Foremost Film’s Movie Recommendations for LGBTQIA+ Pride Month
Weekend, Rafiki
Since 1999, June has been recognized in many parts of the world as LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, marking the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City, which sparked the contemporary push for equal rights among the Queer community.
In the ensuing decades since the Stonewall Riots, LGBTQIA+ populations globally have persisted to endure and make momentous strides sociopolitically, even though many forces at play have continued to marginalize them to the outskirts of society. As current world politics shift increasingly to the Right, this year’s Pride Month seems especially vital to celebrate and consider. Throughout the history of cinema, many filmmakers have made it their mission to open up the minds of their audiences to LGBTQIA+ perspectives, from Pier Paolo Pasolini to Céline Sciamma, and have importantly championed points of view that popular culture has traditionally ignored. Continue reading to check out the movies that Foremost Film would recommend adding to your watchlist this Pride Month!
‘Benediction’ dir. Terrence Davies (2022)
Since his filmmaking career began in the late 1970s, Davies has used his work to explore the past through lonesome figures at odds with the changing worlds around them. The English filmmaker continued this quest with Benediction, his final film before passing away in 2023, a biopic of celebrated World War I poet Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967). Sassoon, who rose to fame with poems that lambasted England’s involvement in the Great War, evolved into a conscientious objector after serving in combat. He was known for his many public affairs with men in high society during his younger years. Through Sassoon’s narrative, Davies confronts his own struggles with his homosexual identity; the filmmaker notably chose a celibate lifestyle after floundering through toxic ventures on the gay scene when he was younger.
Shot in just a few locations with a small cast due to COVID restrictions at the time of filming, Benediction is dialogue-heavy but splendidly written by Davies in a manner that serves the film’s period setting while also being engaging for contemporary audiences. In addition, Davies’s impressive screenplay captures the distinctive wit (or cattiness) of gay culture, again deploying the filmmaker’s real-life experiences. The script dynamically expresses comedic and heartbreaking moments that precisely capture what it meant for Sassoon and his circle of gay comrades who were forced to live a “shadow life.”
Stream ‘Benediction’ on Hulu.
‘Great Freedom’ dir. Sebastian Meise (2021)
For his 2021 feature, Meise puts the inequity of Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code (which virtually outlawed all acts of homosexuality) at the center of the narrative, as told through the fictional perspective of a young man whose life was endlessly hindered by its legal power. Great Freedom stars the chameleonic Franz Rogowski as Hans Hoffmann, a Queer man living in West Berlin following World War II. Unwilling to ignore his desire for other men, Hans lives his life in and out of prison under the limitations of Paragraph 175, with the film capturing snapshots of his existence between 1945 and 1964 during multiple sentences of his incarceration. Mirroring life beyond the prison walls, Hans and his fellow 175-ers face ostracization while serving their punishments, but over the years, Hans makes an unlikely yet profound connection with another inmate.
Emotionally powerful but never heeding to oversentimentality in its depictions of the authentic oppression with which gay men were historically treated in West Berlin after the war, Great Freedom shines a light on a corner of Queer history that few –– even within the LGBTQIA+ community –– have ever learned about.
Stream ‘A Great Freedom’ on MUBI.
‘Joyland’ dir. Saim Sadiq (2022)
The opening scene of Joyland first introduces Haider, the film’s heart, hiding under a white sheet in the courtyard of his family’s home in Lahore, Pakistan, playing a game with his young nieces. This ghostly image strongly embodies Haider’s reality as a veiled version of himself, stuck between two existences, just like other characters in the film. Unhappily married and unable to live up to his family’s traditional Islamic expectations, Haider auditions at an exotic dance theatre to be a background dancer for a new show led by a woman named Biba, who captivates him at first glance. Biba is a trans woman with unflinching confidence and an undimmable soul, portrayed in great contrast to Haider’s meek spirit.
