It is nowhere near a comprehensive rundown of every great movie to feature out-and-proud heroes and villains, or a queer sensibility, or even just visible (and/or risible) examples of gay life in cinema we could have easily made this list twice as long. In honor of LGBTQ Pride Month, we’re singling out 50 essential LGBTQ films - from comedies to dramas, documentaries to cult classics, underground experimental work to studio blockbusters. Some have been documents of a moment or era of gay history, some have been used as correctives to decades of negative clichés, and others have simply celebrated the fact that the movies can be queer, they’re here, get used to it. But since those two men first danced, there have also been scores of stories, characters, and filmmakers that have presented the varied, multitudinous aspects of LGBTQ experiences 24 frames per second that have gone past those stereotypes, or flipped them on their heads. That clip appears in The Celluloid Closet, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s documentary based on Vito Russo’s study of homosexuality in the movies, along with countless examples of how gay characters showed up, per narrator Lily Tomlin, as “something to laugh at, or something to pity, or even something to fear.” The history of representation is long, and extremely storied, often shaping how the public viewed “the love that dare not speak its name” for better or worse. It’s considered by many to be one of the first examples of gay imagery in film, and a reminder that homosexual representation has been with the medium from the very beginning. While there’s nothing to outright suggest that these men were romantically involved or attracted to each other during the roughly 20-second length of their pas de deux, there is nothing that contradicts that notion either.
It’s known as “The Dickson Experimental Sound Film,” and dates back to 1895, the same year movies were born. It was an experimental short made by William Dickson, designed to test syncing up moving pictures to prerecorded sound, a system that he and Thomas Edison were developing known as the Kinetophone.
But this brief footage is not so ancient that you can’t clearly make out two men, waltzing together, as a third man plays a violin in the background.
While David does experience a relationship with a female character in its first season, it’s his romance with a closeted gay man in its third that really breaks new ground and quickly proves itself to be one of the best representations of a male same-sex relationship on TV that easily puts other LGBT shows to shame.It’s grainy, faded, and, given the clip is now 125 years old, more than a little worse for wear. His city character being forced to live in the middle of nowhere makes for numerous laugh-out-loud, fish-out-of-water scenarios, but the show also manages to explore him with sensitivity and earnestness that’s both endearing and relatable. The best movies to watch on Netflix cover every possible genre you can think of, from Oscar hopefuls like The Lost Daughter to horror blockbusters like Annabelle: Creation.
The series features a variety of now-iconic characters skillfully played by perfectly cast actors, but the standout star is the openly-gay series creator, Daniel Levy, who plays the pansexual son, David Rose.
Schitt’s Creek follows the hilarious misadventures of a rich family who suddenly find themselves out of pocket and are forced to move to a small rural town called, well, Schitt’s Creek. Starring: Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Dan Levy