OUR 13 BEST QUEER MOVIES AND TV SHOWS

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It’s Friday the 13th so we’re sharing with you some of our Best Queer Movies. This list isn’t made up of recently released gay-themed movies or TV Shows, but it’s definitely a list of the 13 we’ve enjoyed in 2019. I think it is worth sharing and you may just enjoy it too ahead of Pride Month here in Gauteng, October. In no particular order of preference here is our list.

 

 

DID YOU KNOW

According to Wiki the superstition surrounding Friday, the 13th may have arisen in the Middle Ages, “originating from the story of Jesus’ last supper and crucifixion” in which there were 13 individuals present in the Upper Room on the 13th of Nisan Maundy Thursday, the night before his death on Good Friday. 

 

 

1. KANARIE

KANARIE (Afrikaans for ‘Canary’) is a coming-of-age musical war drama, about a young boy who discovers how through hardship, camaraderie, first love, and the liberating freedom of music, the true self can be discovered. Drafted into the South African army during apartheid, young soldiers (Schalk Bezuidenhout, Hannes Otto) joins the military’s travelling choir. A romance buds on the battlefield and causes Johan (played by Schalk Bezuidenhout) to deal with his long-repressed sexual identity. 

 

 

2. QUEER EYE

Over a decade after the original series went off the air, Netflix has rebooted the “Queer Eye” franchise with a new Fab Five, trading in the concrete jungle of New York City for communities in and around Atlanta. The style experts forge relationships with men and women who often have different beliefs from them, leading to moments of social commentary interspersed with style advice. Advising people in need of lifestyle makeovers are food and wine specialist Antoni Porowski, interior designer Bobby Berk, grooming consultant Jonathan Van Ness, fashion designer Tan France and culture expert Karamo Brown, and David Collins, who created the original show, is on board as an executive producer.

 

 

3. EUPHORIA

An American adaptation of the Israeli show of the same name, “Euphoria” follows the troubled life of 17-year-old Rue played by Zendaya, a drug addict fresh from rehab with no plans to stay clean. Rue’s life intertwines with Jules, a transgender girl, Nate, a jock whose anger issues mask his sexual insecurities, Chris, a football star who doesn’t seem to adjust to college life, Cassie, who has a vivid sexual history that haunts her, and sexy Kat, who’s a teen exploring her sexuality. The series tackles teenage life of substance-enhanced parties and anxiety-ridden day-to-day life.

 

 

4. PAPI CHULO

Sean (Matt Bomer), a newly-single TV weatherman is put on leave following an on-air meltdown. Deciding to make changes to his home after losing his partner he visits the local hardware store and drives past a couple of middle-aged Hispanic migrant workers standing outside looking for work. Sean decides to hire the kind-looking man Ernest (Alejandro Patino) to help him out. Sean and Ernest’s relation evolves into friendship despite having nothing in common and a language barrier, in this darkly comedic reflection on class, ethnicity, and companionship in contemporary Los Angeles.

 

 

5. ROCKETMAN

The movie about the life of world-renowned singer Elton John. A young Reginald Dwight changes his name to Elton John and collaborates with singer-songwriter Bernie Taupin to become one of the most iconic figures in pop history. The movie is set to Elton’s most loved songs, it’s the epic musical story, going back to his breakthrough years in the 1970s and his fantastical transformation from shy piano prodigy to international superstar.

 

 

6. LOVE, SIMON

Love, Simon is an American romantic teen comedy-drama film based on the novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. The film stars Nick Robinson as Simon and his parents played by Josh Duhamel, and Jennifer Garner. The movie centres around the life of Simon Spier, a closeted gay high school boy who is forced to balance his friends, his family, and the blackmailer threatening to out him to the entire school, while simultaneously attempting to discover the identity of the anonymous classmate with whom he has fallen in love with online.

 

 

7. RAFIKI

Rafiki (Swahili for “friend”) is a Kenyan drama film directed by Wanuri Kahiu. It’s a romantic story that grows between two young women, Kena and Ziki, amidst family and political pressures around LGBT rights in Kenya. Kena and Ziki different lives in Nairobi. Kena works in her father’s shop and Ziki passes the days hanging out with her friends and making up dance routines. Their paths cross when their fathers run against each other for seats in the County Assembly, and they find themselves drawn to each other. It’s not long before they begin to fall in love, they have to find ways to love each other despite the ever-watching gaze of the neighbourhood.

 

 

8. THEO & HUGO

Théo (played by Geoffrey Couët) and Hugo (played byFrançois Nambot) encounter each other first through their bodies one night in a Paris sex club. Wanting to know more about each other, they leave the club. Suddenly they find themselves confronted by a sense of reality. They night together in the hospital after they realise they had unprotected sex. Do they really want to know more about each other?

 

 

9. GOD’S OWN COUNTRY

God’s Own Country is a British drama film written and directed by Francis Lee in his feature directorial debut. The film stars Josh O’Connor (as Johnny Saxby) and Alec Secăreanu (as Gheorghe Ionescu) the movies two main characters. The plot follows a young sheep farmer in Yorkshire whose life is transformed by a Romanian migrant worker. 

 

 

10. INXEBA (the wound)

Nakhane Touré ( as Xolani) a lonely factory worker, joins the men of his community in the mountains of the Eastern Cape to initiate a group of teenage boys into manhood. When a defiant initiate from the city discovers his best-kept secret, Xolani’s entire existence begins to unravel.

 

 

11. BOY ERASED

This movie tells the story of Jared (played by Lucas Hedges), the son of a Baptist pastor in a small American town, who is outed to his parents (Nicole Kidman and Russel Crowe) at age 19. Jared is faced with an ultimatum. Either he attends a conversion therapy program or he is permanently exiled and shunned by his family, friends, and faith. Boy Erased is the true story of one young man’s struggle to find himself while being forced to question every aspect of his identity.

 

 

12. DIE STROPERS (the harvesters)

Die Stropers is a movie set in rural South Africa. It follows the coming of age of Janno (played by Brent Vermeulen), a shy 15-year-old farm boy who must contend with the arrival of a sudden new addition to the family and the desires this awakens within him.

 

 

13. MOFFIE

The year is 1981 and South Africa’s white minority government is embroiled in a conflict on the southern Angolan border. Like all white boys over the age of 16, Nicholas Van der Swart (Kai Luke Brummer) must complete two years of compulsory military service to defend the Apartheid regime. The threat of communism and “die swart gevaar” (the black danger) is at an all-time high. But that’s not the only danger Nicholas faces. He must survive the brutality of the army – something that becomes even more difficult when a connection is sparked between him and a fellow recruit. Moffie is based on the memoir by the same name written by Andre-Carl van der Merwe.