THE CELLULOID CLOSET (1995) | Dir: Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman | This is my last 30 Days of Queer Film post. The main reasons I started this were to honor the work of queer artists and our stories during the month of June and to re-connect to an industry that can sometimes be punishing and impenetrable. I hoped that remembering the impact certain films had made on me before and as I was becoming a filmmaker would soften some of the professional blows I’ve had in recent weeks. It worked. Not only that, it was so heartening to hear from people near and far who shared their own memories or an anecdote or piece of trivia or who said they'd never heard of the film before my post. That’s gratifying. I close this series with an informative, entertaining documentary about how queer characters have been depicted and evolved in cinema. Based in the book by Vito Russo, it was written by @armisteadmaupin and narrated by Lily Tomlin. Like these posts, it covers films before 2000. It’s essential viewing, a reminder of how far we have come. Today, on the last day of Pride, the Supreme Court reminded us how far we still have to go. Whether or not the fundamentalist Christians choose to believe it… we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it.
30 Days of Queer Film - Day 29: Happy Together
HAPPY TOGETHER (1997) | Dir: Wong Kar-wai | I missed one day of my 30 DAYS OF QUEER FILM, so I’m posting two today - and they’re great companions: MAURICE by James Ivory and HAPPY TOGETHER by the great Wong Kar-wai. Made exactly ten years apart, this is the story of a gay couple in a tumultuous relationship who live in Hong Kong, but travel together to Buenos Aires for a vacation and end up breaking up. The two main characters (Fai and Po-wing) are studies in contrast and there’s a lot of debate about the message of the film: does it reward Fai’s conformity to more stereotypical heterosexual norms and punish Po-Wing’s more adventurous and destructive choices? What I remember most is its dreamy cinematography that created a sense of uncertainty and danger at every moment and the great performances by Leslie Cheung (Po-Wing), Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (Fai), and Chen Chang (as Chang). It was the one of the first gay Asian films that garnered international recognition. Another was FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE, which also starred Leslie Cheung, a major star who had identified as bisexual. Sadly, he died from suicide at age 46 in 2003. A great loss.
30 Days of Queer Film - Day 28: Maurice
MAURICE (1987) | Dir: James Ivory | It is fitting to remember today that the producers wanted Julian Sands to play the titular character in this adaptation of the E.M. Forster novel. Sands, whose body was recovered this week after he went missing in Los Angeles, was a gifted actor. Ultimately, the role went to James Wilby, but it is easy to imagine Sands bringing a thoughtful, sensitivity to the role. MAURICE, in all its glorious Merchant Ivory-ness, manages to break my heart every time. The main character is a young man named Maurice Hall (Wilby), who goes to university and becomes involved with Clive (Hugh Grant), another student. Both men are struggling with their burgeoning homosexuality in a society that criminalizes it and their relationship is tumultuous. Clive confesses his love for Maurice, but ultimately Maurice ends up with Alec Scudder (Rupert Graves). It’s a somewhat happy ending, given that neither commits suicide or ends up in jail or alone or murdered. MAURICE is a study in repressed and restrictive Edwardian England and what is sacrificed by people who adhere to these rules rather than embrace their true nature. When I saw this film in college, it struck a nerve. I identified so strongly with Clive, who yearns for love and connection, but cannot find the courage to risk it. I am grateful to the Merchant-Ivory team (and Forster) for showing another path, via Maurice.
30 Days of Queer Film - Day 27: Urbania
URBANIA (2000) | Dir: Jon Shear | My goal is to include films in this list that came out before 2000. URBANIA came out in 2000, but it is significant to me because I had never seen a queer story like it. URBANIA is a terrifying film in all of the best ways. Set (mostly) in one evening in New York City, it follows a grieving man, played with subtle perfection by Dan Futterman, as he encounters friends, ex-lovers and strangers and has flashbacks to a moment that altered his life forever. The story weaves together urban myths we’ve all heard (the one involving a microwave still haunts me), but what lingers is the powerful depiction of the difficulty of handling trauma. Kudos to Shear for rendering an atmosphere to the environments that are scary and sexy and shadowy. The film also sprinkles some hefty cameos throughout, including Alan Cumming, Josh Hamilton, Bill Sage, Barbara Sukowa and Lothaire Bluteau, but they never get in the way, as cameos sometimes can. Instead, they feel like real people going about their lives.There’s a mystery unfolding in URBANIA and it often feels like anything could happen at any moment. I believe I saw this film five times when it was released. I wish more people knew about it.