Queer identity and desire exist at the forefront of Joyland, a significant achievement for a film given such a powerful platform since homosexuality is still outlawed in Pakistan. While Haider’s journey toward self-discovery is still internalized through his experience, Biba’s unapologetic existence cannot be hidden by her lifestyle, and she and her trans community are very much objectified and condemned within their culture.
Stream ‘Joyland’ on Amazon Prime.
‘Rafiki’ dir. Wanuri Kahiu (2018)
The first Kenyan film to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, Rafiki stars Samantha Mugatsia and Sheila Munyiva as Kena and Ziki, two young women living in Nairobi who embark on a powerful forbidden romance á la Romeo and Juliet with a lesbian twist. Filled with lively creative expression through its style and music, Rafiki conveys the director’s championing of “Bubblegum Afrofuturism” as a movement that platforms the joy and cultural richness of contemporary African art. Rafiki notably caused much controversy in its native country upon its 2019 theatrical release, where LGBTQIA+ rights are still heavily suppressed by the reigning government.
Stream ‘Rafiki’ on Kanopy.
‘Slow’ dir. Marija Kavtaradzė (2023)
With her sophomore feature, the Lithuanian filmmaker shines a considerate, captivating light on a blossoming romantic relationship between a young dancer, Elena, and a sign language instructor, Dovydas, which becomes complicated by their methods of navigating Dovydas’ asexuality. Through her intimate filmmaking approach with Slow, Kavtaradze imagines a revitalized perspective on romantic passion and desire outside of heteronormative expectations. While the LGBT branches of the non-heterosexual acronym have been probed in many films over the years, the rest of the initialism (QIA2S+) has gone vastly underrepresented on the silver screen, making Slow’s vision all the more significant.
Stream ‘Slow’ on MUBI.
‘Totally F***ed Up’ dir. Gregg Araki (1993)
The first part of Araki’s ‘Teenage Apocalypse’ film trilogy, Totally F***ed Up follows a friend group of Queer teens in Los Angeles as they traverse the complicated line between adolescence and adulthood. Shot on a camcorder by the director himself, the movie’s lo-fi sensibilities capture the grunge influences of the era, contrasting the youth-driven movement with the AIDS crisis and the reigning conservativism held over from 1980s America. Notably, Totally F***ed Up marks Araki’s first collaboration with James Duval, an actor who would go on to star in both The Doom Generation (1995) and Nowhere (1997).
Watch ‘Totally F***ed Up’ on MUBI.
‘Viet and Nam’ dir. Trương Minh Quý (2024)
Through its two-hour-plus runtime, Viet and Nam begets a visual and spiritual journey into the bowels of Vietnam’s traumatic recent history, illustrating characters stranded in a reality suspended between a troubled past and an uncertain future, embodied by its titular characters, two young men and lovers named Viet and Nam. Forced to hide their romance from the public, as homosexuality was still a serious taboo in Vietnam during the film’s period setting, Viet and Nam carry out their relationship in the seclusion of the forests and their subterranean workplace. Truong paints their queer connection with profound sensitivity, showcasing radiant moments of intimacy with a sensual enchantment that brings us closer to understanding their deep attachment as outsiders in their homeland. Throughout the film, specters of the past and present intermingle somewhere between reality and dreams, forming a work of great mystery and immense anguish in its understanding of Vietnam and its past.
Stream ‘Viet and Nam’ on MUBI.
‘Weekend’ dir. Andrew Haigh (2011)
From the HBO series Looking to 2023’s All of Us Strangers, Haigh has always had a powerful knack for communicating contemporary perspectives of the Queer experience. Weekend, his sophomore feature, works as the perfect foundation for this exploration that would follow the British filmmaker throughout his career. The movie stars Tom Cullen and Chris New as Russell and Glen, two twenty-something gay men who spend 48 hours together after a Friday night hookup leaves them with feelings for one another. Shot on a micro-budget, the film’s simplicity allows for the nuances of Haigh’s script and character-building to shine through, making for a work that is powerfully sexy and deeply ruminative in the emotions and feelings it explores.