Tag Archives: lesbian movie

WATCH: Kristen Stewart New LGBTQ Christmas Rom-Com ‘Happiest Season’

Happiest Season is an LGBTQ Christmas rom-com that follows Abby stars (Kristen Stewart), who is so excited to meet her girlfriend (Mackenzie Davis ) Harper’s family over the holidays and propose. However, Abby soon learns that Harper hasn’t come out to her family yet.

The first LGBTQ+-focused holiday rom-com (which was backed by a major studio) was directed by Clea DuVall and written by her and her writing partner Mary Holland. The movie co-stars Holland, Dan Levy, Victor Garber, Mary Steenburgen, Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza, and Ana Gasteyer.

It’s a full-on same-sex romantic comedy with all of the holiday fixings. And it also features a soundtrack featuring all LGBTQ+ musicians.

Hulu bought Happiest Season from Sony in late October amid the continued shuttering of movie theaters. Now, audiences everywhere can watch the romance unfold over Thanksgiving week when it drops on Nov. 25. 

Happiest Season starts streaming on Hulu on Nov. 25

Watch #BKKY, A Lesbian Thai Film That Will Make You Think

It’s been a long time since a lesbian movie made me think.

Thai film #BKKY is and it isn’t like your typical lesbian movie. Many of the stereotypes are here – adolescent heartbreak and confusion, a bittersweet coming-of-age tale, a society that just doesn’t understand – but this film presents those tropes in refreshing ways.

The movie opens beneath a desk. Close-up on the legs of two high school girls flirting nervously with each other. One of the girls offers the other a gift and then nervously asks her out.

“Try playing footsie,” says a man’s voice off screen.

It’s the director.

A clapperboard appears. Take ten. The director demands that the scene start again.

At that moment the viewer is left thinking, “What on earth am I watching?”

#BKKY is less a film about a lesbian coming of age, and more a film about how we make films about lesbians coming of age. It’s thoughtful and meditative, and it forces the viewer to question their preconceived notions about what the “right” way to tell a queer story is.

At its heart, the film (claims that it) is a love story about Jojo, a young Thai girl who explores her sexuality in adolescence and young adulthood. Jojo is the face of interviews the director conducted with 100 queer and/or trans Thai teenagers. The director didn’t have any idea for a story when he started the interviews; it unwound naturally over time. The film’s plot borrows heavily from a diary that one of the interviewees donated.

The interviews themselves play a large part in the story. Hyperallergic says, “Some of the time, the studio interviews appear like context for a documentary, complementing the fictional storyline. At other times, they become background audio. At really magical moments, the two seem to converge and blend, leaving us guessing as to the true parameters of this story: what is fact and what is fiction.”

The film also touches on themes of patriarchy, patriotism and sexual fluidity.

Learn more at the official IMDB page.

9 Things That Happen in Every Lesbian Movie

Rainy days are made for lesbian movies.

There’s nothing like a rainy day for curling up with hot chocolate and bingeing queer movies available on Netflix. These days, the problem is that there are too many lesbian movies to choose from.

You can watch a brooding coming-of-age film. You can appreciate one of the classics. You can take it to the bedroom or to another continent. You can cuddle or cry or go, “Huh?” Seriously, the possibilities are endless.

Despite the crazy amount of lesbian movies, however, they all start to feel a little…similar. After a few flicks, you’ll probably realize that Blue Is the Warmest Color isn’t that different from Imagine Me and You isn’t that different from While You Weren’t Looking.

What tropes keep popping up in every lesbian movie?

1. The Innocent, Unsuspecting Baby Gay: A woman who has never, ever, ever contemplated queerness in her life suddenly falls deeply in love with a woman. Which woman, you may ask?

2. The Super Badass Veteran Gay: A seasoned lesbian, who is usually quirky and mysterious and may or may not have blue hair, rolls into Unsuspecting Baby Gay’s life and helps Unsuspecting Baby Gay figure out who she really is.