30 Days of Queer Film - Day 26: Edward II
EDWARD II (1992) | Dir: Derek Jarman | There are so many reasons to celebrate the late, great Derek Jarman, not the least of which is his last film, BLUE, an autobiographical film essay that he made while going blind from AIDS-related complications. We have Jarman to thank, in part at least, to bringing Tilda Swinton to the big screen. In this re-imagining of Edward II, Jarman blends historical settings and costumes with 1990s-era ACT-UP uniforms. There’s even a sequence with Annie Lennox crooning “Every Time We Say Goodbye.” It’s a blend of modern and traditional and it blew my young gay filmmaker tadpole mind as I sat there in the seats of the Angelica Theater and said to myself, “Is that allowed? Can he do that? Can I?” I love Jarman for breaking so many rules and then embracing so much that is traditional (don’t miss his journals about English gardens). He was a true artist in every sense.
30 Days of Queer Film - Day 25: Y Tu Mama Tambien
Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN (2001) | Dir: Alfonso Cuaron | Is Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN actually queer? I say it is. A coming-of-age tale about two teenage friends — Julio (Gael García Bernal) and Tenoch (Diego Luna) — who take a road trip with an older woman Luisa (Maribel Verdú), the wife of Tenoch’s loutish cousin. Ostensibly on a quest to find a fictional beach called Heaven’s Mouth, the friends find themselves in constant friction: sexual, political, physical, emotional. And Luisa has a hidden agenda of her own which I will not reveal here for those who have never seen it. Cuaron’s film perfectly captures the gritty, obnoxious, hormonal truth about being a teenager, while also providing moments of tenderness and growth, often captured in a moment of revelation in close-up. I’d never seen male/male friendship depicted with such honesty, especially about the real sexual tension and experimentation that seems to be ubiquitous, at least in my friend circles and certainly for younger generations. It’s simply Not A Big Deal Anymore. Which is a good thing. But it wasn’t always this way, and one of the truths the film exposes is the competitiveness between males that can destroy. Some call it toxic masculinity. The characters are archetypes and there’s some heavy-handed socio-political themes that emerge, but ultimately this is a story about friendship and the boundaries that get crossed and the lines that get blurred when genuine love is also a part of the landscape.
30 Days of Queer Film - Day 24: Querelle
QUERELLE (1982) | Dir: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Starring Brad Davis, adapted from Jean Genet’s 1947 novel, it was Fassbinder's last film, released shortly after his death at the age of 37. It was the most overtly gay film I had ever seen at the time. Fassbinder shot the film with expressionist color and heavy symbolism, largely phallic, almost comically so. Edmund White, Fassbiner’s biographer, said, "Everything is bathed in an artificial light and the architectural elements are all symbolic.” Um, yeah. I saw the film in grad school, when all things homoerotic were being filtered through a Marxist lens. I remember watching the film and, mouth agape, laughed out loud at the imagery, it was so incredibly heavy-handed and obvious. Later, I learned about the actor Brad Davis and his contributions to LGBTQ cinema, especially his portrayal of characters who are queer and bringing a humanity to them. He died of AIDS at 41.
