Movies

Harry Hay

This much-anticipated documentary takes us through the fascinating and extraordinary life of Harry Hay; labor organizer, Marxist teacher, and founding member of the Mattachine Society, one of the first gay rights organizations in the country. Harry has been at center stage of gay pride for more than half a century. His story provides a chronicle of the gay rights movement, as well as a history of California in the 20th Century. Harry Hay joined the Communist Party in the early 1930s and participated in the San Francisco General Strike of 1934. In the mid-1950s he was called before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, and around this time Harry started the Mattachine Society. This momentous film features poignant interviews with Harry and many of the surviving original members of this historic and brave group of gay men. In the last 40 years, Harry has immersed himself in the counterculture youth movement, the Radical Fairies, and Native American culture.

Mark Rothko

During a career that spanned five decades, he created a new and impassioned form of abstract painting.

One to Another (Chacun sa nuit)

Starring: Lizzie Brocheré, Arthur Dupont, Guillaume Baché, Pierre Perrier, Nicolas Nollet Synopsis: A woman begins to investigate the brutal death of her bisexual brother, whom she showered with lots of more-than-sisterly love. Both were members of a punk band. Based on a real event in provincial France. This film was shown earlier this year in New York as part of The Film Society of Lincoln Center's Rendezvous with French Cinema and definitely stood out among the more demure offerings in the series as exactly what many of us have come to expect - and guiltily hope for - from Gallic celluloid.

Orlando

Starring: Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Krüger, Steven Berkoff, Gay Hamilton Synopsis: (1992) directed by Sally Potter An Irish rogue wins the heart of a rich widow and assumes her dead husband's position in 18th Century aristocracy. A gentlemanly rogue travels the battlefields and parlors of 18th century Europe determined to make for himself the life of a nobleman through seduction, gambling and dueling in this methodical film showing the rhythm and life of the period.

Out of the Past (1947)

Starring: Kelli Peterson, Barbara Gittings, Cherry Jones, Edward Norton, Gwyneth Paltrow Synopsis: This documentary examines a pretty recent major gay news story and mixes in a bit of gay history, showing how the struggle for equal rights has evolved. Homophobic school officials in Utah once decided they would rather shut down all high school after-school clubs than allow one Gay-Straight Alliance group to meet. The story generated national headlines, especially after the homophobes in the state assembly got involved. This excellent documentary tells that story, but doesn't leave it at just that. Instead, it mixes in the long history of those who have fought for equality for gay citizens in the United States.

Paragraph 175

Starring: Rupert Everett as the narrator Synopsis: Documentary focuses on the persecution of homosexuals by the Nazis. By the 1920's, Berlin had become known as a homosexual eden, where gay men and lesbians lived relatively open lives amidst an exciting subculture of artists and intellectuals. With the coming to power of the Nazis, all this changed. Between 1933 and 1945 100,000 men were arrested for homosexuality under Paragraph 175, the sodomy provision of the German penal code dating back to 1871.

Paris Is Burning

Starring: Dorian Corey, Pepper LaBeija, Willi Ninja, Freddie Pendavis, Kim Pendavis, Octavia St. Laurent, Junior LaBeija, Venus Xtravaganza, Anji Xtravaganza Director: Jennie Livingston Synopsis: This documentary examines the Harlem drag balls and the people involved in the start of voguing, which existed long before Madonna became a star. Upon its release the documentary received rave reviews from critics and won several awards. Some notable raves include Terrence Rafferty writing in the New Yorker, prominent Black gay poet Essex Hemphill writing in The Guardian, and filmmaker Michelle Parkerson writing for The Black Film Review. Outrage ensued when Paris Is Burning failed to earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature that year.

Philadelphia

Starring: Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, Antonio Banderas, Joanne Woodward, Jason Robards, Mary Steenburgen and Quentin Crisp Synopsis: A gay lawyer loses is fired after his firm learns he has AIDS. The film was the second Hollywood big-budget, big-star film to tackle the issue of AIDS (following TV movie And the Band Played On) in America and also signaled a shift in the early 1990s for Hollywood films to have more realistic depictions of homosexuals.

Quinceañera

Starring: Emily Rios, Jesse Garcia, Chalo González, David W. Ross, Ramiro Iniguez, Araceli Guzman-Rico Synopsis: A 14-year-old girl gets pregnant just before her quinceañera, the Latina coming of age celebration, turning this preacher's daughter into an outcast. She moves in with her gay cousin and the two become a family. Quinceanera is a look at what happens when teenage sexuality, age-old rituals, and real estate prices collide. It is a reinvention of Kitchen Sink drama, fueled by the racial, class, and sexual tensions of a Latino neighborhood in transition. Magdalena (Emily Rios) is the daughter of a Mexican-American family who runs a storefront church in Echo Park, Los Angeles.

Reinas (Queens) (2005)

Starring: Joaquín Oristrell, Manuel Gómez Pereira, Yolanda García Serrano Synopsis: Same-sex marriage is about to become legal in Spain. That means mothers can do what they love best, plan a wedding. This diva-filled film stars many of Spain's top actresses. The director Manuel Gómez Pereira, who wrote the film with Yolanda García Serrano and Joaquín Oristrell, pays dutiful congratulations to gay marriage. But it feels like he just plucked the men themselves from atop a wedding cake and stuck them in his movie, where for the most part they stand decoratively around and watch the women make suds from all this soap.