80s gay films
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 control Rob Jarosinski is producing! While the film was already fully funded within the first week, it’s now looking to meet its first stretch aim, 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 recent canon of gay 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 representat
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 organism 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 allow 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 animation 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 geop
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 organism told, and new approaches were being explored as the lower budgets required smaller audiences to produce back 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 home to some of the most iconic movies the community has to offer.
Beyond just queer cinema, the aesthetics of the 80s make for delightful and charming filmmaking. There’s a playfulness to the movies of this day 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 being watchable. This is just one of the best Homosexual movies from the 80s, which are ranked below.
13 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 Female homosexual 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 shy away from his "often-tortured relationship 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 locate her strength and confidence.
- Desert Hearts (1985) DVD 10400
- Advocate #8.The first lesbian production in which both women enjoy a happy en
Psychotronic Pride: Gay Subtext in 1980s Horror
In 1934 a set of moral guidelines known as the Hays Code, that Hollywood films were required to trails was implemented and would remain in effect until 1968. The self-imposed rules prohibited profanity, suggestive nudity, graphic or realistic hostility, sexual persuasions and rape amongst other things. With being unable to overtly include LGBTQ+ characters within films, queer representation had to be expressed more subtly, and whether purposefully or by coincidence horror films became full of gay subtext, with sexual tension and attraction creature depicted with looks and gentle actions. This design persisted even after the Hays Code was lifted and until recently, outwardly queer representation was lacking.
Movies like Bride of Frankenstein, Cat People and Rope were all made in the 1940s and all overtly had gay themes and often gay actors playing the roles. Frankenstein was directed by James Whale, who himself was gay. In the 1963 film The Haunting, based on Shirley Jackson’s novel, The Haunting of Hill House, the character of Theo Crain is hinted at as being a lesbian, and in the original film adaptation, even more hin
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 Female homosexual 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 shy away from his "often-tortured relationship 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 locate her strength and confidence.
- Desert Hearts (1985) DVD 10400
- Advocate #8.The first lesbian production in which both women enjoy a happy en
Psychotronic Pride: Gay Subtext in 1980s Horror
In 1934 a set of moral guidelines known as the Hays Code, that Hollywood films were required to trails was implemented and would remain in effect until 1968. The self-imposed rules prohibited profanity, suggestive nudity, graphic or realistic hostility, sexual persuasions and rape amongst other things. With being unable to overtly include LGBTQ+ characters within films, queer representation had to be expressed more subtly, and whether purposefully or by coincidence horror films became full of gay subtext, with sexual tension and attraction creature depicted with looks and gentle actions. This design persisted even after the Hays Code was lifted and until recently, outwardly queer representation was lacking.
Movies like Bride of Frankenstein, Cat People and Rope were all made in the 1940s and all overtly had gay themes and often gay actors playing the roles. Frankenstein was directed by James Whale, who himself was gay. In the 1963 film The Haunting, based on Shirley Jackson’s novel, The Haunting of Hill House, the character of Theo Crain is hinted at as being a lesbian, and in the original film adaptation, even more hin