Peter Knegt remembers sneaking into video stores as a teenager looking for movies he could relate to.
Sometimes I couldn’t find anything.
“The accessibility that queer young people now have to this content is very new,” Knegt said. “It’s remarkable … and it will go a long way in helping them overcome difficult times if they have them.”
The abundance of LGBTQ movies and television shows available for playback now offers the public, both inside and outside the community, a wide variety of content to choose from.
It’s all part of a change in one-dimensional storytelling to suit the demand for stories that show the joy of LGBTQ life, those in the industry told CBC. Films that previously focused on trauma-filled exit stories or rejection by family members are being replaced by original stories.
This is also due to the rise of LGBTQ filmmakers, many of whom are inspired by authentic personal experiences.
Knegt says he’s excited about this nascent diversity and to see where things are going.
“I think people are curious about the cultures … they don’t belong to because that’s not the way they are every day. We all look at The Crown, but none of us know how it feels,” Knegt said.
What was missing
Curating the recent Inside Out Toronto Film Festival, Andrew Murphy and Elie Chivi wanted to highlight films that portray moving, funny, and hilarious stories, something they felt was missing from LGBTQ cinema.
“We deserve happy stories … it’s time for happy stories,” said Chivi, development director and co-head of the festival.
Elie Chivi and Andrew Murphy, curator of the Toronto Out Out LGBTQ Film Festival, pose in front of the TIFF Lightbox Theater. Both say public demand for a wider variety of LGBTQ movies has grown. (Esteban Eduardo Cuevas Gonzalez / CBC)
Growing up in the Middle East, Chivi had trouble finding films that represented anything outside of heteronormative culture. If he had access to LGBTQ content, he said it was intrinsically negative or very dark.
But stories that tell the truth about LGBTQ lives are essential, he said.
“It’s like a snapshot of what life might be like for someone on the other side of the world,” he said.
As the audience for these stories grows, so does the demand for films that show the full breadth of what LGBTQ life can be.
“Our stories count and queer stories matter,” said Murphy, co-director and director of programming for Inside Out. “We have to keep working to get more.”
With Wonder he celebrates queer release
One of the highlights of this year’s festival was the documentary With Wonder by Canadian film director Sharon Lewis.
The film highlights the multifaceted relationship between LGBTQ people and Christian communities, and how, for some, it may be a positive relationship rather than a rejection-marked one.
In creating the film, Lewis said he did not want to present a “one-dimensional account” of LGBTQ life, acknowledging that many programs seem to define queer people by trauma and otherness.
A frame from Sharon Lewis’s film With Wonder, a piece that explores the multifaceted relationship between Christianity and the LGBTQ community. (Inside out)
“The reason why the films talk about … our difficulties and our suffering is because these films receive funding for the mainstream, [for] non-queer public who want to learn about us, ”he said.
But in telling the story herself, Lewis says, she is not teaching. Instead, he is sharing, revealing, and exploring.
Old LGBTQ movies are paving the way
Industry observers say the mid-1990s marked the beginning of LGBTQ romantic comedies that reached mainstream audiences; films like The Birdcage and In & Out were big hits.
However, some films included characters who were part of the community but mostly in the form of troops such as “gay best friend”.
“Sometimes we see narratives and they introduce a weird character into it, but there’s nothing weird about it,” Lewis said.
Then, films like Brokeback Mountain, Call Me by Your Name, and Imagine Me and You began to pave the way for films that re-emphasized LGBTQ stories.
In 2016, Moonlight broke down as the first film with an LGBTQ main character who won the Oscar for Best Picture.
“I keep seeing ourselves moving in that direction and I will never give up,” Lewis said.
Fire Island marks an exciting future
Joel Kim Booster, in the center, is seen in a frame from the movie Fire Island, which he also wrote. The film was created and stars people from the LGBTQ community. (Disney)
While previous films featured stories about the LGBTQ community, the new comedy Fire Island is the first major studio-released romantic comedy to be created and starring queer creatives.
The film was written by Joel Kim Booster and directed by Andrew Ahn as a loose adaptation of Jane Austen’s popular novel Pride and Prejudice. Explore queer relationships while following a group of friends on their annual trip to Fire Island Pines.
“I think with The Birdcage and In & Out, for example, there are a lot of heterosexual people involved,” Booster said in an interview with CBC Arts.
Just in time for Pride Month, viewers can connect with the film’s unique personality showcase, which began airing on June 3 at Disney +.
Noah (Joel Kim Booster) is the passionate and confident leader of the pack, ready to find in Howie (Bowen Yang) an adventure that increases confidence after his longtime friend confided that he feels lonely.
The main cast members of Fire Island can be seen outside on a sunny day in a movie frame. It is the first major LGBTQ romantic comedy released in the studio. (Disney)
Alongside these two is her lesbian mother figure, Erin (Margaret Cho) and her friends Luke (Matt Rogers), Max (Torian Miller) and Keegan (Tomás Matos), each of whom brings a certain style to the movie.
“I’m excited to come into this space with a movie like Fire Island and I hope it inspires more movies like this,” Ahn said.
And with the upcoming release of Bros., written by Nicholas Stroller and Billy Eichner, which marks the upcoming studio-released gay romantic comedy, queer content is something Hollywood is investing in now.
For Knegt, this new wave of films leaves him excited about the future.
“We’re having a lot more variety now, and that’s very hopeful,” Knegt said. “I grew up seeing representations of a certain kind of gay man I thought I should be.”
Knegt is in front of a movie theater in Toronto. He said he is optimistic that LGBTQ movies will only continue to have broader narratives. (Evan Mitsui / CBC)
He said it “really messes with people” and gives them “messy perspectives” on who they should be and how they should act.
“So having that variety out there, I think it’s very important,” he said. “It simply came to our notice then.