Now that LGBTQIA+ Pride month has begun, there is an opportunity to enjoy the works of a variety of queer filmmakers, from the New Queer Cinema of the 1990s to international queer cinema.
Regardless of the era or the content, authentic queer storytelling is essential to cinema at large, and while it is important to consume stories about queer characters, it is even more important to watch films specifically made by those in the LGBTQ+ community, as this provides an extra layer of authenticity and truth. These filmmakers have cinema lovers buzzing on Reddit for their indelible contributions to queer cinema.
John Cameron Mitchell
Initially hailing from the musical theatre, John Cameron Mitchell burst onto the film scene with the screen adaptation of their own musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, in which Mitchell also starred as a genderqueer rock singer. The musical has since become a cult classic. Mitchell followed their directorial debut with the experimental erotic film Shortbus and the Nicole Kidman-led adaptation of David Lindsay-Abaire's play, Rabbit Hole.
Round-Emu9176 writes in a thread about Mitchell's work, "Thank you for bringing Hedwig and the Angry Inch into my life." In the same thread, nullrecord expresses that "Shortbus stands out in [their] mind as a really fun, sex-positive, uplifting, and erotic indie film." Mitchell's work may have been initially received as subversive and controversial, but it's those exact elements that have made their filmography synonymous with the best of queer cinema.
Andrew Haigh
Also known for his television work on the short-lived HBO series Looking, Andrew Haigh first garnered widespread acclaim for his romance, Weekend. Weekend follows a temporary sexual relationship in Nottingham between Russell (Tom Cullen) and Glenn (Chris New) before the latter has to depart for Oregon.
Along with his subsequent films, 45 Years and Lean on Pete, there is a quiet melancholy and a grounded verisimilitude to Haigh's work. GojiGam praises the aesthetic and feel of Weekend, in particular: "It was quite a validating experience to finally see a loving and well-crafted story about gay men...I love how [Weekend] so effortlessly vocalizes the inner conflict between gay men without ever being depressing." Haigh's most recent project was the BBC/CBC miniseries The North Water.
Lisa Cholodenko
Writer/director Lisa Cholodenko is perhaps best known for her 2010 comedy The Kids Are All Right, starring Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as a married couple who have a complicated relationship with their sperm donor, played by Mark Ruffalo. Before that film, Cholodenko was a critically acclaimed independent filmmaker known for High Art and Laurel Canyon.
Redditor abaganoush was particularly taken with her work in Lauren Canyon, describing the film as "a seductive drama" and later calling it "steamy and laid back and very LA." Cholodenko has since gone on to direct several projects for television, including reuniting with Frances McDormand on the HBO miniseries Olive Kitteridge, which won Cholodenko a directing Emmy. Her next project is the American remake of the critically acclaimed German film, Toni Erdmann.
Dee Rees
Dee Rees's 2011 feature directorial debut was the powerful and incredibly current film Pariah, which tells the story of a young Black woman's (Adepero Oduye) family conflict as she comes out as a lesbian. Executive produced by Spike Lee and filmed in Brooklyn, Pariah has the look and feel of a documentary while also being a coming-of-age story that felt fresh.
Rees followed up Pariah with the HBO biopic Bessie, starring Queen Latifah, and the Netflix drama Mudbound, with Carey Mulligan and Mary J. Blige. When it was announced that Criterion would add both Pariah and Mudbound to their collection, JaylenBrownAllStar wrote that they found Pariah to be a great LGBTQ+ film, highlighting the importance that the film was "from the black perspective" and adding that "this and Moonlight are modern greats."
Todd Haynes
One of the most prolific queer filmmakers to come out of the 1990s, Todd Haynes first gained attention for his controversial short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story. His debut feature, Poison, won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and cemented Haynes's status as an important figure in the New Queer Cinema movement.
