Gay camp movies

Against the backdrop of WorldPride and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, the impetus to scour the history of queerness and camp on clip has rarely seemed so timely. Though queerness, as both material reality and theoretical possibility, bids a rejection of normativity, or even the idea of linear narratives, this milestone is nonetheless a reminder of how queer phrase on film has changed and left an indelible stamp on both cinematic and queer history. Here are 10 memorable, mostly underseen gems that scout the tensions of queerness and camp on screen.


Bound (1996, The Wachowski Sisters)

By now a classic of queer cinema, the Wachowskis’s debut kicked down the door of masculinist genre fare and opened up its potential to be rewritten. This affectionate noir is a volcanic study of gender, queerness, and the ways in which queers are undermined by symbols and signifiers themselves, not merely the figureheads that grip them. For Bound, gorgeously stylized, genre itself is both a prison and a Utopia.


Funeral Celebration of Roses (1969, Toshio Matsumoto)

A hybrid of nonfiction, an adaptation of Oedipus Rex, and an experimental drama, Toshio Matsumoto’s

When I was a young gay bloke, oh so many years ago, camp culture was passed down from my elders.

Gay men who were unbelievably old (40!) would tell me about old movies and movie stars, many of whom were popular when they were young. That kind of passing on of society does not take place anymore. At a recent production gathering for OutSFL, where I am, by far, the oldest person, many of the younger staff didn’t recognize movies from the 1990s and early 2000s.  We have turn into a society of use it, and forget it, with the memory retention of a Snapchat meme. There is a reason that some of these films spoke to generations of LGBTQ people. There was often coded language slipped in by LGBTQ writers and directors. There were stars whose struggles, real or imagined, resonated with us. There were chances to escape to a place “somewhere over the rainbow” to a place where we could find other people like us.

To serve bridge this cultural divide, OutSFL and The Stonewall Museum and Archives are hosting a series of film screenings. We’ll begin with the films in this list, a completely subjective list of camp movies from the 1930s to the 2000s. As the series progresses, we’ll also include classi

The Best Campy Movies to Celebrate Pride Month

Camp, appreciate Pride, we have thanks to the trans women of color who place themselves on the line to fight for equality and acceptance. As they say, Pride was a riot, and these campy films are sure to put you into riots of laughter. With more glitter, sequins, and heart than any other genre, you’re bound to be surprised by the history, creators, costumes, and stories of these cult classics created by and for people who are looking for a space to be ostentatiously and extravagantly themselves. Here are some of the best campy movies to watch as you celebrate Pride.

Related:‘House of Gucci’ & 9 More Misunderstood Camp Classics

To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything(1995)

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything boasts a surprising cast of Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, and John Leguizamo in a film that answers the age-old question of why is that brief boy in drag crying? The Dirty Dancing and Blade actors star as two accomplished drag queens, Vida Boheme and Noxeema Jackson, who take an aspiring "drag princess", Chi-Chi Rodriguez, under their wing and the t

30 Essential LGBTQ+ Comedies

(Photo by © Gramercy/courtesy Everett Collection)

Queer culture is so many vibrant and lovely and rambunctious things, but often times when you’re wading through the history of queer cinema it can feel like a community defined by tragedy and unhappy endings. And while there is much to learn from and much to love about the many heavy gay dramas out there, we must also take time to celebrate and revel in the bright side of difference, which is why this list is all about the comedies. There is plenty of tenderness among these films to be sure, but there’s also Robin Williams doing a macho drag impersonation of John Wayne in The Birdcage and a pair of dirtbag girls just trying to scrape up enough cash for a beach trip in Never Goin’ Back.

From the lo-fi beginnings of John Waters to New Queer Cinema to the present day wave of queer coming-of-age movies popping up on Netflix, queer comedy has gone from the underground to the mainstream. The pioneering work of stars like Celestial and filmmakers like Pedro Almodóvar paved the way for a family-friendly lesbian Cyrano de Bergerac in The Half of It and a three-way battle of tops in an A