Here’s a list of ten LGBTQ films and television series for New Brunswick Pride!
Netflix
Paris is Burning (1990)
Jennie Livingston’s legendary documentary about New York City’s drag scene and ball culture of the mid-to-late 1980s, is an intimate snapshot of blooming life dreams and ambitions in the face of HIV-AIDS ravaging the city’s LGBTQ communities.
Carol (2015)
Todd Haynes, director of LGBTQ cult films Velvet Goldmine and Far From Heaven, adapts Patricia Highsmith’s novel about a shop girl (Rooney Mara) and aspiring photographer, who begins a relationship with a glamorous married older woman (Cate Blanchett) in 1950s New York City.
4th Man Out (2015)
In a surprisingly sweet comedy, awkward twenty-four-year-old Adam (Evan Todd) comes out to his three bro-y best friends (Parker Young, Chord Overstreet, Jon Gabrus). As they come to terms with their friend’s revelation, and worry whether this revelation will change their friendship, they eagerly attempt to help Adam find love while dealing with their own obstacles.
Princess Cyd (2017)
Sixteen-year-old Cyd Loughlin (Jessie Pinnick) comes of age while visiting her novelist aunt Miranda (Rebecca Spence) for the summer in Chicago. As she and Miranda gently push each other’s boundaries and challenge one another, while coming to terms with a shared grief and loss, Cyd falls in love with a neighborhood girl (Malic White) working as a barista.
A Fantastic Woman (2017)
Marina (Daniela Vega), a transgender Chilean woman working as a waitress and nightclub singer, is thrown for a loop by the death of her older boyfriend (Francisco Reyes) and his family’s attempts to erase her existence from his life. Directed by Sebastián Lelio, the film was the Best Foreign Language Film winner at the 90th Academy Awards in 2017.
Crave TV
The Normal Heart (2014)
Powerhouse director-producer Ryan Murphy’s (Glee, American Horror Story, American Crime Story) adaptation of Larry Kramer’s 1985 play chronicles the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City in the early 1980s. Mark Ruffalo, Matt Bomer, Taylor Kitsch, Jim Parsons, Alfred Molina and Julia Roberts comprise a powerhouse cast of people fighting for survival at a time when their city, country and government quite literally did not care if they lived or died.
Gaycation (2016-)
Halagonian actress Ellen Page and her friend Ian Daniel host the VICE documentary series exploring LGBTQ cultures around the world, from Japan to Ukraine to the Southern United States, while providing a platform for different people and their stories.
Call Me By Your Name (2017)
Academy-award nominated wunderkind Timothée Chalamet plays Elio, an erudite teen boy who falls in love with his father’s graduate student assistant Oliver (Armie Hammer), who is staying with Elio’s family at their rural Italian home in the summer of 1983.
Love Simon (2018)
Simon Spier (Nick Robinson) a gay teen not yet out to his friends (Katherine Langford, Jorge Lendeborf Jr., Alexandra Shipp) and family (Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel) attempts to uncover the identity of his online crush while dealing with a blackmailer (Logan Miller) threatening to out him to the entire school, unless Simon sets him up with his friend Abby. Greg Berlanti (Riverdale, the CW’s Arrowverse television series) directs the John Hughes-ian LGBTQ classic.
Gentleman Jack (2019)
Set in 1832, the BBC drama series follows the adventures of West Yorkshire landowner and industrialist Anne Lister (Suranne Jones); in particular, her plans to mine coal on her estate and the wooing of her neighbor Ann Walker (Sophie Rundle). The series was adapted from Lister’s voluminous personal diaries, written in code and chronicling Anne Lister’s many, many lesbian relationships.
