Criterion Deep-Dive: 30 Films Celebrating Pride Month! (Part One of Two)
Highlighting 30 LGBTQ+ Films by Queer Directors from The Criterion Collection & The Criterion Channel
June is Pride Month, and that means it’s time for another Criterion deep-dive! For Black History Month in February and Women’s History Month in March, I compiled lists of cinematic gems from The Criterion Collection and The Criterion Channel to celebrate critically-acclaimed films made by Black directors [click here to read Part One and Part Two] and women directors [click here to read Part One and Part Two].
In honor of Pride Month, it’s now the perfect opportunity to discuss a sampling of 30 great LGBTQ+ films directed by queer filmmakers!
For this particular deep-dive, I especially wanted to highlight some more recent films, as well as some recent short films by queer filmmakers. For this reason, I've chosen to represent the films on this list in reverse chronological order, to shine a spotlight on a plethora of fantastic queer films that might have flown underneath your radar.
I’ve delved into the Criterion catalog to bring you 30 renowned LGBTQIA+ films by queer directors that are currently available via The Criterion Collection (Blu-ray & DVD) and/or The Criterion Channel (streaming). One great film for each day of Pride Month! Part One is below. Check back next week for Part Two!
30 Critically-Acclaimed LGBTQIA+ Films by Queer Directors from The Criterion Collection & The Criterion Channel: Part One of Two (in reverse chronological order)
Queer Futures (a curated collection of 4 short films executive produced by J Wortham)
How to Carry Water (2023) – directed by Sasha Wortzel
The Script (2023) – directed by Brit Fryer and Noah Schamus
MnM (2023) – directed by Twiggy Pucci Garçon
The Callers (2024) – directed by Lindsey Dryden
I want to start this deep-dive by drawing attention to an underrated feature of The Criterion Channel that I’ve come to adore, namely their magnificent abundance of short films! And Queer Futures, a recent addition to the channel, immediately became my favorite new curated collection of shorts. All four of these inspiring films can be viewed back-to-back in just over an hour, and each offers a complementary yet unique viewpoint on the collection’s title theme. In the words of the project’s press release: “The Queer Futures collection centers joy and connection to radically imagine future visions of queer life. Four short films explore fat beauty and liberation, gender-affirming healthcare, nonbinary siblinghood in ballroom culture, and the anonymous connections of a decades-old LGBTQ hotline.” [currently streaming on The Criterion Channel]
Orlando, My Political Biography (2023) – directed by Paul B. Preciado
Someone once asked multi-talented writer/philosopher/curator/activist Paul B. Preciado, “Why don't you write your biography?” He replied, “Because f--king Virginia Woolf wrote my biography in 1928!” And thus began the impetus for Preciado’s first film, the wonderfully surreal documentary/reverie Orlando, My Political Biography. Inspired by Woolf’s modernist vision of gender fluidity and transformation across time, this theatrical and daringly experimental debut brings together a chorus of diverse voices from across the gender spectrum to proudly declare: “In this film, I’ll be Orlando by Virginia Woolf.” The result is a powerfully moving and satisfying work of cinema that would have made Virginia proud. [available on Blu-ray & DVD, currently streaming on The Criterion Channel]
Neptune Frost (2021) – directed by Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman
The queer, Afrofuturist, cyberpunk, spoken word musical you didn't know you needed! An avant-garde feast for the senses, with stunning cybernetic neon day-glo costumes, electrifying choreography, and a mélange of languages (Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Swahili, French and English), Neptune Frost is a staggeringly original vision of revolution and resistance. Co-directed by American poet/musician Saul Williams and Rwandan actress/playwright Anisia Uzeyman (with Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda as executive producer), this bold sci-fi epic is truly like no other film I’ve ever seen. [currently streaming on The Criterion Channel]
A Wild Patience Has Taken Me Here (2021) – directed by Érica Sarmet
