Pride on Display: DVD/ Blu-ray Display
Summer is Pride season in the Bay Area. With our big celebration in San Francisco happening June 23rd and 24th, Mechanics’ would like to highlight selections from our collection that feature stories about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. In the last few years, we’ve seen greater representation of queer cinema in the mainstream. Below are recent films to hit the big screen, as well as staff favorites.
Carol (2015) - Director Todd Haynes (Velvet Goldmine, Far From Heaven, I’m Not There) directs a screen adaptation by Phyllis Nagy of The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith. In Carol, an aspiring photographer working at a Manhattan department store, Therese Belivet, develops a fondness for Carol Aird, a wealthy shopper who leaves behind a pair of gloves. Both women are in relationships with men, and are forced to decide what to do with the new love between one another.
Imitation Game (2014) - Is the true story of Alan Turning, a brilliant cryptanalyst who decrypted German codes for the British during WWII. Although a hero of WWII, Turning was convicted on charges related to his sexuality and chemically castrated. Watch Benedict Cumberbatch brings to life a story that was once widely suppressed due to homophobia.
Call Me by Your Name (2017) - based on the novel by Andre Aciman, two Americans, a 17-year-old and a 24-year-old develop a friendship in Northern Italy. Oliver, the older graduate student, has a relationship with a woman, Mariza, but is attracted to Elio, the young American. Elio has a similar feeling towards Oliver, and the two develop a relationship they must keep secret.
Danish Girl (2015) - based on the novel by David Ebershoff, The Danish Girl follows the life of one of the first known recipients of sex reassignment surgery, painter Lili Elbe, played by Eddie Redmayne.
Moonlight (2016) - was the first LGBT film to win an Oscar for Best Picture. Moonlight follows the life of a boy growing up in housing projects of Miami Florida, as he moves through three stages of his life. A young boy Chiron becomes friends with a drug dealer Juan who senses the boy needs nurturing. Little discovers he is different after he meets love interest Terrel. The two form an uncommon relationship in their youth which ends in conflict. Years later the two meet again as men.
Craig recommends: The Boys in the Band - Released in 1970, it was the first major-studio production to deal frankly with homosexuality and is a milestone in the history of American cinema. Every member of the show's original Broadway cast appears in the film, including Laurence Luckinbill as an out-of-the-closet husband and father.
Rhonda recommends: Another Country
Merry recommends: My Beautiful Launderette
Myles recommends: Paris Is Burning, La Cage aux Folles II, The Adventures of Pricilla Queen of the Desert, Moonlight, Carol, Torch Song Trilogy, and Behind the Candelabra.
