UCDavis LGBTQIARC "Coming Out" Films

Some of these films do not focus on "Coming Out" but incorporate the issue.

 

Boys Don't Cry (1999)

Based on actual events. Brandon Teena is the popular new guy in a tiny Nebraska town. He hangs out with the guys, drinking, cussing and bumber surfing, and he charms the young women, who've never met a more sensitive and considerate young man. Life is good for Brandon, now that he's one of the guys and dating hometown beauty Lana. However he's forgotten to mention one important detail. It's not that he's wanted in another town for GTA and other assorted crimes, but that Brandon Teen was actually born a woman named Teena Brandon. When his best friends make this discover, Brandon's life is ripped apart.

 

Fire (1996)

Ashok runs a family business that sells takeout food that also has a video rental store at the side. Ashok's extended family includes his wife Radha, his brother Jatin, their ailing mother Biji and their manservent Mundu, all living under the same roof. Jatin, at the insistence of Ashok and their mother, agrees to marry the beautiful Sita in an arranged marriage, although he is actually in love with Julie, a Chinese-Indian woman. At first glance, you see a happy middle-class family going through the normal paces of everyday life. However as the layers are slowly peeled back, we find a simmering cauldron of discontent within the family, with almost every family member living a lie. Both marriages in the family turn out to be emotionally empty, without love or passion. With both husbands ignoring their spouses' emotional and sexual needs (albeit with reasons that are totally opposite from each other), it is only a matter of time before Radha and Sita look to one another for comfort and to satisfy their own passions. In this environment, it is only natural that Sita and Radha become fast friends, and, in time, much more than that. But their love is not without its share of painful obstacles.

 

Formula 17 (2004)

A 17 year old boy goes searching for love and adventure in the summer heat of Taipei, but finds himself attracted to the biggest playboy known to mankin. Will he be able to change this playboy into a stable boyfriend?

 

Ma Vie en Rose (My Life In Pink) (1997)

Ludovic is a small boy who cross-dresses and generally acts like a girl, talks of marrying his neighbor's son and cannot understand why everyone is so surprised by it. His actions lead to problems for him and his family.

 

I Exist (2003)

Gay people exist in Armenia, Syria, Iran, Egypt and Sudan too. They are Chrisitians, Muslims and Jews, belong to and rejected by their own cultures. In this series of interviews, we learn a bit about their lives and hear a few critiques of western media and its oversimplified, often negative depictions of these peoples and cultures.

 

Mambo Italiano (2003)

Angelo Barberini is the oddball son of Italian immigrants Gino and Maria, who inadvertently ended up in Canada rather than the States. Angelo shocks his parents by moving out on his own without getting married and shocks them further still when he reveals that he's gay. Buy his boyfriend, policeman Nino Paventi isn't as ready come out of the closet -- especially not to his busybody mother Lina.

 

My Brother... Nikhil (2005)

The Kapoors have been living in Goa for several years, and are a well-known and respected family. Navin Kapoor is now retired and lives with his wife, Anita, who has some Portugese blood, a sportsman son, Nikhil, and daughter Anamika (Anu). Navin is thrilled to know that Nikhil has been selected for a sports scholarship and will be representing Goa in a national swimming championship. Before that could happen, Nikhil is asked by his coach to take a break and let some fresh youngsters take over; he is eventually dismissed from the team. Navin and Leena encounter hostile stares whenever they go out together and Leena is shunned by her friends. Watch the climax as the Kapoors find out why the ground has been removed from under their feet, and if they are ready to accept the challenge together as a family or as embittered individuals who end up blaming each other.

 

Quinceanera (2006)

Magdalena is 14 and anxiously awaiting her 15th birthday where she'll celebrate her quinceanara. Her world starts to crumble when she discovers her pregnancy after not being able to fit in her gown for her quinceanera. Soon she's kicked out of her home, abandoned by her family and abandoned by her baby's father. Magdalena is then taken in by her great-granduncle Tomas and her gay, often in trouble cousin Carlos. There she finds a new family and life.

 

Trevor (1994)

Trevor is your average '70s high schooler in the Bible Belt, USA. He listens to records, hangs out with his friends and goes to the movies. But one day, things change: He hits puberty and everything seems different. He doesn't want to make out with the girls at a party. He starts to pay more attention to the other boys in his class. He starts to realize that people make fun of him for his love of ballet and theatre and Diana Ross. Eventually Trevor comes to the realization that he's gay. Now his friends don't want to be seen anywhere around him, his parents ignore him, his priest accuses him of being a pervert, and his best friend Pinky tells him that he's a weak person. With no one offering any support, Trevor decides to kill himself. But help comes in an unexpected form. 

 

XXY (2007)

This is the dramatic story of an intersex 15-year-old. She lives with her parents, who have to cope with the challenges of her medical condition.