The Jungle Book (1967)

A very loose adaptation from a Rudyard Kipling story 1894 story ‘The Jungle Book’ is the last animated Disney Movie to be made while Walt Disney was still alive. The story follows a young boy ‘Mowgli’ who was left in the jungle and found by the panther ‘Bagheera’ and then left to be raised by …

Zero Patience (1993)

Produced for both the UK and Canada, first released in 1993 ‘Zero Patience’ is a musical comedy about the Victorian Explorer, Writer and Sexologist Sir Richard Burton (who did find the fountain of youth, fell in and is now a taxidermist in Toronto) who in while creating an exhibition about AIDS meets the ghost of …

“Sometimes you have to create your own history” Black queer experiences in The Watermelon Woman

25 years since its debut, what can we still learn about black, queer experience, history and trajectory from Cheryl Dunye’s instant queer classic? From black lesbianism, queer intimacy, the complexity of adult friendships and a thirst for authentic, accurate representation, Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman, has a brutal honesty about it, something of which the film has …

Zero Patience (1993)

Zero Patience (1993) Zero Patience is a fictional Canadian musical film released in 1993 which is based on the true story of Gaëtan Dugas, a gay flight attendant who passed away due to complications related to AIDS. In the film, he materialises as a ghost who helps Victorian adventurer and sexologist Sir Richard Francis Burton …

Anders als die Andern / Different from the Others (1919)

Anders als die Andern (Different from the others) was a 1919 film produced in the Weimar Republic. It is incredibly significant because it was the first portrayal of a homosexual character in film and the portrayal was sympathetic. The film follows a violinist named Paul Körner and the beginnings of his relationship with a male …

The Killing of Sister George and Clouds of Sils Maria

The Killing of Sister George and Clouds of Sils Maria are two films with similar thematic elements. The respective protagonists are older women in showbusiness, and the films explore their concerns and hurdles navigating such a patriarchal industry. Imperfect queer relationships and the power imbalances within them are also explored. In Sister George, George, a …

And Then We Danced

“There is no sex in Georgian dance. This isn’t the Lambada.” And Then We Danced is a 2019 Georgian drama written and directed by Levan Akin. The film is a historical cornerstone, being the first LGBTQ+ Georgian film as well as paying homage to a major cultural phenomenon, Georgian dance. The film was also a …

The Killing of Sister George

Originally released in September 1968 The Killing of Sister George is an important queer film for several reasons especially the fact it was one of the first films to explicitly show lesbian lives. The film, which is based on a play with the same name can be useful for historians to interpret how lives may …

Nighthawks 1978

A snapshot of London’s gay scene post partial decriminalisation. Nighthawks offers a glimpse of what life is like for a gay man a decade after the introduction of the Sexual Offences Act 1967.[1] The harsh reality that legislative reform had not created a homosexual utopia. The film contains many ‘Britishisms’ to seemingly humanise gay men …

The Watermelon woman

As a commercially disruptive piece, Cheryl Dunye's directorial debut set out on an ambitious yet effortlessly executed narrative. Navigating beyond genre expectations, The Watermelon Woman is the epitome of queer cinema. ‘Queer is a contentious term and one that encompasses defiance, celebration and refusal within its remit’- Noreen Giffney[1] In this context ‘queer’ is being …