3. The Generic Male Figure Hovering in the Background: There’s always a man hanging around the plot somewhere. Maybe the Unsuspecting Baby Gay is married to him, like in Imagine Me and You. Maybe the Unsuspecting Baby Gay sleeps with him, like in Blue is the Warmest Color. Maybe the Unsuspecting Baby Gay dates him until she’s kidnapped by a hot lesbian spy, like in D.E.B.S.

4. Carefree Outdoor Swimming for No Reason: Normal people plan trips to the swimming pool or to the beach, but not lesbians. Lesbians are known for spontaneously stripping down to their underwear (or less) and going swimming in a pool that does not belong to them. Trespassing is sexy.

5. Spontaneous First Kiss While Doing Carefree Outdoor Swimming for No Reason: Innocent, playful splashing turns into a passionate kiss. Every time.

6. Tortured Feelings That Must Be Wrestled With: Something will tear the women apart. In heterosexual romantic comedies, this is usually because of outside reasons, like families who hate each other. But in lesbian movies, the reasons tend to be really introspective and emotional and something to do with a tortured soul.

7. A Sex Scene That Will Come Out of Nowhere: Now the protagonist is eating spaghetti with her parents – whoops, now there’s a twenty-two minute sex scene right in the middle of Blue Is the Warmest Color.

8. Overemotional Music By Some Indie Band You’ve Never Heard Before: Even if you hate that awful hipster band at the start of the movie, you’ll be Shazamming every song by the end.

9. The Super Sad Epilogue: For some reason, lesbian movies rarely end happily. More than likely, there will be a super sad epilogue five years later. Sometimes the epilogue takes a happy turn, and the women come back together just in time to have a super gay wedding (if the movie was made post-2015). But sometimes they just sadly spot each other in the rain, nod, and then walk in the opposite direction.

What’s your favorite lesbian movie trope?

New Lesbian Movie ‘Me And Marcy’ Tells The Story The Struggles Of Self Acceptance

Looking for a new movie to watch with queer characters? How about one with an intriguing story? Well I have awesome news.

Me and Marcy – a lesbian drama short-film – has one of the most interesting stories I have seen in recent lesbian films.

https://www.instagram.com/p/_QliBpIEcK/

The story is not only highly unique but, at the same time, incredibly relatable. The trailer (you can watch it right below) leaves quite a lot to the imagination, so here is a little bit more information about the movie.

The story follows Brit, who has been living in constant struggle. After her first sexually experiment with another woman, she keeps having extreme anxiety attacks. In a desperate attempt to cope with her daily struggle, Brit steals a picture frame from a garage sale.

But that’s not all she ends up leaving with.

Secretly hidden inside the picture frame are old photos of a lesbian couple from the 70s. Brit can’t help but admire how open and visible these women were about their relationship 40 years ago, so, naturally, she decides to track down and meet the couple from the photos.

As she meets and finds out more about the couple, she realizes she must confront her own feelings and, ultimately, who she really is.

So, when can you expect a release?

In order to be able to fund the movie, they have set up their own Indiegogo page (you can check it out and donate right here) where you can also find out more about Me And Marcy.

I am incredibly excited for this movie to finally come out. As more and more movies with queer characters  come out each year, I have been wishing for a new movie with an interesting and new story and, most importantly, well-written queer characters.

And I am surely keeping my hopes  up to finally see if Me And Marcy will be that movie.

Must Watch: ‘Carol’ Featurette Includes Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson Interviews

In an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price of Salt, Carol follows two women from very different backgrounds who find themselves in an unexpected love affair in 1950s New York. As conventional norms of the time challenge their undeniable attraction, an honest story emerges to reveal the resilience of the heart in the face of change.

carol-poster-01

In the latest featurette, we get a behind the scenes look at the people who brought Carol to the silver screen so exquisitely.

This clip not only features Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, who play the leading lovers, but also director Todd Haynes and co-star Sarah Paulson, who plays Carol’s former lover and current confidant.

