lily Toml, as “somethg to lgh at, or somethg to py, or even somethg to fear. Some have been documents of a moment or era of gay history, some have been ed as rrectiv to s of negative clichés, and others have simply celebrated the fact that the movi n be queer, they’re here, get ed to .