Gay Independent Films

Our hunt today is to find out what’s good in the world of gay, independent film making. That’s a pretty large subject, larger than you might first think. What names come to mind when you think of gay indies? Jerek Jarman was first on my list, ‘Sebastian’ closely followed by Gus Van Sant, ‘My own private Idaho’ and ‘Even cowgirls get the blues’. Searching around the net I found a staggering amount of independent gay movies – independent as opposed to Hollywood. I mean, there haven’t been that many gay blockbusters have there? Brokeback Mountain was said to be the first but anyone who has watched The Wizard of Oz might take issue with that.

There are, of course, some famous ones: Pricilla Queen of the desert, To Wong Foo, thanks for everything Julie Newmar and The Birdcage, for example, though with that last one I would recommend the original La Cage aux folles. But what other gay movies are out there that you may not have heard about? That’s what I thought I would find out for you.

Have you heard of Law of Desire? This 1987 film from Spanish director Pedro Almodovar stars Antonio Banderas stalking the man of his dreams – and yes, there is a man-sex scene in there. Do you remember My beautiful laundrette, with Daniel Day Lewis? This caused quite a storm when it first came out thanks to the overt homosexuality and interracial relationships, particularly as Daniel plays a gay skinhead.

As we’re in Britain at the moment, what about Beautiful Thing? Directed by Hettie Macdonald and set in inner London this too caused quite a stir when it was released. It had enjoyed a good West End run as a play before transferring to the big screen and is something of a collectors’ item.

Ok, so there is a wealth of good, and not so good, gay indies out there to find – but where to find them is the next question. Try strandreleasing.com an online shop that has several genres, one of which is Gay and Lesbian. It’s interesting to note that many gay films deal with AIDS and you have to wonder if independent film makers would have found an audience for their gay films were it not for AIDS – it is the subject of many good indie films. (I know there were the likes of Midnight Cowboy before AIDS, but those films didn’t really have ‘gay’ as the central theme, or else they portrayed gay people as the bad guy or the comedy camp role, if at all.)

Zero Patience, directed by John Greyson stands out as one to find on line and buy. It looks at the alleged first man to bring AIDS to the USA and is by turns funny, dramatic and sad. There is also the fabulous Geoffrey, with Patrick Stuart in a camp role adding humor. This story is about a guy refusing to ever have sex again for fear of catching HIV. It too is a mix of funny and sad, with Mother Teresa playing the piano to top things off at the end.

Many of these indie films have come, originally, from plays but there are still many good plays waiting in the wings to be made into films. To find out what’s coming up in the world of gay independent films take a look at filmmovement.com where, among other things, you can find out about the 20th London Lesbian and Gay film festival. That was only one search result, festivals like this happen in Seattle, Paris, Tokyo and many other places. It’s just a question of how you search.