REPRESENT! is a monthly spotlight of filmmakers and storytellers from different cultures, countries, identities, and underrepresented groups in order to expose and educate our community to unique voices and visions in cinema. Scarecrow will join forces with a spectrum of community partners to collaboratively curate lists of films as well as provide resources about the experiences they represent.

June 2021: LGBTQ+ Filmmakers

This month for REPRESENT! we scratch the surface of queer cinema by exploring films by LGBTQ+ directors throughout film history. Queer stories have been told on film since 1916 with the partially lost Swedish film “Vingarne” directed by Mauritz Stiller. Even so, looking at this month’s list it’s clear that out LGBTQ+ directors were hardly common until the second half of the 20th century, and even still were predominately cis, white directors within the United States and Europe. Though LGBTQ+ directors and queer stories have become increasingly popular and movements like the New Queer Cinema have had major impacts in the film industry, queer stories and filmmakers continue to be underrepresented—especially BIPOC, trans, lesbian, and asexual directors. Make sure to check out our LGBTQ+ section in the literature room for many, many more titles!