What We're Watching: Pride, Summer 2021
In this edition of What We’re Watching, we’re sharing some of our favorite movies and TV shows featuring LGBTQ+ characters, creators, and actors. Representation in film and television is the reason The Light Leaks exists, and that mission is honored year-round by how we support rising women and nonbinary filmmakers.
This watchlist of recommendations is especially important when you consider that only 9.1% of characters on primetime scripted broadcast television are LGBTQ+ as found by GLAAD’s Where Are We on TV 2020-2021. It’s so important that we watch, support, and celebrate shows and films that are by and about the LGBTQ+ community. The LGBTQ+ experience is vibrant, loving, joyful, unique, dynamic, and so individual to a person, their chosen family, and their life.
While LGBTQ+ representation on screen still has a long way to go, it’s important to recognize which shows and movies have shown this complexity, have educated us and have made us feel a little less alone. Read on to see our team’s picks this month!
Disclosure (2020 dir. by Sam Feder) TV-MA
If you’re looking to learn more on the history of trans representation in media, the Netflix documentary Disclosure is a phenomenal starting point. Through interviews with trans actors and creators, this doc shares both the damaging and positive portrayals of the trans community on screen from early cinema to present day. Each person interviewed has a different lens that they view film and television through and their perspectives are so important to the conversation surrounding representation. Actresses, Producers, Activists, and Trailblazers MJ Rodriguez, Trace Lysette, Marquise Vilson, Jazzmun, Sandra Caldwell, and Laverne Cox all discuss the impact of Paris is Burning and how it provided a look into New York City’s ballroom community, a sub-culture and family that they otherwise didn’t have personal access to. I also enjoyed how they shared their critiques of the film like how the folks featured didn’t see any financial compensation after the success of the film or how the film’s success commercialized elements of the LGBTQ+ community causing subsequent appropriation of ballroom culture by people like Madonna. Disclosure is educational, but not dry, and essential viewing for all cis folks and anyone pursuing media as a career. I would even recommend watching with friends to foster natural conversations! Because, the trans community deserves support and the work doesn’t stop after the doc ends. - Brynna A, Editorial Lead
Euphoria (2019 created by Sam Levinson) TV-MA
CW: Drug overdose, self-harm
The beloved HBO series Euphoria is a hyper-stylized dramatization of the struggles of addiction, mental illness, sexuality, and growing up with unrealistic expectations. The series is visually stunning to the extent that it feels like it exists in its own universe, yet grounds itself back in reality thanks to the honesty that Zendaya and Hunter Schafer bring to their lead roles as Rue and Jules. I really appreciate how Schafer has had tremendous creative control over Jules’ storyline, which brings an authenticity that has been severely lacking in the industry. (Read more on this in On Screen: Hunter Schafer’s Impact on Queer and Trans Representation) The show emphasizes that ‘sexuality is fluid’ so when Rue and Jules make their platonic friendship into something romantic, it truly isn’t a big deal or spectacle at their school. Even though the series is created by a cis white man, the relationship doesn’t feel fetishized or exploited for the male gaze. Rue and Jules aren’t just a token queer relationship - their lives outside of each other are equally complex and are fully fleshed out. Tune in to watch a realistic, gen-Z queer romance that you’ll want to binge! After the emotional rawness of the first season and special bridge episodes released, I can’t wait to see where this show goes next! As long Schafer continues to be involved in shaping her character’s journey, I know that this show will continue to impact and entertain. - Brynna A, Editorial Lead
The Half of It (2020 written and dir. by Alice Wu) PG-13
The queer rom-com The Half of It is a movie I wish I had as a teen! Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis) is a talented teen writer that sells essays to her peers in the small town of Squahamish for extra cash. When football player Paul (Daniel Diemer) comes to her to write a letter to his crush, Aster (Alexxis Lemiere), Ellien left with a moral challenge. She’s hesitant to write something so personal, but ultimately accepts this gig in order to help her dad pay the bills. But things get complicated when Ellie starts to develop feelings for Aster. Ellie is shy and is already seen as an outsider in her small conservative town, so she doesn’t have many people that she can openly confide in. I also grew up and live in a conservative place, subsequently didn’t feel comfortable coming out as bisexual until I got to college. I connected with Ellie’s struggle to feel confident in expressing her feelings to Aster as herself. Even though I frequently drop hints about my bisexuality on social media, I haven’t officially ‘come out’ to anyone except for my parents because it’s so hard to know who here will accept that part of me. The Half of It is a meaningful story about feeling confident in your identity, and it’s because of that, I think it’s important Pride Month. - Brynna A, Editorial Lead
Summerland (2020 written and directed by Jessica Swale) PG
If you’re looking for a touching wlw romance that doesn’t end in tragedy (they’re hard to find, I know) then Jessica Swale’s Summerland needs to be on your Pride Month watchlist. The English coastside during World War II is where we first meet Alice Lamb (Gemma Arterton), a cold and closed off woman that the townspeople have nicknamed “The Beast of the Beach,” who lives alone in her cottage and muses herself by researching and writing about folklore all day. Our perception of this callous woman changes when we’re presented with dreamy flashbacks to Alice in the 20s, after she meets and falls in love with a woman named Vera (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). This is not a queer film about coming out or about the hardships queer couples often face. Instead, Summerland allows the love between Alice and Vera to exist largely unclouded by the judgement and opinions of others, and focuses more on the concept of chosen family. It’s affirming to see chosen families on screen because it was through finding my own that I gained the courage to explore parts of myself that I'd always tried to blissfully ignore. My chosen family became my lifeline when the pandemic hit and I was displaced back into my childhood home. For many queer folks, “family” means more than just biology and genetics. It was so beautiful to watch Alice’s own chosen family grow to encompass her past and her queerness. Summerland should be your new go to when in need of a warm, refreshing queer story! - Lauren L, TLL Video Lead
Shiva Baby (2020 written and directed by Emma Seligman) Not yet rated
Emma Seligman’s debut feature Shiva Baby is pure chaotic bisexual energy. It’s comedy, it’s horror, it’s everything that makes running into your ex-girlfriend and sugar daddy at the same function absolutely mortifying. Expanded upon from her grad short film by the same name, Shiva Baby is a day-in-the-life of protagonist Danielle (Rachel Sennott) as she navigates the social minefield at a Shiva (which is a Jewish memorial service). Seligman wrote a relatable and real character that subverts the impossible expectations associated with the “nice Jewish girl” trope. Danielle is not that. Rather, Danielle is a bi Jewish girl who also happens to be a sex worker. This felt like a brand new story to me, one that I haven’t heard told anywhere else in film or TV in such a respectful but comedic way. I admire most how Shiva Baby handles the profession of sex work and avoids putting it in a bad light, as sadly so many films in popular culture have done before it. Shiva Baby is about the worlds that you really want to keep separate, fatally colliding. I too wish I could keep all the vastly different and seemingly contradictory parts of my life separated neatly into boxes with the lids on tight, however impractical it may seem. Family, relationships, sexuality, school, work; these things do not exist in a vacuum. Shiva Baby’s presentation of the ways queerness and sex work can intersect and collide make it a monumental must-see during Pride Month! - Lauren L, TLL Video Lead
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
What We’re Watching is our guide on tv and films from our team at the Light Leaks. Finding new things to watch shouldn’t feel intimidating- too many of us have been bombarded by bro-y film culture telling us what’s good. This column is our way of introducing you to new (and maybe some familiar) favs to watch. Happy viewing!