30 Days of Queer Film - Day 23: Trick
TRICK (1999) | Dir: Jim Fall | A story about two guys trying to make it in the big city. That was the brilliant, tongue-in-cheek copy line on the poster for TRICK, a romantic comedy that was funny, sexy, and sweet — often in the same scene. Set in New York City, the film follows Gabriel, an aspiring composer, who has a connection with a go-go boy named Mark who spend the whole movie trying to have a one-night stand and with each obstacle end up getting to know each other in deeper ways. I loved TRICK for the way it showed New York City, gay culture, dating, roommates, pursuing art, queer allies, and what it feels like to be hopelessly romantic. Ms Coco Peru has one of the funniest monologues in the history of gay film, and a line that has become part of the gay lexicon (“It burns!”). TRICK was a triumph and an inspiration for so many of us who were hoping to tell our queer stories outside of the studio system. Jim and his partners (including intrepid producer Ross Katz, indie film godfather Bob Hawk, hilarious Tori Spelling, adorable Christian Campbell and everyone else in the cast) made a magical film that belongs in the canon of New York stories.
30 Days of Queer Film - Day 22: Jeffrey
JEFFREY (1995) | Dir: Christopher Ashley | When I saw the off-Broadway play by @paulrudnick, the laughter was so loud you had to strain to hear the next line of dialogue. When I learned of a movie adaptation in the works, I knew I had to be part of it. Through a friend at Miramax, where I was working as a graphic designer, I scored an interview with the film’s production designer, Michael Johnston, who hired me to work as a PA in the art department. I begged my Miramax boss to let me do this for four weeks. He said yes, so I went to work on JEFFREY, the movie. A few of many highlights: working for Michael and the great set decorator @andrewbaseman ; riding around NYC with Michael and listening to his conversations with the director Chris Ashley, the DP, and the locations manager (I learned SO much on those days); Patrick Stewart giving me a pack of Dunhills; scouring the city for props; making props we couldn’t find (I made the “J” in Jeffrey’s apartment and we used my plaid bed sheets); designing the logo for the “It’s Just Sex" fake game show and the opening and closing titles for the film; making out with a supercute PA after hours; and so much more! I also learned the heartbreak of shooting on a location that didn’t ultimately work (Empire State Building) and the frustration of shooting in New York with a very low budget. When the film came out, I was so excited. It was the first feature film I worked on. I was so grateful to Michael for hiring me. It changed my life. I got to meet his now-husband, the great Broadway lyricist David Zippel, who lent his name to a fundraiser for my first film, DEAR JESSE, as did the hilarious @paulrudnick. Looking back, I quit a well paying job to work on JEFFREY for very little money, certainly not enough to live on. Worth every moment.
30 Days of Queer Film - Day 21: Beautiful Thing
BEAUTIFUL THING (1996) | Dir: Hettie Macdonald | Based on Jonathan Harvey’s play of the same name, BEAUTIFUL THING felt like a breath of fresh air in 1996. A coming-of-age tale set in a working class area of London, BT tells the story of a sweet, sensitive boy named Jamie who realizes he’s not interested in sports like the other guys, but very interested in Ste, a classmate who comes from a hardscrabble life. The film is populated by some wonderful supporting characters, including Sandra, Jamie’s single mother with man troubles of her own and who wants to open her own pub, and their neighbor, Leah, a sassy, obnoxious young woman who’s usually inebriated or high. It’s a film about first love, the class struggle, friendship, community, and love of the music of Mama Cass Elliot. There’s a scene in the film where the two boys run thought a forest as they are falling in love that is entirely cliché and over-the-top — and it works perfectly. (I remember the nearly full audience I screened the film with cheering loudly during it.) During a prolific period of queer films being made, the late 90s, it was fun watching two boys fall in love rather than die of AIDS or suicide or murder or loneliness. It’s a film filled with hope. For all of its gritty optimism, there’s also a current of sadness, when you realize that after the credits roll, so many of the troubles these boys had been experiencing (bullying, prejudice, poverty) aren’t going anywhere. But love somehow softens the bludgeons of life and somehow makes life worth living.
