Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer-Plus (LGBTQ+) Cinema
LGBTQ+ Film Resources at This Website
50 Outstanding LGBTQ-Themed Films
LGBTQ+ experience explored from diverse perspectives, in pictures made between 1924 and today.
50 Great Films by LGBTQ Directors
Released between 1919 and today, these extraordinary works cover a wide range of genres, from comedy to drama, fantasy to documentary. Here are hundreds of LGBTQ filmmakers, from early cinematic masters (Eisenstein, Murnau, Cocteau) to contemporaries. Specifically, here are LGBTQ-related films directed by women. I also have a brief guide to film technology and aesthetics.
Brief Guide to Film and Filmmaking
My own “user-friendly” introduction to connections between dramatic structure, visual and sound design, and thematic expression; includes both general and LGBTQ+ examples.
Notable LGBTQ-Themed Films by Non-LGBTQ Directors
Includes dozens of films, spanning a century.
Fassbinder | Pasolini | Jarman
Three multi-talented gay artists who created provocative works that span film, literature, theater, painting, philosophy, and more. Pasolini galvanized Fassbinder, who inspired Jarman.
Films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Introduction to Fassbinder’s life and work in theater and film, including reviews of all 43 of his pictures.
Films of Pier Paolo Pasolini
Overview of Pasolini’s life and work as poet, novelist, theorist and director, with reviews of each of his films.
Films of Derek Jarman
Introduction to his career as artist, author, activist and filmmaker, his role in British cinema, and reviews of features and short films.
LGBTQ+ Fiction & Film
Films based on a diverse range of LGBTQ+ literature, from ancient classics to contemporary works. Here’s a guide for starting a discussion group.
GLOBAL TRADITIONS: While this site focuses largely on Western works, I value other cultures’ LGBTQ+ artistic heritages. As they become accessible in English, I look forward to exploring the additional worlds that they hold. As a global community, standing upon millennia of history and resilience, the future of LGBTQ+ arts is diverse and bright.
Resources at External Websites
- PLEASE NOTE: This NEW section, begun March 27, 2021, will expand frequently to include a diversity of LGBTQ+ Film resources.
- Hollywood (of course, filmmaking is global): “The 50 Most Powerful LGBTQ Players in Hollywood” (includes international filmmakers) – The Hollywood Reporter, June 3, 2020, edited by Michael O’Connell and Degen Pener. QUOTE: “I’ll feel good about representation when ‘gay actor,’ ‘gay director,’ ‘gay writer,’ ‘gay story’ are no longer labels even worth mentioning.”
- Selected Black LGBTQ+ Films (outstanding list!): “17 Essential Queer Black Films” – The Advocate, February 26, 2018. QUOTE: “From Moonlight to Tangerine, celebrate Black history and culture with this incredible range of films about the Black LGBTQ+ experience.”
Recommended Books
- Comprehensive Reference: Raymond Murray’s Images in the Dark: An Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Film and Video
– entries on LGBTQ+ pictures, directors, writers, actors, themes.
- Focus on One Genre:Harry M. Benshoff’s Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and the Horror Film – scholarly and engrossing LGBTQ+ perspective on horror, fantasy, and science fiction films, and the evolving social history of LGBTQ+ identity from the 1930s to today.
- History of LGBTQs in Film: Vito Russo’s The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies
– a landmark history; a wonderful complement is the documentary film, The Celluloid Closet.
- Pre-Stonewall Hollywood: William J. Mann’s Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969
– by multi-talented historian who’s also an exceptional novelist.
– entries on LGBTQ+ pictures, directors, writers, actors, themes.
– a landmark history; a wonderful complement is the documentary film, The Celluloid Closet.
– by multi-talented historian who’s also an exceptional novelist.More LGBTQ+ Arts Resources
LGBTQ+ Literature, LGBTQ+ Visual Arts, and LGBTQ+ Classical Music. Essay “Why a LGBTQ+ Focus?”
Begun 1997 / Updated April 1, 2022