Sexual Health Sundays: Film Club!

If you're looking for something to distract you from schoolwork, consider one of these fifteen films. Though by no means an exhaustive collection of what's out there in terms of sexuality/gender/queer-themed cinema, these titles are a good place to start.

1. Fetishes (documentary)

1996; directed by Nick Broomfield

Explores the world of Pandora’s Box, a prominent New York City fetish club.

2. Be Like Others (documentary)
2008; directed by Tanaz Eshagian

In Iran, homosexuality is illegal, but sex reassignment surgery is permitted.

3. Were the World Mine
2008; directed by Tom Gustafson

Gay boys, glitter, magic, and Shakespeare... what’s not to love?

4. Tipping the Velvet (BBC serial)

2002; based on the novel by Sarah Waters

Male impersonators, underground lesbian s/m communities, sex work, oysters... all set in Victorian England.

5. Fingersmith

(BBC serial)

2005; based on the novel by Sarah Waters

Have you ever read a piece of historical fiction and wished really hard that the wealthy aristocratic maiden and the servant-girl would get it on? If so, this is the movie for you.

6. Kinky Boots
2005; directed by Julian Jarrold

Lola, a well-known drag queen and cabaret singer, decides to help Charles save his family’s shoe business.

7. Saving Face
2004; directed by Alice Wu

Wil, a surgeon (and secret lesbian) has to negotiate family drama as well as her illicit affair with Vivian, her boss’s daughter.

8. D.E.B.S.
2004; directed by Angela Robinson

The D.E.B.S., a secret crime fighting unit, do undercover work for the U.S. government. However, during an important mission to capture Lucy Diamond, nothing goes according to plan.

9. Loving Annabelle
2006; directed by Katherine Brooks

Annabelle, the new student at a Catholic girl’s school, finds herself attracted to Simone Bradley, her English teacher... classic!

10. C.R.A.Z.Y.
2005; directed by Jean-Marc Vallée

From IMDB: “A mystical fable about a modern-day Christ-like figure, "C.R.A.Z.Y" exudes the beauty, the poetry and the madness of the human spirit in all its contradictions.” And I thought it was just a cute story about a gay guy growing up and being forced to deal with his family’s idiosyncrasies...

11. Gray Matters
2006; directed by Sue Kramer

Gray and Sam, siblings and roommates, live in New York City... and fall in love with the same girl.

12. Better than Chocolate
1999; directed by Anne Wheeler

A lesbian romantic comedy set in Vancouver! It’s like the L-Word with a lower budget.

13. FtF: Female to Femme (documentary)
2006; directed by Kami Chisholm and Elizabeth Stark

What does it mean to be a femme?

14. Farewell my Concubine
1993. Directed by Kaige Chen

From IMDB: “"Farewell, My Concubine" is a movie with two parallel, intertwined stories. It is the story of two performers in the Beijing Opera, stage brothers, and the woman who comes between them. At the same time, it attempts to do no less than squeeze the entire political history of China in the twentieth century into a three-hour time-frame.”

15. Aimee and Jaguar
1999; directed by Max Farberbock

In 1943-44 Berlin, an unlikely romance blossoms between Felice, a Jewish woman, and a German homemaker named Lilly.

So what do you think, Athenites? What are your favourite films?