The history of queer film and characters can be traced back to and before the Haze code as we have seen in the documentary The Celluloid Closet. In many ways we have progressed from these early portrayals and in many ways we have not.
Television has actually led the way with how we see queer folk. In the late 90s and 2000s it was the territory of soap operas before these dramas all but vanished in the U.S. and are still alive in some form abroad. In the U.S. queer storylines could be found in Days of Our Lives, and As the World Turns. In the UK we had queer characters in Hollyoaks, Eastenders, and Emmerydale. Wales gave us People of the Valley. Germany gave us Verbotene Liebe, Spain The Heart of the City, France Les Bleus, Argentina Botineras, New Zealand Shortland Street. When we compare the examples of those made almost everywhere else the U.S. falls short with what they felt they could display on screen. How long did it take queer couples to finally kiss on the U.S. soaps?
However, I wonder if they they paved the way for Sense 8, Brothers and Sisters, Transparent, Six Feet Under, Orange is the New Black, and Greys Anatomy?
Traditional American media is very much one step forward two steps back, it is the pay-to-view channels that are taking greater risks. With all of this in mind what is happening with actual film and the cottage queer film industry?
In the last few years we have had two stand-out queer films take on the mainstream market; Carol and Moonlight. Runners up include Tangerine, a low budget film with a very nonromantic view of life as a trans girl of color trying to survive in LA−an unflinching perspective made on an IPhone with a brilliant sound track.
We also had Grandma with Lilly Tomlin, an out actor and theatre maker and The Danish Girl, which was problematic as to accuracy and casting.
When you scroll through one of the major carriers of queer film, TLA, we have an abundance of gay Rom-Coms, weird thrillers, and poorly made comedies. There is an endless supply of coming out stories and an endless supply of queer teens involved with prostitution and drugs. The voices are primarily male; primarily white and cis gender identifying.
Moving to Wolfe films we at least have categories for Gay, Lesbian, and transgender.
Breaking Glass Pictures website looks to carry primarily foreign queer films usually the strongest of the lot.
We still have a shortage of female voices, people of color, queer people over 30, and a plot line worthy of a full-length film.
Yes we have a ways to go to catch up with the amount of films out there representing queer themes, people, history and so on. Not every film can be Moonlight but do we have to have 6 sequels of Eating Out?
We started out with some amazing pictures in the renaissance of queer film. The UK took off with My Beautiful Launderette, Beautiful Thing, 4 Weddings and a Funeral, as well as Bedrooms and Hallways, and Another Country. The list is quite long.
Merchant and Ivory brought us Maurice, a major film with an A-list cast written by a queer icon E. M. Forester and brought to us by queer filmmakers.
Films dealing with the queer experience seen through race, Looking for Langston, Young Souls Rebel, Paris is Burning, the Watermelon Woman.
The films of Almoldovar not all queer themed, but always with a nod to queer culture and always through a queer lens. The Canadian films Lilies, and I’ve Heard the Mermaid Singing.
These were stories, ideas and performances that were worthy of the praise they have received and still hold up after all this time. There are some beautiful small films coming out of Spain, France, Germany, Mexico and the UK.
Where are the American Queer films worth watching?
We have a plethora of gym toned self absorbed white boys running around having some of the most superficial crises ever brought to film. These scenarios worked for the heyday of the Hollywood films driven by banter and personalities of the 30s and 40s. Most of the performances we get from these gay men are dead from the neck up. Bitchy isn’t a replacement for banter or wit, and if we wanted porn we would be watching it.
There have been some exceptions. Beginners deals with a man who is recently widowed and finally comes out to his adult son. Sordid Lives is a comedy whose main character is defiantly over 30. Also worth mentioning is Big Eden, and The Business of Fancy Dancing addressing what a queer native experience has been.
Topics that are being addressed in the bulk of American queer films is relationships and how the queer community navigates open relationships, and our own definition of family, that in many ways is a good thing. How we conduct our lives is different than the hetero-normative and we should be exploring this within our films and work
What this says is far more telling about queer culture in the U.S. The queer media, film, publications, and advertising are geared to white men of a certain age and financial demographic. This focus is on a group that looks to assimilation as some form of equality. Within these films we continue to minimalize those who do not fit the definition of passing in the hetero world: queers of color, lesbians, and trans, anyone over the age of 30 and certainly no gender fluid, gender queer folk.
As to age it’s not just the queer community that disregards anyone over the age of 30 as having a sex life, dreams and aspirations, or anything interesting to say it’s the media in- general’s approach to everyone.
We are smarter, wittier and much more creative than this. Especially now as we see the rise of the right again we need to stop navel gazing and start making work that looks outward with a queer perspective. As queer artists we need to be asking bigger questions of our audiences and ourselves. The time of making films just for the community is rapidly coming to an end. We need positive representations out there but at the same time we need to start addressing the things that create turmoil and disturbance within our own community. We should be brave enough to look at our failings in diversity and inclusivity. Where does this come from and what are doing or not doing about it? That would be a film I would go to see.