30 Days of Queer Film - Day 20: The Wedding Banquet
THE WEDDING BANQUET (1993) | Dir: Ang Lee | Before he ever climbed the treacherous Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee made a funny, heartfelt, romantic comedy called THE WEDDING BANQUET, which boasts one of the best tag lines ever on a poster: A Little Deception at the Reception. The main copy line was pretty great, too, for that matter. (Everyone wants to kiss the bride, except the groom.) It’s the story of a gay couple — Simon and Wei-Tung, who have a comfortable life in New York until Wei’s parents announce they’ll be visiting the city and expect to help find a woman for their son to marry. Wei and Simon enlist the help of a female artist Wei-Wei, one of Wei’s tenants, to pretend to be the girlfriend and shenanigans ensue. It could be a Nora Ephron or Preston Sturges film, only gay. I saw this film a couple of times in the theater, I was so excited by its depiction of an ordinary gay couple who happened to live in the neighborhood where I was living at the time - the West Village, a very gay ‘hood. Its low-budget limitations is part of its charm and it contains of my favorite last images of any film I have ever seen. While I came for the queer story, what I took away from the film were the performances of the actors who played the parents — Sihung Lung and Gua Aleh), both legendary Taiwanese actors. Their story resonated so much for a young gay man like myself, who had not yet come out to his family, but hoped for support and acceptance, but recognized the familiar fears expressed by Wei-Tung. The way the parents’ story unfolds is humane and tender.
30 Days of Queer Film - Day 19: Tongues Untied
TONGUES UNTIED (1989) | Dir: Marlon Riggs | An experimental documentary film, TONGUES UNTIED was like no film I had ever seen. Blending poetry and personal stories of Black, gay men, director Marlon Riggs uses documentary footage and staged, stylized tableaus that are confrontational, confessional, and brutally honest. What I remember most was the film’s mirror — Riggs’ brought into sharp relief the privilege I held as a white, gay male American as he (alongside performers Brian Freeman and Essex Hemphill) detail the invisibility Black gay men feel, marginalized in an already marginalized group of people. Riggs says the film was meant to "shatter this nation's brutalizing silence on matters of sexual and racial difference.” I watched TONGUES because it was the target of an attack from a right wing evangelical minister who was angry that Riggs had received public money to make the film, via a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Senator Jesse Helms argued to defund the NEA, citing this film as the reason. Perhaps that is one of the positive outcomes of such a puritanical reaction to art — that it calls attention to it, bringing into the consciousness of an even larger audience. Riggs is yet another artist whose life’s work was cut short due to his death from complications from AIDS in 1994. He was only 37 years old. His courage to boldly foreground Black male homosexuality without shame only underscores how important he is in the LGBTQ canon. TONGUES UNTIED was included in the National Film Registry in 2022.
30 Days of Queer Film - Day 18: Un Chant D'Amour
UN CHANT D’AMOUR (1950) | Dir: Jean Genet | I’m fairly certain I saw this short film in grad school, after I had seen references to it in reviews for Todd Haynes’ POISON and Tom Kalin’s SWOON. It was Genet’s only film. Using stark black and white 16mm film, Genet depicts two men in prison, in adjacent cell blocks, who are desperately in need of connection and physical affection and devise a way to communicate using cigarettes and openings in the walls. There is no dialogue in the film, only images, some of them explicit, stirring up controversy and even threats of arrest to distributors and exhibitors who dared screen the film for the public. One case reached the U.S. Supreme Court where in a 5-4 ruling the justices deemed the film was obscene. I found the film both erotic and funny, at times. It’s not for everyone, that’s for sure, but it serves as a reminder to me from time to time not to be too afraid in my work, to try to be courageous when taking on topics or ideas or memories that might make me uncomfortable or vulnerable. I want to be as brave as Genet.
30 Days of Queer Film - Day 17: Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA (1993) | Dir: Jonathan Demme | This was the Big Event. Finally, Hollywood was making a movie about AIDS that tackled homophobia head-on. It was widely praised for the writing, performances and direction. It was widely criticized for being too mainstream and safe about the topic. PHILADELPHIA was the focus of my master’s thesis which addressed this basic concept: when you’re making a film, you’re speaking to a specific group of people (audience) and using a shared language to do so. Demme and writer Ron Nyswaner knew exactly who they were talking to: the mainstream moviegoing audience. Casting Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks, as well as Joanne Woodward and Mary Steenburgen, solidified its appeal to people who might otherwise not be inclined to want to see this story onscreen. I love PHILADELPHIA. It was bolder film than ever given credit for being and it presented a flavor of homophobia that is far more common, one that occupies the rooms where people are hired or, worse, where families celebrate the holidays or a new baby. It brought homophobia into living rooms and offices. At its core, it is an advocacy film in the form of a story courtroom drama. And Tom Hanks gave quite the memorable speech when he accepted his Oscar. But for me, the real protagonist is Denzel Washington’s Joe Miller, who stands in for the apprehensive audience member who is uncomfortable with gay people and homosexuality. His character arc from fearful and prejudiced and ignorant is subtle and believable, every step of the way.
