Out On The Silver Screen

Films with LGBTQA+ themes and characters have risen in prestige in past years and made their way to high-level award shows, as well as securing places in history and audiences’ hearts. LGBTQA+ films strive to show the queer experience in all its messy glory. These films include adaptations of novels and short stories (Carol, Call Me by Your Name, The Handmaiden, Brokeback Mountain), movies based on real experiences (Moonlight, Freeheld), and original screenplays (Far From Heaven, Pariah).

Representing LGBTQA+ lives in film has gained prominence and support in the last halfdozen years, especially after marriage equality was passed in the United States. Showcasing voices once cast as sinful or worthless revitalized the film industry.

“I have taught many LGBTQA+ filmmakers over the years,” said production professor Charles Merzbacher. “My goal with them is the same as with any student: to help them find their authentic voice as a filmmaker.”

The first notable moment of LGBTQA+ themes and characters in film was 1895’s The Dickson Experimental Sound Film, which featured a scene with two men dancing together.

During the 1920s and 30s, films showed homosexuality in a stereotypical light, with terms like “pansy” and “sissy” consistently used. In 1915, the Supreme Court ruled that films weren’t protected by the First Amendment. Subsequent celebrity scandals and boycotts led to the creation of the Motion Picture Production Code, also known as the Hays’ Code. The Hays’ Code organized elements that could not be shown in American films, including one guideline that did not allow same-sex relationships to be shown in a positive light.

Since the Hays’ code allowed for “sexual perversion” if it was shown in a negative manner, gay characters during the 1940s to the 60s were portrayed as psychopaths, sadists and villains. This can be seen in two of Alfred Hitchcock’s films: Rebecca (1940), with sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, and Rope (1948).

Over time, the Hays’ Code slowly liberalized itself in the 1950s and 60s. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) was seen as profound at the time of its release for heavily implying a character is gay, as well as implying a relationship between two men. Beginning in the 1990s and continuing to the present day, the LGBTQA+ community became more actively involved in cinema, and A-list actors became interested in portraying LGBTQA+ characters. Films with these characters and themes had effectively entered the mainstream, most notably 2005’s Brokeback Mountain.

Recent films along these lines include 2015’s Freeheld, based off a 2007 documentary about a New Jersey woman who battles to transfer her pension to her domestic partner after she is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Call Me by Your Name (2017), based on the 2007 novel by André Aciman of the same name, features the summer relationship between an Italian teenage boy and his father’s graduate student assistant in 1980s Italy.

These films show that society and cultural values have shifted, and cinema must shift with them. This includes producing a documentary about a lesbian police officer who fought for what she believed was right. As with Call Me by Your Name, which adapted novels with somewhat unconventional protagonists.

Another example of mainstream films with LGBTQA+ characters and themes is the independent film Moonlight, which won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2016. Based on an unpublished, semi-autobiographical play by Tarell Alvin McCraney, the film tells the story of the childhood, adolescence and beginning adulthood of a gay black man in Miami. It featured an all-black cast, was directed by a black man and was intended as a very personal film, particularly as director Barry Jenkins grew up in Liberty City, where the movie is set.

“I see Moonlight as very much in a tradition of personal and intimate storytelling that stretches back many decades,” Merzbacher said. “By being very specific, the filmmakers created an experience that is accessible and compelling for a wide audience. Big studio films often have a very hard time pulling this off because they tend to be designed by committee.”

2018’s Love, Simon, based on Becky Albertalli’s 2015 young adult novel “Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda,” is a film that celebrates gay teenage romance. It has all the aspects of a classic coming-of-age narrative, but through a gay protagonist and love interest. Love, Simon is one of the first films with explicit LGBTQA+ characters and themes to be released by a major film studio, in this case, 20th Century Fox.

In Love, Simon, it is difficult to say what is “enough” representation. The film features a gay protagonist, but as is typical in young adult narratives, he is middle-class and white. Though this has improved in recent years, the lack of diversity representation in literature, television and film is still an issue.

“When you have material with positive role models, the identification becomes that they are just people,” said film professor Paul Schneider. “It tends to open up people’s minds a little bit. [The 1998-2006 television show] Will and Grace, for example, made people more comfortable. You can’t measure it but it’s important.”

Big-budget films that incorporate LGBTQA+ characters and themes often face fear of backlash or reduced revenue. One definite possibility is that a groundbreaking gay lead in a big budget film or film series won’t be shown on-screen because, if he was, certain foreign markets would then ban the film, significantly cutting foreign revenue. Russia nearly banned 2017’s Beauty and the Beast over a brief shot of a gay couple dancing, and Cloud Atlas (2013) suffered a 40-minute cut for its release in China.

“Consider how few openly ‘out’ actors are given starring roles,” Merzbacher said. “It seems to me that we will only have reached ‘enough’ representation when we are no longer concerned with the sexual identity of the artist.”

Film as a medium is still evolving. Considering how relatively new they are in the historical sense, it’s not surprising that movies haven’t worked out all of their kinks yet. The sub-genre of films with LGBTQA+ themes and characters is even newer.

The global community hasn’t completely accepted all sexual and gender identities as valid, though film is still heading in that direction.

“I hasten to add that, if we ever reach that point, it will not be because sexual identity no longer matters to artists,” Merzbacher said, “but because we have come to accept that all artists reflect and express their sexual identities in their own ways.”

“I hope that as the studios see that there is an increased interest in seeing films about LGBTQA+ people, that they will make good movies about LGBTQA+ people without sensationalizing it,” said Justine Erdin (COM ’20). “Most movies at the moment are about gay men though, so hopefully there will be an increase in movies about the other members of the LGBTQA+ people too, as they also deserve to have a representation in the movies.”

We can expect to see many more films with LGBTQA+ characters and themes hitting the small screen in the future, as well as the big screen.

“There are a consistent number of films with these themes. They are here to stay,” said Schneider. “They come from an authentic place, like Moonlight—a genuine artistic place.”

by Noemi Arellano-Summer photography by Julia Smithing design by Samantha West