Haynes would go on to find a cinematic muse in Julianne Moore with the films Safe and Far From Heaven, and in 2015, he directed the critically acclaimed lesbian romance Carol, with Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. Redditor devingr33n declares that Haynes is an underrated LGBTQ+ director, having made "canonical gay films like Velvet Goldmine, Poison, [and] Carol."
Céline Sciamma
French auteur Céline Sciamma is known for films that often explore gender and sexuality through the female gaze. Cinema is, of course, historically constructed from the male perspective, and Sciamma's exploration of gender and even the erotic is refreshing and essential to the growing diversity of film.
Sciamma is best known for the 2019 film Portrait of a Lady on Fire, In a thread on directors who have yet to miss the mark, Redditor safdiebr0thers writes that Portrait "is definitely [Sciamma's] masterpiece but all of her films have similar themes of sexuality and love. Her film Tomboy is another amazing one." Most recently, Sciamma told a tale of intergenerational girlhood and grief in Petite Maman.
John Waters
It is impossible to talk about queer cinema without any mention of the subversive, campy irreverence of John Waters. His cult films include popular teen comedies like Hairspray and Cry-Baby, both of which were adapted into successful Broadway musicals. But the most outrageous of the John Waters oeuvre has to be the 1972 classic Pink Flamingos.
Pink Flamingos is certainly not for everyone (the film famously ends with drag queen Divine consuming dog feces), but it is the definitive John Waters film because of its deliberate subversive trashiness and its intentional low-budget aesthetic. Redditor tgwutzzers summarizes the direction well in explaining that "the film is 'problematic' on purpose as a reaction to the puritanical sensibilities of the time." Regardless of one's personal opinion of Pink Flamingos, Waters carved out his own lane in cinema with an inimitable, singular vision.
The Wachowskis
Lana and Lily Wachowski are the collective masterminds behind The Matrix series, which includes the most recent sequel released this past year. When the first film in the series came out in 1999, the science fiction psychological drama was wildly successful and critically acclaimed, winning four Academy Awards. The siblings have gone on to direct the film adaptation of Cloud Atlas, as well as the short-lived Netflix series, Sense8.
In addition to these successful projects, their first film Bound deserves to be showcased this Pride month. The thriller starring Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon was praised for its depiction of a relationship between two women in a mainstream movie. Redditor allyafterdark recommends Bound and praises the "queer, neo-noir, [and] unapologetic" nature regarding the erotic and violent subject matter. It is a bold debut feature that certainly paved the way for their future success.
Gus Van Sant
Gus Van Sant has managed to achieve acclaim across low-budget independent films and mainstream projects, from the starkly disturbing Elephant to the dark comedy To Die For. He has received two Academy Award nominations for Best Director for his work on Good Will Hunting and Milk, the latter of which follows the political career and assassination of Harvey Milk (Sean Penn).
Gus Van Sant's early work has maintained a devoted following in the queer community. His third film, My Own Private Idaho, combines queer themes, avant-garde style filmmaking, and even Shakespearean dialogue from his Henry IV plays. Redditor librariansandrockets refers to the film as a "prime 90s indie flick, the kind that makes you nostalgic for a past you never experienced," while massivepanda writes that River Phoenix's performance is "one of [their] absolute favorites of all time."
Pedro Almodóvar
Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar has been making films for over four decades and has created a vision and style that is unmistakably his own. From slapstick comedies like Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown to thrillers like The Skin I Live In, Almodóvar has proven that he can transcend languages, genres, and generations with his work.
Last year, Almodóvar received widespread critical acclaim for his film Parallel Mothers, which once again starred longtime muse, Penélope Cruz, in an Oscar-nominated performance. Parallel Mothers deals with themes relating to the Spanish Civil War while also tackling motherhood, feminism, and sexual fluidity. Ceaguila84 proclaims that "Almodóvar and Penélope Cruz have made another beautiful film together. This one seems more personal...the ending was poetic." Like all of these filmmakers, Almodóvar has proven that the power of queer storytelling - and great cinema at large - lies in the total infusion of one's self-expression into the frame and into the narrative.