Another brilliant short film, A Wild Patience Has Taken Me Here relates a life-changing encounter between a jaded, fifty-something lesbian biker and a sapphic quartet of younger queer folks. Featuring sumptuous cinematography and a scintillating soundtrack, Brazilian auteur Érica Sarmet conjures up an erotic weekend of shared friendship, romance, wisdom and connection across the generations. All in a celebratory 26-minute runtime! [currently streaming on The Criterion Channel]
Polygraph (2020) – directed by Samira Saraya
Guess who’s coming to dinner? Here’s the premise: Yasmine is an openly lesbian Arab Palestinian nurse living in Tel Aviv. Her lover, Or, is an intelligence officer in the Israeli army. Yasmine’s sister arrives for a visit from the West Bank, unaware that she’s about to meet Or. What happens next? This emotionally intense and timely tale (another first-rate short film) could not have been told by anyone other than award-winning Israeli Palestinian filmmaker, actor, poet and rapper Samira Saraya (who also holds the distinction of being the first Palestinian drag king). [currently streaming on The Criterion Channel]
Lingua Franca (2019) – directed by Isabel Sandoval
In the last five years or so, there’s been a gratifying and long-overdue explosion of spectacular films by directors representing perspectives we’ve never seen on screen before, and Lingua Franca is a shining example of everything I’m loving about this new cinematic renaissance. Writer/director Isabel Sandoval stars as Olivia, an undocumented Filipina trans woman who becomes the live-in caregiver for Olga, an elderly Russian-Jewish woman in the early stages of dementia (played by the always brilliant Lynn Cohen). An emotional and beautifully composed drama, Lingua Franca was thankfully acquired by ARRAY, the independent distribution company launched by Sandoval’s mentor, the great Ava DuVernay. This is a film I can’t imagine getting made (let alone finding a distributor) 25 years ago, and I’m so grateful that it exists. [currently streaming on The Criterion Channel]
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) – directed by Céline Sciamma
The eye of the painter. The face of the beloved. Fluttering hands, deft brushstrokes. The folds of a green dress. The curl of the lips. The arch of an eyebrow. There are art films and there are films about art. This film is pure Art. With a capital A. It’s essentially a moving tableau, with countless winks and nods to celebrated artworks from the past. And though I am in rapturous awe of French director Céline Sciamma’s virtuosic artistry, I’m also completely swept away by the romance between Marianne (Noémie Merlant) and Héloïse (Adèle Haenel). From the moment when Marianne first glimpses Héloïse running in the wind to the final extended shot . . . Portrait of a Lady on Fire is the embodiment of aesthetic perfection. [available on Blu-ray & DVD]
Pariah (2011) – directed by Dee Rees
The first feature film by one of my favorite living directors, Pariah sensitively tells the coming-of-age story of Alike, a 17-year-old Black teenager exploring her gender and sexual identity. With echoes of the vital intersectional work of Audre Lorde (the film begins with a quote by Lorde: “Wherever the bird with no feet flew, she found trees with no limbs.”), Pariah was also the very first narrative film from the 2010s to be selected for preservation by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.” Pariah is definitely all three. [available on Blu-ray & DVD]
Maggots and Men (2009) – directed by Cary Cronenwett
I honestly have no idea why Cary Cronenwett felt compelled to create a black-and-white anarchist epic, in the style of Eisenstein’s Soviet propaganda films from the 1920s, with the largest cast of trans actors ever assembled . . . but I absolutely adored the result! Based on an actual historical incident known as the Kronstadt Rebellion, this is yet another example of a film that is utterly unlike anything else I have ever seen, and yet I am delighted and grateful that such a singular and empowering vision of queer liberation exists. [currently streaming on The Criterion Channel]
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) – directed by John Cameron Mitchell
“How did some slip of a girlyboy from communist East Berlin become the internationally ignored song stylist barely standing before you?”
