Films for Big and Small Screens

LGBTQ stories were made for the big screen, but these films are perfect for your phone, laptop, or television at home. All of these films are available to rent or view from the comfort of your own home—many produced since last June, but with a few landmark classics in the mix as well.  

Little Richard: I Am Everything

This Sundance premiere explores the Black, queer origins of rock and roll through the life of Richard Penniman, exploding the whitewashed history of American pop music in the process. His life is explored through archived performance footage and interviews with family, musicians, and cutting-edge Black and queer scholars who comment on the icon’s life story with all its contradictions and triumphs. 
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video

The Boys in the Band

This 1970 film was a landmark for LGBTQ representation, even garnering a Netflix remake in 2020. One of the first major films to center around gay characters, the film is a part of queer film history, featuring an ensemble cast taken directly from the initial stage run of the play.  
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video

Fire Island

This romantic comedy was released last June just in time for Pride Month. For those who missed it, Fire Island follows a group of New York City friends as they embark on a Fire Island getaway. In this Pride and Prejudice-inspired exploration of love and classism, Jane Austen gets an LGBTQ refresh. 
Where to watch: Hulu

The Birdcage

Mike Nichols’ 1996 American remake of La Cage aux Folles features Robin Williams as a gay nightclub owner whose son announces his engagement to the daughter of a conservative politician. From there, his partner—the star of his club’s drag show—poses as his wife in order to convince his son’s future in-laws that they’re a “wholesome American family.” 
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video 

The Stroll

Another Sundance documentary premiere, this film will be released June 21 by HBO. It follows the history of New York City’s Meatpacking District from the perspective of transgender sex workers.
Where to watch: HBO

Boys Don’t Cry

This 2000 film documents the true story and life of Brandon Teena, a transgender man whose 1993 murder in Nebraska made headlines. Teena’s murder, along with the murder of Matthew Shepard nearly five years later, led to an increase in lobbying for hate-crime laws in the United States. Though not the celebratory watch we might be looking for during Pride Month, the film is considered a historical work in the world of queer film. 
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video

Bros

This September 2022 release centers around two gay men in Manhattan who are drawn to each other despite their aversion to commitment. One of the first gay romantic comedies released by a major studio, the film has an openly LGBTQ principal cast. Over the course of the film, we watch “a neurotic podcast host” and “an equally detached lawyer” slowly connect with each other as their attraction morphs into commitment.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

In this comedic tale of found family, two drag queens and a transgender woman travel across the barren Australian Outback to a cabaret gig in a giant pink bus named Priscilla. This 1994 worldwide hit garnered an Oscar for best costume design and was later adapted into a musical. 
Where to watch: Amazon Prime

Tahara

Illustrated at times with claymation and animation, this coming-of-age follows two girls who kiss at the funeral of a Hebrew-school classmate who died by suicide. The girls’ grieving process begins a journey of self-discovery and a sexual coming-of-age. The film was released widely to audiences last June and reviewed in the New York Times as a “canny portrait of teenage insensitivity and sexuality amid a tragedy.” 
Where to watch: STARZ, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime Video

The Color Purple

Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel made its screen debut in this 1985 film set in the rural South. The Spielberg-directed coming-of-age stars Whoopi Goldberg in her breakthrough role, and tackles a range of problems faced by young Black women including domestic violence, incest, pedophilia, poverty, racism, and sexism. Though the 1985 film has been criticized as not fully encompassing the queerness of the original novel, it is still a piece of the history of queer- cinemamedia history and a moving, critically acclaimed film.
Where to watch: Max and Amazon Prime Video