Gay 80s movies
Posted by Brennan Klein Posted on Jun - 16 - 20220 Comments
We’re halfway through Pride month, which means we’re also halfway through the Kickstarter campaign for Hauntology, the queer horror anthology film from writer-director Parker Brennon that our very possess Rob Jarosinski is producing! While the film was already fully funded within the first week, it’s now looking to meet its first stretch purpose, so check it out below if you want to donate!
Click here to donate to the Hauntology Kickstarter!
Parker’s production is looking to enter the novel canon of homosexual horror films, a subgenre that highlights and celebrates the queer experience within the milieu of the macabre. However, the history of queer horror doesn’t begin in the 2010s. Horror has had queer characters, creators, and themes since the very beginning, only they haven’t always been what one might call perfect visibility. In this list, I want to highlight 5 films from the 1980s that are surprisingly queer and fascinating in their treatment of the topic, even though there are elements that are clearly – and in some cases startlingly – problematic.
When it comes to representa
LGBTQ Films in the Ithaca College Library
Vito Russo, author of The Celluloid Closet, said of the Eighties, the films usually are about homosexuality, not about people and their stories.”
- Another Country (1984) DVD 10206
- A spy reflects on his boarding school homosexuality and Marxism.
- Before Stonewall: the Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community (1985) DVD 5503
- Chronicles the social, political, and culturalhistory of lesbian and gay life.
- Burroughs: The Movie (1983) DVD 10714
- An intimate portrait of beat generation author William S. Burroughs that does not nervous away from his "often-tortured affair to his homosexuality."
- Brideshead Revisited (1981) DVD 251
- Was the friendship at Oxford that started it all more than a friendship? An ITV/PBSmini-series.
- Caravaggio (1986) DVD 5099
- The Italian painter's life is tragically complicated when he becomes the boyfriend of a male model and his girlfriend.
- The Color Purple (1985) DVD 4276
- Only after a balck woman forms intimate relationship with another womandoes she find her strength and confidence.
- Desert Hearts (1985) DVD 10400
- Advocate #8.The first homosexual woman film in which both women enjoy a happy en
Best LGBTQ+ Movies of the 80s, Ranked
The 1980s were an exciting time for cinema. Independent studios were rising in number and prominence, so movies were being made on a smaller budget. This meant that a greater range of stories was being told, and new approaches were being explored as the lower budgets required smaller audiences to make help the investment. Now that it was less necessary for movies to appeal to the broadest possible audience, these independent studios were taking chances on LGBTQ+ narratives more than ever. As a result, the 80s are house to some of the most iconic movies the people has to offer.
Beyond just queer cinema, the aesthetics of the 80s form for delightful and charming filmmaking. There’s a playfulness to the movies of this time period in both design and story that leads to campy and entertaining movies, but not ones that are lacking in sincerity and heart. John Waters’ Hairspray is a perfect example of the balance struck between truly subversive choices that are even shocking at times but are still not at the expense of the movie organism watchable. This is just one of the best Queer movies from the 80s, which are ranked below.
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Seven Queer 80s Films to Watch This Pride Month
Design & LivingAnOther List
Louis Staples shares seven highlights from Queer 80s: Cinema on the Brink of Global Change, a series of ground-breaking films screening as part of the Barbican’s Pride season this summer
TextLouis Staples
The 1980s is a decade that is not exactly known for existence a positive time for LGBTQ+ people. The Aids crisis devastated queer communities and unleashed a terrible wave of homophobia in the media and politics, but also in everyday life. Gay men were particularly stigmatised and enable down by those in power, even as laws prohibiting gay sex were gradually relaxed.
But during these difficult times, the 80s were a decade where queer filmmakers across the world told stories in new and interesting ways. The Barbican’s Pride season this summer,Queer 80s: Cinema on the Brink of Global Change, explores a decade when, against the odds, LGBTQ+ representation in film thrived and bold depictions of queer existence prevailed.
At the time, the world was transforming geographically as much as socially. (Three of the films in the Barbican’s programme originate from countries that no longer exist.) As g