In 1985, the year Windy City Times started, the lesbian film Desert Hearts debuted. I was lucky enough to interview director Donna Deitch in Chicago and met co-star Patricia Charbonneau shortly after when she was the special guest at a local benefit. That movie, along with Personal Best, had a strong impact on me as a young lesbian. Ever since, movies have been a great release for me.
Unfortunately, there are only small numbers of lesbian films trickling out around the world each year, and very few stand the test of time. I certainly hope the film I was lucky enough to executive produce, Hannah Free, will stand that test. It was a labor of love for dozens of people, and star Sharon Gless gave her all as the lead.
Since this is our anniversary issue, and Desert Hearts came out the same year as Windy City Times, I thought I’d list my purely subjective list of my favorite lesbian feature films. Of course Hannah Free is now my favorite, but I left it off the list for obvious reasons.
Below are my favorite classic or soon-to-be classic lesbian feature films.
1) Tipping the Velvet
2) Desert Hearts
3) Antonia’s Line
4) Fire
5) Imagine Me & You
6) Aimee & Jaguar
7) November Moon
8) Better Than Chocolate
9) But I’m a Cheerleader
10) High Art
11) The World Unseen
12) Bound
13) Go Fish
14) Affinity
15) Bend It Like Beckham (not quite lesbian, but as a soccer player, I love it)
16) When Night Is Falling
The list could go on a bit more, but these are the standouts for me. I have also not seen every lesbian film, especially current ones, so I avoided ones from recent times.
Most of the above films are available from Wolfe Video at: www.wolfevideo.com/?R=1329