30 Days of Queer Film - Day 16: Southern Comfort
SOUTHERN COMFORT (2001) | Dir: Kate Davis | This beautiful documentary feature follows Robert Eads, a trans man, in the last year of his life as he dies of ovarian cancer after being turned away for help by doctors who fear treating a trans person will hurt their reputations and affect their business. It is also a love story — he falls for Lola, a trans woman — and about their families and their histories. Like so many on my list, I saw this film at Film Forum in New York City. I remember leaving the theater and walking with a friend (a queer woman) and both of us remarking how the story showed us how little we actually knew about the trans experience. Both of us had assumed so much about ourselves — that we were progressive and informed. This film not only depicts the lives of two trans people, it demystifies, clarifies, humanizes without objectifying. I don’t mean to imply that every trans experience is the same, but this film gave a face to the struggle and also shows the beauty and liberation that accompanies being and expressing your truest Self. Eads and Lola create their own family in rural Georgia and I remember relating so strongly to living in an area where difference was frowned upon if that difference is queerness, but paradoxically can be found on front porches everywhere in various other, acceptable forms. One of the many contradictions you’ll find about rural, Southern life. This is a powerful, infuriating, and ultimately uplifting story about trans life in the South, a reminder of how far we have come and how far we still need to go in order to secure justice for all and space for the pursuit of happiness.
30 Days of Queer Film - Day 15: All About My Mother
ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER (1999) | Dir: Pedro Almodovar | There could be an entire month dedicated solely to the provocative, passionate, colorful, moving work of Almodovar. Is there another director working today who evokes queerness in practically every frame? My introduction to Almodovar was probably “Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down” or “High Heels” or maybe “The Matador” (with young Antonio Banderas in all of his glory), but it was this film from 1999 that made me sit up and take notice of the depth underneath his heightened characters. Winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER is about a nurse named Manuel, played by Cecilia Roth, who loses the teenage son. Grief-stricken, she sets out to search for the boy’s long-lost father in Barcelona and meets a pregnant, HIV-positive nun (Penélope Cruz), an actress (Marisa Paredes), and a transgender sex worker (Antonia San Juan). It’s about motherhood, homosexuality, gender, and the families we create when our blood-families betray us or dissolve. What I love about Almodovar is his ability to take a universal event — birth, death, betrayal, first love, reunion — and somehow make me see it differently, as if he himself had discovered it for an audience to experience and examine for the first time. Everything feels new in Almodovar’s hand, through his lens. He’s one of the few filmmakers that has regularly incorporated trans characters into his stories. ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER is a movie that celebrates actresses, leading ladies, the women who are the protagonists in their own lives. I can’t think of anything that speaks to gay men more than that. Or at least this gay man.
30 Days of Queer Film - Day 14: Another Country
ANOTHER COUNTRY (1984) | Dir: Marek Kanievska | I saw this film in college at the suggestion of my housemate, a committed Leftist who introduced me to Billy Bragg, The Jam, socialism, Michael Harrington, and good beer. He was the smartest guy I had ever met, but also incredibly handsome, and straight. I think he might have been the first straight guy I was really close with who openly supported LGBT rights - maybe even before I did! His Leftist approach to the world was influential and impressive. He’s the one who wanted to rent the video of ANOTHER COUNTRY, adapted from a book and play by Julian Mitchell, who wrote the screenplay. The film stars Rupert Everett and Colin Firth and is loosely based on the life of a Russian spy named Guy Burgess. It also addresses the themes of homosexuality and Marxism in the setting of the English public school system. The main characters are all outsiders and there’s a devastating suicide after a character is caught by a teacher in a homosexual situation with another boy, but the spine of this story is the political struggle between the classes. I watched for the eye candy of Firth and Everett and Cary Elwes, but stayed for the class war and message of economic injustice. It’s a terrific film, but what I remember most was what it taught me about my friend. I was so impressed that he would dare to rent a film from the “gay” section of the video store at a time when few would do it, which of course made me love him even more.