I’m going to go out on a limb and declare that John Cameron Mitchell’s unforgettable Hedwig is the most interesting and original character to arise out of the past 30 years of film, theater and literature combined. Hedwig and the Angry Inch is also a perfect film. An iconic soundtrack. An outrageously delightful and pitch-perfect cast. Legendary costumes (and wigs!). Sublime animated sequences. A flawless script combining hilarious quips, heartbreaking emotional honesty, an empowering message, and delicious allusions to everything from Plato’s Symposium to LaVern Baker. There’s even a sing-along! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I can’t live without this film. Watch it once and you’ll immediately want to watch it again. [available on Blu-ray & DVD, currently streaming on The Criterion Channel]
All About My Mother (1999) – directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar has consistently been creating extraordinary films for decades, and All About My Mother, one of a myriad of masterpieces by the reigning genius of Spanish queer cinema, might be my favorite. A mash-up of metafiction and melodrama, All About My Mother is Almodóvar’s outrageous yet heart-rending love letter to all women, all actresses, and all mothers. “All I have that's real are my feelings and these pints of silicone that weigh a ton.” [available on Blu-ray & DVD]
Bound (1996) – directed by Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski
Three years before The Wachowski Sisters changed science fiction forever with The Matrix, they made their impressive directorial debut with Bound. This sensuously sapphic neo-noir thriller, starring Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly, was one of the first mainstream productions to hire an on-set intimacy coordinator (author and sex educator Susie Bright, who has a cameo in the film). And though its status as a lesbian cult classic was cemented years ago, Bound was recently announced as a new addition to The Criterion Collection (digitally restored in 4K no less), just in time for Pride Month! [available on 4K UHD & Blu-ray]
Lilies (1996) – directed by John Greyson
During my freshman year of college, I saw this film on the big screen at an LGBT film festival and it forever changed my life. My first introduction to the unbridled creativity and innovation of the 1990s New Queer Cinema, Lilies was also the first time I’d ever seen such a gloriously fantastical display of sheer homoerotic romanticism on film. The potent combination of tragic beauty, lost innocence, and courageous defiance against a repressive world . . . this film was a revelation. Set in a prison in 1952, Lilies is a sensual, dreamlike play-within-a-film-based-on-a-play, with echoes of Jean Genet, E.M. Forster, Peter Brook and Derek Jarman. And the exquisite new restoration wonderfully elucidates every single little detail, from the grit of the prison walls to the floral opulence of the idealized sylvan bower. [currently streaming on The Criterion Channel]
The Watermelon Woman (1996) – directed by Cheryl Dunye
Now this is a feminist classic. A milestone in New Queer Cinema, The Watermelon Woman is also a love letter to the wonderful Black actresses of early cinema (like Hattie McDaniel, Louise Beavers and Butterfly McQueen). Liberian-American writer/director Cheryl Dunye stars as protagonist Cheryl, who, while working at a video rental store in Philadelphia, decides to make a documentary about an unnamed Black silent film actress credited only as “The Watermelon Woman.” Metafiction ensues! [available on Blu-ray, currently streaming on The Criterion Channel]
The Long Day Closes (1992) – directed by Terence Davies
A bleak portrait of 1950s Liverpool through the eyes of a young gay boy, Terence Davies’ harrowing semi-autobiographical film is a panoply of shifting images and melancholy memories from his own childhood. On the surface there are transient moments that almost grasp toward the tropes of a nostalgic family comedy. Yet these brief bursts of humor are inevitably juxtaposed with scenes of trauma and abuse via school, church, peers, and the suffocating conformity of the impoverished society as a whole. The Long Day Closes is one of the saddest, most painfully accurate and honest portrayals of young queer alienation I’ve ever seen on film. The artistry and genius are undeniable, and for anyone who knows firsthand the difficulties of growing up gay in an overwhelmingly heteronormative world, this film strikes a particularly poignant chord. [available on Blu-ray & DVD, currently streaming on The Criterion Channel]
Happy Pride Month everyone! Check back next week for the rest of the list!
And if you’d like even more film recommendations . . . check out the following articles:
