Pride Month 2020 - A Compendium of LGBT Film

June is Pride Month, the month that was established to promote LGBT rights and celebrate that same community. This year marks the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall riots in 1969, which most agree was the start of the gay rights movement in the United States. Like a lot of people, my first image of a LGBT person is either in a film or on a television show. For many, that's changing as more and more LGBT people are open and proud, but, there are still those that were only exposed to the LGBT community through the media.

I was a military brat. My dad would rent VCR tapes from Blockbuster Video stores and record them, so that we could watch them over and over. He built up a library of hundreds upon hundreds of movies, which I would watch incessantly. It was only on the rare occasion that my dad would get a film that had any gay characters or gay references. There would also be some things on television that had gay characters or gay references, but it wasn't until I graduated from high school in 1998 and left home did I really start to experience queer cinema.

When I was living and going to college in Philadelphia, I discovered a company called TLA Video. It used to have various video rental stores in Philly and one in Manhattan. Those stores have since closed, but it remains as an online streaming service. TLA Video was special because it catered exclusively to gay films, particularly gay male films. Wolfe Video was another company doing the same but it catered to not just gay men but also to lesbians and to others in the LGBT community. I also discovered the premium cable channel Here TV, which launched in 2002 and also targeted the gay community. With the help of Netflix for which I became a subscriber not that long after college, I was able to see almost every movie that TLA Video, Wolfe Video and Here TV put out since the late 90's.

Film historian Vito Russo found a film from 1895 that he believes has homosexual subtext. Other films in the early 20th century had gay undertones or allusions. They also had characters cross-dressing and the mockery of same-sex attraction. However, Manslaughter (1922) by Cecil B. DeMille is the first film to show an erotic kiss between a same-sex couple.

Many films, which were adapted from other works, took characters that were homosexual and removed those aspects, such as The Lost Weekend (1945) and Rope (1948). These were mainly for English-language films. Films from other countries were able to keep references to homosexuality, such as Ingmar Bergman's Thirst (1949).

There were lesbian characters in Caged (1950), but, for the most part, adapting books and plays with gay characters but removing gay references, especially same-sex male relations, is something that films continued to do with works like Strangers on a Train (1951), Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958).

Things started to change in the sixties. Spartacus (1960) is notable for its almost blatant homoeroticism, taking the beefcake craze and virtually putting it on screen. The British film Victim (1961) was the first English-language film to use the word "homosexual" in dialogue. Openly gay or queer filmmakers like Andy Warhol started releasing films. Stories about gay men were finding light like Portrait of Jason (1967).

A monumental shift occurred the next decade when William Friedkin's The Boys in the Band (1970) came to theaters. That same year saw films like Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist (1970), as well as The Christine Jorgensen Story (1970) and Entertaining Mr. Sloane (1970), which put not just homosexuality but also other people in the LGBTQ community into the forefront. After which, the flood gates opened a bit. We had films like Pink Narcissus (1971), Death in Venice and John Schlesinger's Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971). Other notable films of that decade include Caberet (1972) and John Waters' Pink Flamingos (1972). There's also A Bigger Splash (1974) and A Very Natural Thing (1974). Some cult favorites of that time were The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and The Naked Civil Servant (1975). We also saw Sidney Lumet's iconic, Dog Day Afternoon (1975). Rainer Werner Fassbinder also made a turn with his film Fox and His Friends (1975). There was the comedy The Ritz (1976) and the provocation of Derek Jarman's Sebastiane (1976). La Cage Aux Folles (1978) came out soon thereafter.

The era of President Ronald Reagan saw a prelude of films that didn't bode well for those coming years. Poorly received films like Can't Stop the Music (1980) and controversial films like Cruising (1980) kicked off the decade. The Oscar-nominated Fame (1980) did shine in the mainstream, while films like Taxi Zum Klo (1981) made ripples as a radical entry. The following year though saw a lot of interesting titles: Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982), Deathtrap (1982), Pedro Almodovar's screwball comedy, Labyrinth of Passion (1982), Making Love (1982), Partners (1982), Querelle (1982) and Victor/Victoria (1982). We had genre pictures like The Hunger (1983) and prestige pics like Silkwood (1983). Another Country (1984) was one of a line of British period pieces that embraced or sneaked in gay themes. The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) was one of a line of documentaries, capturing the history of the gay rights movement.

Up until now, there really wasn't much representation of blackness in the LGBTQ community, as depicted in films. That changed with the release of The Color Purple (1985). It was nominated for ten, Academy Awards but won not a single one. Kiss of the Spider-Woman (1985) was nominated for four Oscars and won one for William Hurt who became the first actor to win an Oscar for playing a gay man. That same year, My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) came out, which would become the 50th greatest British film, according to BFI. We saw the debut of Gus Van Sant with Mala Noche (1986). With Parting Glances (1986), we get the first, American film to deal with the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Almodovar's Law of Desire (1987) hit, along with James Ivory's Maurice (1987) and Stephen Frears' Prick Up Your Ears, a British biopic. Rounding out the decade was the adaptation of Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy (1988), Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989) and Longtime Companion (1990).

Once the 1990's come along, the number of films with LGBT characters and content increase. It gets to a point that you'll have to go to Wikipedia in order to see them all. There's a range of quality and engagement. I want to go through that decade and pick out the best from those years: Paris is Burning (1990), My Own Private Idaho (1991), Philadelphia (1993), The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), Heavenly Creatures (1994), Priest (1995), Beautiful Thing (1996), The Birdcage (1996), The Watermelon Woman (1997), Leather Jacket Love Story (1998), Gods and Monsters (1998), Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss (1998), All About My Mother (1999), Trick (1999) and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999).

Once the 2000's hit, the number of LGBT films exploded. Thanks to the advent of digital technology, which made producing films vastly more cheap and easy. Plenty of queer filmmakers were able to get their works out there. Wolfe Video, which began as a lesbian VHS distributor in southern California, really exploded with the release of its hit movie Big Eden (2000). Things increased when TLA Entertainment Group, which started as a theater company in Philadelphia, began around the time of Wolfe Video. It soon turned into mail-order, gay pornography. TLA raised its profile and spread of gay films to more mainstream audiences when it took over the Philadelphia Film Festival around this decade. Because many of these gay films didn't get proper theatrical releases, just runs at film festivals, I have noted their release years as being the years they got wide distribution via DVD or VOD.

Notable LGBT films from 2000 to 2003: Boys Don't Cry (2000), Big Eden (2000), Billy Elliot (2000), The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy (2000), Urbania (2000). But I'm a Cheerleader (2000), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), All Over the Guy (2001), Come Undone (2001), Kissing Jessica Stein (2002), Far From Heaven (2002), Circuit (2002), Food of Love (2002), The Hours (2002), Angels in America (2003), The Trip (2003), Mambo Italiano (2003)

Die, Mommie, Die! (2003), The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender (2003), Yossi & Jagger (2003), The Dreamers (2003) and P.S. Your Cat Is Dead! (2003).

Notable LGBT films from 2004: Brother to Brother (2004), Latter Days (2004), Touch of Pink (2004), A Home at the End of the World (2004), Straight-Jacket (2004), Tarnation (2004), Gone, But Not Forgotten (2004), The 24th Day (2004) and 200 American (2004).

Notable LGBT films from 2005: Brokeback Mountain (2005), Transamerica (2005), Fixing Frank (2005), The Family Stone (2005), Eating Out (2005), Third Man Out (2005), Dorian Blues (2005), Hellbent (2005), Harry + Max (2005), The Reception (2005), Slutty Summer (2005), Naked Fame (2005) and Exposed: The Making of a Legend (2005).

Notable LGBT films from 2006: Shortbus (2006), Quinceañera (2006), Infamous (2006), Adam & Steve (2006), Kinky Boots (2006), Long-Term Relationship (2006), The Conrad Boys (2006), Sugar (2006), Broken Sky (2006), The Laramie Project (2006), East Side Story (2006), Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds (2006), Another Gay Movie (2006), The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green (2006), Vacationland (2006), 20 Centimeters (2006), The Ski Trip (2006), Hate Crime (2006) and Queer Duck: The Movie (2006).

Notable LGBT films from 2007: Boy Culture (2007), Hairspray (2007), The Bubble (2007), Oh Happy Day (2007), Dirty Laundry (2007), Cut Sleeve Boys (2007), Itty Bitty Titty Committee (2007), For the Bible Tells Me So (2007), Coffee Date (2007), Phoenix (2007) and Rock Haven (2007).

Notable LGBT films from 2008: Milk (2008), Tru Loved (2008), Shelter (2008), Chris & Don. A Love Story (2008), Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom (2008), Life Support (2008), Save Me (2008), A Four Letter Word (2008), Ciao (2008), Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon (2008), Holding Trevor (2008), Socket (2008) and The Houseboy (2008).

Notable LGBT films from 2009: A Single Man (2009), Outrage (2009), Newcastle (2009), Passing Strange (2009), Shank (2009), Make the Yuletide Gay (2009), The New Twenty (2009), Mulligans (2009), The Big Gay Musical (2009), Finding Me (2009), Pedro (2009) and Hollywood, je t'aime (2009).

Notable LGBT films from 2010: I Love You, Phillip Morris (2010), The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2010), Easier With Practice (2010), Prodigal Sons (2010), Strapped (2010), Mr. Right (2010), Undertow (2010), Raging Sun, Raging Sky (2010), Edie & Thea: A Very Long Engagement (2010), An Englishman in New York (2010) and BearCity (2010).

Notable LGBT films from 2011: Weekend (2011), Children of God (2011), Becoming Chaz (2011), Gun Hill Road (2011), Leave It On the Floor (2011), Pariah (2011), The Love Patient (2011), Over the Edge (2011), Straight & Butch (2011), Violet Tendencies (2011) and The Seminarian (2011).

Notable LGBT films from 2012: Gayby (2012), How To Survive a Plague (2012), Keep the Lights On (2012), My Brother the Devil (2012), The Wise Kids (2012), Morgan (2012), The Falls (2012), The Skinny (2012) and eCupid (2012).

Notable LGBT films from 2013: Blue is the Warmest Colour (2013), C.O.G. (2013), Bridegroom (2013), Concussion (2013), Five Dances (2013), The Happy Sad (2013), Lost Everything (2013), Four (2013), Yossi (2013), Turtle Hill, Brooklyn (2013), Geography Club (2013), Monster Pies (2013) and Out in the Dark (2013).

Notable LGBT films from 2014: Stranger By the Lake (2014), Free Fall (2014), G.B.F. (2014), Pride (2014), The New Girlfriend (2014), Lilting (2014), The Imitation Game (2014), Four Moons (2014), The Dog (2014), Space Station 76 (2014), The Circle (2014), Last Summer (2014) and Hot Guys With Guns (2014).

Notable LGBT films from 2015: Carol (2015), The Duke of Burgundy (2015), Clouds of Sils Maria (2015), Boy Meets Girl (2015), 52 Tuesdays (2015), In the Grayscale (2015), Boys (Jongens) (2015) Tangerine (2015), The Last Straight Man (2015), The 10 Year Plan (2015) and Perfect Cowboy (2015).

Notable LGBT films from 2016: Moonlight (2016), Being 17 (2016),  Naz & Maalik (2016), Those People (2016), Little Men (2016), Front Cover (2016), Spa Night (2016), I Am Not Your Negro (2016), How To Win At Checkers (Every Time) (2016), Alex & Ali (2016), Beautiful Something (2016), Esteros (2016) and Godless (2016).

Notable LGBT films from 2017: The Wound (2017), Saturday Church (2017), Princess Cyd (2017), A Moment in the Reeds (2017), God's Own Country (2017), A Fantastic Woman (2017), The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017), Call Me By Your Name (2017), Battle of the Sexes (2017), Retake (2017), Paris 05:59: Théo & Hugo (2017), Heartstone (2017) and Do You Take This Man (2017).

Notable LGBT films from 2018: The Pass (2018), Mi Mejor Amigo (2018), Colette (2018), Boy Erased (2018), Mario (2018), 1985 (2018), Alex Strangelove (2018) and The Favourite (2018).

Notable LGBT films from 2019: Sócrates (2019), Rafiki (2019), The Blonde One (2019), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), Pain and Glory (2019), Temblores (2019), Tu Me Manques (2019) and And Then We Danced (2019).