30 Days of Queer Film - Day 13: Parting Glances
PARTING GLANCES (1986) | Dir: Bill Sherwood | Three years before LONGTIME COMPANION became widely recognized as the first dramatic feature about AIDS, there was PARTING GLANCES, starring a young Steve Buscemi as a gay man with AIDS in one of his first movie roles. Directed by Sherwood (his only film; he died of AIDS-related complications in 1990), the film is about a New York City couple who are facing the challenges of a long-distance relationship, as well as personal and professional obstacles. It’s an at times quiet, funny, moving, and superbly acted and written film that puts AIDS as one more obstacle in a larger context rather than foregrounding it, as LONGTIME COMPANION does. I saw PARTING GLANCES after seeing LONGTIME COMPANION and what I remember most was how much I loved them both for completely different reasons. LC feels epic in comparison, tracking the rise of the disease as it ravages a group of friends, whereas PG covers a smaller time span and a more intimate look into the lives of fewer characters. I hate comparing films. I’ve even become allergic to (publicly) criticizing films, mostly because I know how hard it is to get them made, but also because I know how hard it is to get them made WELL. In the best of circumstances, it’s still a gamble and an uphill battle. I love PARTING GLANCES for so many reasons, but mostly of its unsentimental, non-sensational approach to the storytelling, which made the more emotional scenes even more moving. The AIDS drama became its own genre for a while, and for good reason, and for many it became tiresome - you don’t have to search too hard to find “think” pieces on them. But it’s important to remember that while the government and the public was ignoring the disease because it was attacking mostly gay men, filmmakers like Sherwood were writing and directing stories that humanized and informed, as well as entertained.
30 Days of Queer Film - Day 12: My Own Private Idaho
MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO (1991) | Dir: Gus Van Sant. River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves play two hustlers — narcoleptic Mike (Phoenix) and son of a powerful politician Scott (Reeves) as they travel from Oregon to Idaho to Italy, turning tricks, taking drugs and narrowly escaping danger along the way. It was a major event when it was released into theaters, mostly for it’s marquee names above the title, but also because these characters are not victims or villains; they are rather ordinary, if troubled, young men. In one famously improvised scene by a campfire, Mike professes his love for Scott and admits wanting to kiss him. It’s a brutally raw scene of vulnerability and tenderness that so many gay men of a certain age recognize and identify with. Neither Phoenix or Reeves bring any judgment or creates distance in their performances. They’re present, listening, connecting; not affected or “playing queer” in any way.
30 Days of Queer Film - Day 11: Swoon
SWOON (1992) | Dir: Tom Kalin. I saw the poster for the movie before I knew anything about it. I was hooked. A great poster design does it every time for me. SWOON was Kalin’s feature debut. He also wrote and edited the film, which is about the 1924 Leopold and Loeb murder case, but it focused on the fact that the men were lovers more than the fact that they were murderers. For this reason, Swoon was part of the subversive New Queer Cinema movement in the early 1990s, of which I became a devotee and admirer. Shot in gorgeous black and white, the film stars Craig Chester (who’s fantastic) and Daniel Schlachet, but also the great Ron Vawter, so memorable as the psychotherapist in “sex, lies and videotape” and his many NY stage performances. The film also spotlights the antisemitism behind the Leopold and Loeb case. I think I saw the film three times when it played the Anjelika and I scored a poster from a friend at Fine Line, which I had framed and hung proudly in my apartment on 12th Street next to Todd Haynes’ POISON. Two great words: swoon & poison. Two great films.
