10 LGBTQ+ shows and movies you need to watch this Pride month

With June’s Pride month fast approaching, streaming services are making sure we’ve got all the queer content we need. From the serialisation of Skate Kitchen to an Indian film about two childhood friends realising their romantic feelings for each other, here are a few shows and movies to watch this summer.

The Half Of It (2020)

It’s taken director and writer Alice Wu 16 years to follow up her 2004 debut Saving Face, but it was definitely worth the wait. Set in the fictional town of Squahamish and based on Cyrano De Bergerac, lovestruck high schooler Paul (played by the endearing Daniel Diemer) employs the school’s smartest student to compose letters to his crush, Aster (Alexxis Lemire).

Anchored excellently by Leah Lewis who plays 17-year-old Ellie Chu, the film is a smart, sweet look at first love, class politics and small-town mentality told through the lens of a gay American-Asian teen. Let’s hope it doesn't take Wu another 16 years to make her next movie.

Streaming on Netflix

Betty 

Based on Crystal Moselle’s women-centred movie Skate Kitchen (2018)—itself adapted from her 2016 short, That One Day—this new six-part series features mostly the same cast of characters from the original film. Heavily queer, resolutely multicultural and proudly feminist, Betty (a derogatory term for girl skateboarders) follows the crew as they make their mark in the male-dominated New York skateboard scene. Expect impressive moves, strong storylines and superb acting from Nina Moran, Rachelle Vinberg, Dede Lovelace and Kabrina ‘Moonbear’ Adams.

Streaming on Disney+ Hotstar

Stud Life 

Set in east London, this 2012 film by Campbell X has just been made available to stream for free for a limited time on Facebook. If you miss it there, you can still watch it on Amazon Prime and via the brilliant Peccadillo Pictures, a UK distributor for arthouse LGBTQ+ films.

Starring T’Nia Miller (Doctor Who, Years and Years), the movie focuses on the relationships between Stud JJ (masc-presenting black woman), her white, gay, male best friend Seb and the object of her desires, the skittish femme Elle. As their relationship staggers towards disaster, JJ is forced to choose between her friend and her lover. A rakish romcom, Stud Life is rough around the edges and all the more enjoyable for it.

Fire (1996)

The romantic drama, starring Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das, was one of the first movies in the Indian film industry that explicitly showcased a homosexual relationship—and, without a non-essential comical element attached. It has been directed by Deepa Mehta, and was the first feature in the Elements trilogy. Two women stuck in difficult marriages grow closer to each other as they realise their similar situations. Set in 1996, the plot sure does centre around their traditional beliefs and non-assertive natures initially, but the circumstances soon lead them to explore their more rebellious sides.

Streaming on YouTube

A Secret Love

The lives and rights of LGBTQ+ people have changed radically in the past 50 years, and this new documentary from Netflix highlights how far things have come (most of the time) for some queer people.

Until recently, Pat Henschel and Terry Donahue referred to themselves as ‘cousins’. In fact, the pair had been in a loving relationship for more than 70 years. A Secret Love explores the partnership between nonagenarians (yes, the film ends with them in their nineties) who met in 1947 when Donahue was a catcher in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (a fictionalised version appears in 1992’s A League of Their Own, starring Geena Davis). The film opens with Henschel and Donahue, their health in decline, being compelled to make some tough sacrifices. If watching this movie doesn’t give you hope for humanity, little else will.

Streaming on Netflix

La Casa de las Flores (The House of Flowers)

Although now on its third season, this Mexican soap opera touted as a millennial telenovela has been mostly overlooked by non-Spanish speakers, which is a terrible shame. Centred around the wealthy de la Mora family and featuring Mexican star Cecilia Suárez (who is simply divine), the satirical series playfully nods to telenovela while subverting many of its stereotypes. Brilliantly tackling transphobia and homophobia—and with ample nods to acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar—this is a must-watch.

Streaming on Netflix

Loev (2015)

Having won the Audience Award for the Best Feature Film at Tel Aviv International Film Awards, and premiered at SXSW, Loev is the story of a young Mumbai-based musician who goes on a hiking trip with his New York-based childhood friend. As the story progresses, they talk about how they haven't kept in touch over the years, acknowledge the change in each other's personality, and discuss their past in general, along with a few other friends who have joined them on the trip. Soon, a simple text helps one of them express his love for the other, and they embark on a romantic journey together.

Streaming on Netflix

Love, Victor (releasing June 19)

Disappointingly dropped by Disney+, this spin-off of 2018’s gay, high-school rom-com Love, Simon will air on Amazon Prime Video in June. Narrated by the movie’s titular character, played by Nick Robinson, the TV version is also set at Creekwood High where we find Victor (Michael Cimino) struggling to adjust to both a new school and his sexuality. Likely to be as light and as funny as the original film, the series is a great outlet for teens facing any kind of angst, and for the rest of us who love a good drama.

Streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Feel Good 

Canadian comedian Mae Martin’s new vehicle is a fidgety, anxious comedy about a UK stand-up comedian (Mae) who falls for George (Charlotte Ritchie), a well-meaning but closeted queer. The show tackles serious subjects such as internalised homophobia, mental health and addiction but with a remarkably light touch. Co-starring the reliably brilliant Lisa Kudrow, Feel Good could do for Martin’s career what Insecure did for Issa Rae’s. The only complaint? At just six 25-minute episodes, it’s too short. More soon, please.

Streaming on Netflix

Little Fires Everywhere 

It’s still a thrill for us LGBTQ+ people to tune into the latest ‘must-watch TV’ and discovering not one, but two lead queer characters. Adapted from Celeste Ng’s 2017 bestseller, this 1990s-set Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington double-header picks apart homophobia, motherhood, mental health, class and race and does it so very well. This is slightly bonkers, but utterly gripping television.

Streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Also read: 

5 upcoming Bollywood movies that are being adapted from Hollywood and foreign language films

Rajasthan, New York, Tokyo: 9 movies that will take you on a virtual vacation

8 shows that you must watch during self-quarantine if you miss going to work