LGBT/Queer arc?

Hey Sean, Audra, Chuck, and Forums,

Let me start off by saying I love you guys. I have been an avid listener since your interview with Bear McCreary way back when BSG was still on. There are a lot of idfferent podcasts I listen to, but yours is in my top three, of which there is no actual order cause it’d be all Sophie’s Choice on my iPod and that would be sad. That being said I have a wierd request, and this will take some explaining.

Like I said I listen to many podcasts, one of them is “Filmspotting”, a film review podcast. Now I can tend towards snobbery in my movie watching, but only in certain respects. I can see movies as art, where I call them “films”, and then there is entertainment, geekery, and all around fanboyishness and those are what i generally call movies. Filmspotting takes care of my art needs, and you guys take care of my other needs, not to mention your just plain coolness and relatability to listeners. I also like hearing both perspectives on more current films when you both talk about something similar.

So, my request, is could we have a Queer Film Arc? I’m gay, and in all my time listening to you guys, you have never seemed judgemental towards the queer community. I don’t make it onto the forums very often, but when I do, I’ve never seen anything there either that would make me uncomfortable. In all the podcasts I listen to, no ever really tackles this topic in a tasteful manner. Filmspotting treats it mostly with kid gloves if they even watch something close to a queer film, and then actual podcasts dealing with gay issues tends to stick to politics, or just shallowly discuss queer flicks.

I know you are a family show, so this may be to far out there even for you guys, but I have a few suggestions as far as films go, and even have pics that might draw in our GWCers. So listed below are my suggestions, if you’ve read this far in the e-mail, I hope you’ll continue.

“Imagine Me and You”

From IMDB: " A newlywed bride becomes infatuated with another woman, who questions her sexual orientation, promoting a stir among the bride’s family and friends."

My Take - COMPLETELY CUTE. Really, this movie, no mattter how many times I see it, makes me laugh out loud. It’s romantic, and heartwarming, and totally believable, and totally family friendly. Also, it stars Piper Perabo as the main character, she also starred in “Coyote UGly”, “The Cave”, and “Carriers”. HEr Husband is played by Matthew Goode who portrayed Ozymandias in “Watchmen”, and her female love interest in Lena Headly, who we know as Sarah Conner from the “Terminator” TV series and the Queen from “300”. Also we get Anthony Stuart Head as Piper’s father, who I LOVE as Giles in Buffy.

“Angels In America”

IMDB Synopsis: “Playwright Tony Kushner adapts his political epic about the AIDS crisis during the mid-eighties, around a group of separate but connected individuals.”

My Take: Funny, tragic, beautiful, esoteric, well acted, well directed. This movie is packed with stars, you have Meryl Streep, Al Pacino, Emma Thompson, Patrick Wilson (also from “Watchmen”), Mary Louise Parker (Weeds), and Justin Kirk (Weeds), just to name a few. It’s got MAJOR elements of fantasy (the Angels in the title are literal). It really does portray the early days of the AIDS crisis with a human face instead of a statistical one. Almost all the actors play various roles (it was originally a stage play, done the same way), if you catch it, look for Meryl Streep as an ancient Rabbi in the beginning. The langauge may not be family friendly, and there is a little sex, but generally it’s quite moving and depending on maturaty level mostly acceptable.

“Shelter”

IMDB Synopsis: "When his college dreams are sidelined by family obligations, a young man finds comfort in surfing with his best friend’s brother. "

My Take: Reallly sweet, realisitic if a bit sappy romance. This movie is mostly unknowns, but it is well acted and beautifully shot. The music fits the surfer setting, and the characters are pretty relatable. This is one of my favorite movies ever, mostly because of the little epilouge/coda at the end that they shot months later, just before it hit theaters, which I think gives a final warm touch to the film. Pretty family friendly, sexually it’s like prime time ABC/CBS style, language can be a little rough at times, and there is some minimal drug use.

“Testosterone”

IMDB Synopsis: "Dean has been stumped for some time in his attempt to produce a follow-up to “I was a Teenage Speed Freak,” his incredibly successful graphic novel. His fans expect great things from him and his editor, Louise, is hounding him. Instead of working, however, Dean spends his time searching for his Argentine lover Pablo, who went out one night for cigarettes and never came back. "

This movie is funny, violent, and a bit shocking. I’m mostly throwing it in here because it’s about a comic book artist on a mission of revenge, and you definately get that bit of suspenscion of belief like a comic book. It’s also told like one. It has one of the best quotes ever:

Dean: " I’m just a fag with a gun who needs a chainsaw."
[sees a building across the street]
" And there’s an Argentine Home Depot!"

The biggest stars in it are Jennifer Coolidge (Stiffler’s Mom, from “American Pie”, and all those Christopher Guest mockumenteries), Antonio Sabato Jr, (
he’s in stuff still right?), the main character is portrayed by Daniel Sutcliffe (Rory’s dad on “Gilmore Girls”).

These are just a few of the many hundreds of decent non-mainstream queer films out there. If anyone besides me is interested, please pipe up, and throw in your own suggestions!

My favorite would be Latter Days.

