oh my god i am obsessed with lgbt history too! here’s a list of some i myself have seen and enjoyed – i bolded my absolute favourites, in case you wanted maybe a recommendation of where to start! 😀
- the celluloid closet (1995) – incredible doc about lgbt representation in the media starting all the way from 1900 to 1995, including censorship and the bury your gays trope.
- paris is burning (1990) – critically lauded classic must-watch doc about drag balls and q*eer culture and the lgbt people of color who created it.
- the times of harvey milk (1984) –
A documentary of the successful career and assassination of San Francisco’s first elected gay councilor. there is also the excellent Milk (2008), which is a drama film version directed by q-cinema veteran Gus van Sant.
- we were here (2011) – all about the arrival and impact of the AIDS epidemic and how the lgbt community dealt with it.
- before stonewall (1984) – a doc in which they use interviews and clips to surmise what lgbt culture was like before the iconic stonewall inn and how stonewall came into fruitation.
- the case against 8 – behind-the-scenes look at the case to overturn california’s ban against same-sex marriage.
- for the bible tells me so (2007) – exploring the how religion gives people the excuse to be homophobic/biphobic/transphobic
- gay sex in the 70s (2005) – exactly what it says on the tin
ok
How to Survive a Plague (2012) is probably the most powerful AIDS documentary i’ve seen and, while both are good, it trumps We Were Here by a fucking longshot. i consider the latter a ‘softer’ retelling of AIDS compared to the former. every young LGBT person should watch this documentary at least once, it’s so important.
all of these sound really nice and interesting, but do you have recommendations for movies about lgbt history outside of the US?
Out and Bad: London’s LGBT Dancehall Scene (2015) is a documentary challenging the homophobic image of Jamaican dancehall music by following the lives of LGBT Jamaican immigrants in the UK.
Chris & Don: A Love Story (2008) is about Christopher Isherwood (whose novels and stories about Wiemar Germany formed the basis for the musical and film Cabaret) and his long-term partner Don Bachardy.
Dancing In Dulais is about LGSM (Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners) and their work with a mining community in Wales. Here, here and here are some more segments and panels about the cause.
Freeheld (2007) is an Oscar winning documentary – about a terminally ill gay woman fighting for her partner’s right to her pension – that was later used as the basis for the film of the same name starring Ellen Page and Julianne Moore – from what I’ve heard, the documentary deserves a lot more merit than the film.
Tongues Untied (1989) is a documentary consisting of a series of stories about the intersections of Black and gay identity, and the bonus DVD includes interviews with an HIV/AIDS activist and a spoken word artist.
Paris Was a Woman (1996) is about LBPQ women living in Paris in the 1920′s, seeking freedom and liberation between the two world wars.
To Be Takei (2014) tells the story of George Takei’s (of Star Trek fame) life, family, activism and career.
The Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria (2005) tells the story of an act of resistance by transgender women, drag queens and their allies in San Francisco, following harassment by the cafeteria staff and later the police.
Thank you, these all sound really interesting!
“The Circle/Der Kreis” (2014) is also a swiss drama/documentary about Zürich being the biggest gay friendly city during the 50′s/60′s and the gay magazine “Der Kreis”, which got sent to all over the world. And also about swiss’ first gay couple to get married, they met through the magazine and narrate the whole thing.
Tag: to watch
Okay this is a very half-formed thought and I’m not sure where I’m going with it yet, but the fact that the teen girls we’re meant to root for in so many Teen Girl Stories are the ones who are bad at or uncomfortable with performing femininity probably isn’t a coincidence.
And it’s mostly not because the people who create media about teen girls want to shatter gender roles; it’s more likely because even though femininity is the prescribed way for female-identified people to behave it’s also seen as something largely unpleasant.Um. I’m going somewhere with this, maybe after I finish my homework. But I want to hang onto this thought.
ex: the proof of Regina George’s redemption is giving up her hyper-femininity in favor of aggressive, masculine-coded sports
ex 2: in High School Musical Gabriella and Taylor have a bonding moment over their nail beds being “history”, contrasting themselves with the more conventionally feminine cheerleaders. Gabriella is hardly butch but her femininity is portrayed in a more soft, natural way to contrast with Sharpay’s louder, more eye-catching and implicitly unpleasant outfits. Sharpay is not the bad guy because she’s girly, but she’s maybe more girly because she’s the bad guy.
Because caring about your appearance is BAD, that’s a character trait that we associate with Bad Characters, and most especially Bad Women Characters. Sharpay and Regina care so much about their looks because they’re shallow, and that means they’ve unpleasant.
All teenage girls are told, one way or another, that they should care about their looks and put effort into being attractive. But in the stories about teen girls, the only ones visibly caring about their looks are the bitches.
If a Nice Girl ™ wants to make an effort to look good she better have an excuse, like prom or a date or finding out she’s a princess.
Princess Diaries makes such a good point about this, actually. Mia is supposed to be attractive, because she’s the protagonist, but she also can’t do it herself, because that will make her look like just another Vapid Teen Girl. So she gets a makeover handed to her. Pretty is something that Just Happens to nice girls, because if you work at it you’re a bitch.
(Not to mention pretty isn’t compatible with frizzy hair or glasses.)
God, fucking Harry Potter isn’t exempt from this. Hermione gets contrasted with Lavender and it’s so obvious that Lavender is Wrong, because she’s goofy and sentimental and clingy and girly girly girly, in sharp contrast with Hermione “I only do my hair for the Yule Ball, I’ve got shit to do” Granger over here. And that’s not shitting on Hermione! It’s just clear that there’s a very particular sort of teenage girl we’re supposed to like in HP and she doesn’t care about Girl Things.
Even Sky High, the greatest teen movie of all time, falls into this. The women on the good guys’ side are Layla – soft femme, a little tomboyish, has strong opinions – and Magenta – vaguely punkish, v snarky – neither of whom do feminity “right”.
On the bad side there’s Penny, who’s a LITERAL evil cheerleader hivemind, and Gwen, who’s both the most popular girl in school and the actual super villain behind everything. These things are not coincidences.
At times like this, I thank the universe for Legally Blonde. Elle is a hyper feminine and hella smart lady who is bashed throughout the entire movie for being Too Girly.
Does she change who she is to fit in? No. She works just as hard as everyone else, harder even as she isn’t invited to any study groups because she is Too Girly, and she does it all while wearing pink, sparkles, and this season’s Prada shoes, thank you very much.
How was Looney Tunes Back In Action even a real movie like what even
THERE ARE DALEKS IN THIS
LEGIT DALEKS
AND THEN
YOU HAVE SCOOBY DOO THREATENING LIVE ACTION SHAGGY
YOU HAVE BRENDAN FRASER PLAYING BRENDAN FRASER PLAYED BY BRENDAN FRASER PUNCHING ANOTHER BRENDAN FRASER IN THE FACE
WAS THERE EVEN A SCRIPT
THIS FILM WAS BEAUTIFUL
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