The Celluloid Closet (1996)
Genre : Documentary, Drama, History
Runtime : 1H 42M
Director : Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
Synopsis
This documentary highlights the historical contexts that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals have occupied in cinema history, and shows the evolution of the entertainment industry's role in shaping perceptions of LGBT figures. The issues addressed include secrecy – which initially defined homosexuality – as well as the demonization of the homosexual community with the advent of AIDS, and finally the shift toward acceptance and positivity in the modern era.
A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs.
"Jealous" man-killer Mayumi (Hitomi Kozue) is sent back into solitary confinement after being re-arrested for the murder of the doctor who fingered her for a botched surgery. After emerging from solitary confinement to find an all-new gang of bullies picking on a meek, young female prisoner, Mayumi is now a much harder soul who takes no attitude from anyone, and she turns savage when the poor girl is enslaved by Yakuza.
In the 19th century, siblings Abilene and Tod, orphaned on their western farm, become attracted to each other sexually. The confused Tod flees to a nearby town where he meets Linda, a local bar girl, and begins a sexual relationship with her, while a rough cowboy named Rawhide sexually assaults Abilene leaving Tod wanting revenge despite Linda's wariness and growing compassion for Abilene.
A gay Brit living in New York is deprived of his immigration status, and risks losing his family and life in the U.S. He marries his lesbian best friend to remain in the country and stay with his family, but things get complicated when he meets the love of his life and is forced to make an impossible choice.
A guy is found by the police swimming naked. He can't, or refuses to, speak and is sent to a hospital. Since no diagnosis can be made, he will be transferred to a mental hospital, when his male nurse decides to take another route. Slowly the reason for his speechlessness becomes clear. Together with the nurse's girlfriend and a female friend of the silent stranger, their history is explained
A lonely widower finds himself facing both his devout Calvinist village community and his own deepest regrets when he takes a deranged vagrant into his home.
Driven by an intense need for fame and validation, members of a dysfunctional Hollywood family are chasing celebrity, one another and the relentless ghosts of their pasts.
The reunion of a group of former medical students results in a flood of bitter memories.
A six-year-old boy in pre-hippie 1960s United States endures ridicule from his schoolmates and worry from his father over his fixation with a TV star named Dottie.
En El Mismo Equipo (On The Same Team, in English) is about the mixed feelings of a young rugby player. He tries to keep in the secret that he is gay, due to conformity mostly, but he struggles with it almost everyday. He longs to be free, but what exactly is freedom to the young man? He isn’t so sure himself.
A melodic massacre featuring a young love struck lesbian couple, two bigoted old ladies, a postman delivering death and a chorus line of fabulous feathered flesh eating zombies.
Six American special agents are sent to an idyllic Greek island to disrupt the operation of an international operation of illegal arms deals and African based terrorists. Three agents are killed - so their team has an infiltrated enemy.
A drag queen applies his friend's makeup as they reflect on the business and their sexuality.
Discussing what it means to be LGBT in today's society, PROUD, a short documentary, shares the experiences of young members of the LGBT community by exploring sexuality, gender identity and the positives that come with it.
Touko Laaksonen, a decorated officer, returns home after a harrowing and heroic experience serving his country in World War II, but life in Finland during peacetime proves equally distressing. He finds peace-time Helsinki rampant with persecution of the homosexual and men around him even being pressured to marry women and have children. Touko finds refuge in his liberating art, specialising in homoerotic drawings of muscular men, free of inhibitions. His work – made famous by his signature ‘Tom of Finland’ – became the emblem of a generation of men and fanned the flames of a gay revolution.
Pepijn and George’s steady, seven-year relationship is shaken up after they allow a young student named Cas to sleep on their couch until he finds a place of his own. Gradually, both men fall head over heels for Cas’ laconic charm and it forces them to reconsider their many long-term plans. Is Cas’ presence endangering their relationship or is he actually a blessing in disguise?
A police detective investigating a vicious string of homosexual murders discovers that the latest victim appears to be the married executive who was his college lover ten years before.
“Panic Bodies consists of six parts or chapters, varying in length and style. Each suggests a new approach to these returning questions: what does it mean to have a body; to be a body, and what does this body want? Hoolboom appears in the framing chapters, and in between others take his place, submitting their bodies to a probing research. The treatment and effects of AIDS reform these subjects, but also the sexual body with all its desires and questions, and the almost dying body that can temporarily leave the world to be absorbed by what is called ‘the white light’ in Eternity… The fifth chapter is entitled Moucle’s Island and features Vienna avant filmmaker Moucle Blackout. It rhymes her movements with the gestures of a small child, and then projects her into a dreamy sexual reverie.” Esma Moukhtar, Montevideo Catalogue
"Panic Bodies is a 70-minute, six-part exploration of the ways we experience the body's betrayals: disease, decline and death. The film is a panorama of emotionally charged recollections of strange relatives and estranged siblings, staged recreations of fast-fading pasts and personal mythologies, and reflections on the anxious states created by the body's fragile claims on time and space. It's about being a stranger in your own skin. Panic Bodies perfects the phantom quality of any good work about mourning, but it is not reducible to that. It is also enlivened by the intimacy that comes from having made a spectacle of personal secrets." (Kathleen Pirrie Adams, Xtra)
Alex is a 23 year old gay girl based in Manila. She is out to most people except her best friend Jess who she has been secretly in love with since they were kids. When Jess discovers the truth about Alex, they are forced to confront the feelings they have for each other.