From IMDB: A young Elder (or a Mormon missionary) who wants to do his family proud and is quite passionate about his religion and film. Christian is a shallow WeHo waiter/party boy who only looks forward to bedding a new guy every night. After Aaron and three other missionaries move into the apartment across from Christian, his friends bet him $50 that he can’t get one of them to jump into the sack, so he instantly latches onto Aaron. There are two problems, though - Christian is falling in love with Aaron and the Mormons are not the biggest fans of the homosexual community. Once Aaron is discovered, the two have to go through trials of regret, loss, perseverance, and forgiveness if they both want to get to the thing that matters to them most: each other.

//youtu.be/4M77ATX4IXE

I am down for any arc the crew wants. You could also set up a frak party if enough alpaca’s are interested.

man! i forgot about latter days, i even own the boook! only problem is, the sex can be a bit too sexy for some viewers. dunno, but thanks for the input!

I’m not speaking for anyone but myself here, but that kind of thing can be a little tricky if you’re not of the group that the arc is about. It’s really easy to inadvertently offend. Maybe if a guest host was brought in for the arc?

Frak parties are certainly encouraged.

My only comment is due to an interview I recently saw of Ben Affleck pimping his movie, “The Town” set in Boston everytime I see the title of this thread I hear in my head in a thick Boston accent,

“Yo Jeter, yer wicked queer”

That is all.

Case in point. :rolleyes:

A lot of these films are fairly obscure outside of LGBT circles, so this idea might have a broader appeal with some more mainstream fare, in no particular order:

[ul]
[li]Brokeback Mountain[/li][li]Notes on a Scandal[/li][li]Transamerica[/li][li]The Birdcage[/li][li]Milk[/li][li]Jeffrey [/li][li]The Rocky Horror Picture Show[/ul][/li]And one that’s already been mentioned on the 'cast before:

[ul]
[li]To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar[/li][/ul]

Rent?

Lucas breath

The Broken Hearts Club?

Those are good suggestions but I just want to point out how funny it is that Rocky Horror can now be thought of as mainstream. It most certainly wasn’t that way when it was originally released!

the problem with most mainstream queer flicks is that they are all kinda tragic or outrageous.

-brokeback mountain - one of the main characters dies.
-notes on a scandal - awesome flick as far as suspense goes, but the only gay part is the CREEPY stalkerism that is not even completely sexual
-the birdage - stereotypical
-rocky horror - i personally hate this movie, lol, it’s just ridiculous, but to each thier own

  • transamerica is actually a really good pick and one i forgot about, same for
    -milk - also good choice, plus its true.
    -jeffery- not sure, it’s been so long, i just remember patrick stuart saying lots of funny things

totally FUNNY. i’m not easily offended, at all.

I don’t know if this would fit here, but an ep/arc dissecting different ways science fiction has approached GLBT issues over the decades would be interesting. TNG’s ‘The Outcast’ and ‘The Host’ obliquely incorporate these concepts with protagonists, DS9 has The Intendant character as a villain and her implicit bisexuality. There’s Cain captaining The Pegasus and her complicated relationships, and so on.

A side-by-side comparison of how Science Fiction as a genre has used the canvas to analyze (the way TOS did with the white/black politics for instance) might be worth doing. Start out with a thread to collect examples of LGBT in science fiction, then go from there…

True. :slight_smile:

Spoiler alert.

Still, truly great movie.

-the birdage - stereotypical

Certainly a product of its time, but pretty funny, nonetheless.

And don’t forget the examples in ST:TOS. :stuck_out_tongue:

A side-by-side comparison of how Science Fiction as a genre has used the canvas to analyze (the way TOS did with the white/black politics for instance) might be worth doing. Start out with a thread to collect examples of LGBT in science fiction, then go from there…

I like this idea. There’s definitely a progression from pretending it doesn’t exist to ridicule to comic relief to actual character development. There are also the Whedonverse rules of gay = dead and bisexual = evil.

And, DS9 also had the first kiss between two women.

I was thinking it might also be good to have SF/Fantasy movies or TV shows that aren’t GBLT themed but have good GBLT characters.

Um.

Can anyone think of any?

BSG and Caprica…

What about Torchwood? I think the hive mind on Twitter said that all the main characters except Owen had at least some same-sex action by the end of the first season. :o

Owen had, at the very least, a same-sex kiss in the pilot.

thats a great idea actually. as noted in the first post, even though i’ve been an avid listener, i haven’t spent a whole hell of a lot of time on the forums, i’m glad you guys are providing such awesome feedback.

This was one of those ideas that came to me and seemed SO GOOD at the time, but in retrospect was probably a little silly. i was just encouraged cause the podcast had done the high school movie arc which veered form normal sci-fi fantasy stuff. i thought that by tying it in via actors or in the case of angels in america, with some actual fantasy would be good, but this “GLBT through sci-fi lens” is also pretty cool.

also, how would one go about setting up a frak party?

We really dug Bound and The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (very sweet), but there is so much great stuff out there! Thanks for all the movie titles, by the way, guys! It’s not like I don’t have enough to watch and catch up on, you gotta throw down even more! lol! Boys on the Side is another of my favorites, and I forgot about Jeffrey! ack!

Great idea for an arc! Scifi really seems to treat these themes with the most respect. Can’t wait for the mainstream to catch up!

And Badger, I’ve seen almost all those movies and more- let’s do dis!