Watch the clip below, then make plans to catch Carol as soon as possible:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=31&v=PVL_L5tkE4c

The film has generated Oscar buzz since its May premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Weinstein Company, which is distributing the film, is planning a slow platform release for Carol. Distribution won’t go wide until after Oscar nominations are announced in mid-January.

The new featurette allows viewers to go behind the scenes and hear from the entire ensemble cast, including Sarah Paulson, who plays a former lover of Carol in the film.

Teacher Told To Resign For Playing This Anti-Bullying LGBT Video

Tom Leahy is a teacher at a school in Kansas, who has been asked to resign after playing a viral anti-homophobia video to 14 year olds in his social studies class at Conway Springs Middle School.

As part of a history lesson on tolerance for an Eighth grade class, the teacher played short film Love Is All You Need.

Based on the award-winning short film of the same name, the hugely popular anti-bullying clip challenges society by exploring bullying and prejudice in a new light.

Love-Is-All-You-Need

Now with more than 12 million views on YouTube, the film is based on the premise of the ‘reversed world’ – where social roles are inverted – ‘gay is straight and straight is gay’ – this unique viewpoint allows viewers to ‘walk a mile’ in another’s shoes.

However, Mr Leahy told the Wichita Eagle that the video had “upset too many people” in the predominantly Catholic town, and that he has been asked to step down despite teaching at the school since 1997.

He added:

I knew something was going to happen. I just didn’t know this would happen.”

Watch the full film below;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ROXTFfkcfo

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Babadook Director’s New Movie will be the Tragic Lesbian Love Story ‘Alice + Freda Forever’

Last year’s film The Babadook was one of the scariest things on the block.

Alice + Freda Forever

The movie was a psychological horror about a single mother raising her son alone after her husband was killed in a car accident as he drove her to the hospital to give birth. The boy struggled to sleep and and often talked about an imaginary monster; and after reading a storybook called Mister Babadook, the boy becomes convinced that the Babadook is stalking them.

The Babadook

 

It was a horrific story that certainly caused a few restless nights, but director and writer Jennifer Kent earned heaps of praise for it.

The success and critical acclaim of that film also makes Kent the perfect person to helm Alice + Freda Forever which, despite its name and its ‘tragic gay love story’ description, is just as psychologically troubling and as uncomfortable to hear about as that of The Babadook.

 

Alice + Freda Forever is actually based on a book of the same name, about a real-life 19th century event in which Alice Mitchell, a 19 year old girl from Tennessee, pretended to be a man in order to marry her girlfriend, 17 year old Freda Ward.

Per the tragic side of that love story, things went horribly wrong when someone discovered their love letters and so Alice and Freda were forced to split up and stop contacting each other.

Alice persevered though, continuing to send Freda messages, but when the other girl didn’t reply Alice slashed Freda’s throat with a razor and killed her. As a result of Freda’s murder (and due to her lesbianism), Alice was soon put into an insane asylum, though she died several years later under ‘mysterious circumstances’.

Alice + Freda Forever 02

The situation is also one of the things that sparked the United States’ unfortunate fascination with lesbians as well as the idea that lesbians prey on other women or are inherently violent or mentally ill.

In the 20th century we saw ‘pulp’ novels pop up, with the stories typically involving a butch lesbian and a femme lesbian getting together before one (or both) of them died or left the other for a man. It is widely believed that Alice and Freda’s story is what inspired these books.

Framing the historical context of Alice and Freda’s story will be key to how good or accurate the film is – after all, there is no shortage of dead lesbians or lesbians being treated badly in modern day media.

Producer Sarah Schechter is convinced Kent can pull it off though, as she told Variety that “Jennifer’s debut film was one of the most accomplished I have ever seen and I’m thrilled she shares the same passion for telling this powerful, intense and unfortunately still timely story”.

There’s no word yet on who will play the two women or when the film will be released, but we’ll keep you posted once we know more.

 

Show your Support for Lesbian Film Project – Love Is All You Need

Based on the award-winning short film of the same name, the proposed feature film Love Is All You Need? challenges society by exploring bullying and prejudice in a new light. Based on the premise of the ‘reversed world’ – where social roles are inverted – ‘gay is straight and straight is gay’ – this unique viewpoint allows viewers to ‘walk a mile’ in another’s shoes. 

