What to Watch: Pride Edition

Pride Month provides everyone across the spectrum an excellent opportunity to explore the history of LGBTQIA+ filmmakers and representation on screen. The queer community has always sought images of themselves on screen and this month we bring you a slew of classics ranging from the imperfect to the impactful. Here’s a handful of standouts to watch this month on air and on demand:

But I’m A Cheerleader (2000)

Director Jamie Babbit’s surreal conversion camp-set comedy started as a cult hit in queer circles, but with shifting politics and the growing stardom of its leads, has become an iconic piece of 2000s satire. Natasha Lyonne and Clea DuVall star in the story about a clueless cheerleader sent to a conversion therapy camp to “cure” her homosexuality, where instead she discovers her true identity and falls in love. Come for the comedy, stay for the wild and colourful production design that has cemented this film’s place in the canon.

Chasing Chasing Amy (2023)

We’re proud to have the exclusive Canadian premiere of this movie from director Sav Rodgers, who explores their relationship to Kevin Smith’s 1996 queer-adjacent film Chasing Amy, as well as the stories behind the production. Sav uncovers not only a film with a mixed reputation in the Queer community but also some of the deep hurt among those involved, while still finding enough to celebrate in a movie that saved their life. Featuring interviews with Kevin Smith, Joey Lauren Adams, and some of the biggest Queer theorists and filmmakers working – this one will please both Chasing Amy fans and skeptics.

Personal Best (1982)

Speaking of imperfect representation, this Mariel Hemingway sports film was an important Lesbian text in the 1980s, despite some undeniably heavy-handed moments from writer-director Robert Towne. What holds up is the film not making a huge deal of a same-sex relationship in women’s sports, as it likely wouldn’t have been at the time, and the complicated attraction versus the competition between Hemingway and real Olympian Patrice Donnelly throughout the film. The surprising choice to make the film focused on the drive of women in sports more than leering at their relationship means it has something more timeless to say that connects over 40 years later.

Pet Shop Boys Dreamworld: The Greatest Hits Live in Copenhagen (2024)

Pride wouldn’t be Pride without some great tunes, and we’re excited to bring this new concert film celebrating an act that has dominated clubs for almost half a century. Watch hits like “Always on My Mind,” “West End Girls” and more performed by Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, who are still at the top of their game.

The Watermelon Woman (1996)

It has been very satisfying in recent years to see this romantic comedy from Cheryl Dunye finally get its flowers for not only breaking ground in the 90s with an intersectional queer story but also as just a fun movie for film fans. Dunye turns not only to the typical romantic subject matter but also has her character satirize life as a BIPOC lesbian and explore representations of queer women of colour throughout film history via a constructed actress she becomes obsessed with. Many marginalized movie fans will recognize themselves in someone who wants to know every little piece of information about an actor who just hit them the right way, regardless of the role they portray.

Professor Marston & The Wonder Women (2017)

Much like the real creators and their character, this biopic about William Moulton Marston and his wife Elizabeth Holloway was overshadowed by their relationship to their creation Wonder Woman with many filmgoers not realizing their story is mostly about a queer polyamorous couple. Marston and Holloway not only raised censors’ eyebrows with their comics’ inclusion of S&M content, but they also got real-life tongues wagging with their complex relationship with their third partner, Olive Byrne, who heavily inspired the comics. The movie stands not only to show interesting queer stories behind pop culture but also is a reminder that “alternative lifestyles” have existed long before many narrow-minded people believe.

Bonus Series: Wreck

This delightful comedic slasher series comes from queer creator Ryan J. Brown and while it weaves a fun mystery about a brother seeking his sister’s killer aboard a cruise line, it also effortlessly includes many LGBTQIA+ characters from across the spectrum. While other slasher shows might quickly bury their gays or use them as some political shorthand, Wreck weaves queerness into the fabric of the show itself so you know nobody is safe from the chopping block while also giving a diverse look at how different queer characters might handle a killer in a duck mask.