Inversed, mainstream norms are thrown into chaos as we follow multiple story-lines of everyday people who are bullied for the opposite-sex partners they love. This inversion is a powerful learning tool that has created an overwhelming response from people all over the globe. Translated in 15 different languages, the filmmakers receive emails daily about how the film has helped ‘change minds’ and open otherwise close-minded people to understand that ‘Love does not define who you are’.

The original short film was released in 2011, and went on to win numerous festival accolades, be viewed over 30 million viewers online. This project has created an overwhelming response from people all over the globe. Translated in 15 different languages, the filmmakers receive emails daily about how the film has helped ‘change minds’ and open otherwise close-minded people to understand that ‘Love does not define who you are’.

The writer and director – Kim Rocco – has now started an Indiegogo campaign to raise money to turn the short film into a feature-length film. Rocco is just 21, but became one of LA’s most coveted union script supervisors, working closely with notable mentors such as J.J. Abrams and Gore Verbinski.

The film has also gained the support of GLSEN (Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network) and From The Heart Productions.

To support the project go too www.icantstopbullying.com.

Watch the original short film – Love is All You Need?

New Lesbian Movie – Our Place

Our Place is the story of Brie and Faith, a lesbian couple in their late 20s, who live together. They live in Indiana, which is trying to ban gay marriage all together. We follow them through some ups and downs of being in a relationship while living together, all while they decide whether or not to take the next step and get married to one another.

The new Lesbian Movie has been created by independent and ambitious team – Al Benoit & Kelsey Cornell.

We want to show the a gay relationship is just like any other relationship. There are fights, arguments, lovely moments, sad times, but ultimately all this helps make a stronger couple. So, we are showing the good and bad.

Al Benoit

Our Place Trailer from Al Benoit on Vimeo.

We are a cast and crew of ambitious, hardworking young filmmakers, who currently attend or have graduated from film school. This is an independent project that we are creating without the “Hollywood industry.” We have a group of very talented people, and truly believe in the message of this production. This is why we have come to Kickstarter to ask for help. We truly want to get this film out to a much larger audience. Our goal, as a whole, is to establish ourselves as independent filmmakers and make this beautiful story. We’re living our dreams.

Marina Rice Bader to Make Directorial Debut at LA’s Outfest 

Writer/director Marina Rice Bader (Exec. Producer of Elena Undone, A Perfect Ending) will make her directorial debut at the 32nd Annual Outfest Los Angeles LGBT Film Festival with the world premiere of her feature film ‘Anatomy of a Love Seen’.

Outfest is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organisation that promotes equality by creating, sharing, and protecting LGBT stories on the screen. They officially announced the complete programming lineup for thier 32nd LGBT Film Festival.

Bader’s lesbian-themed feature film will be screening Friday July 18th at The Directors Guild of America in West Hollywood, CA. The premiere will be followed by an exclusive cocktail reception after-party with the entire cast and crew.

As the driving force behind Soul Kiss Films, her own independent film company, Bader’s mind and artistic direction is only focused on one goal: to create evocative, entertaining, and compelling movies by women, for women and about women. And she’s already successfully planting the seeds to do just that with ‘Anatomy of a Love Seen’ and the upcoming ‘Raven’s Touch’.

‘Anatomy of a Love Seen’ staring Sharon Hinnendael, Jill Evyn and Constance Brenneman, is a film within a film that explores love in all its painful and messy glory. The story takes us back six months, when actresses Zoe (Sharon Hinnendael) and Mal (Jill Evyn) fell for each other at exactly the same moment in time while filming a love scene.

After five blissful months together Zoe was decimated when Mal walked away. Three miserable weeks later a very lucrative network broadcast deal was in the works. They only had one request…re-shoot the love scene. Welcome to the set. Shot in five days, this improvised film based on Bader’s story, characters and outline fulfilled her desire to create a very organic and visceral experience.