A strange, fascinating, and deeply complicated artifact from the dawn of cinema, A Florida Enchantment is one of the earliest films to explore themes of gender transformation and identity through fantasy comedy. Based on a 19th-century novel and stage play, the film follows Lillian Travers after she discovers magical seeds that trigger dramatic changes in personality, behavior, and gender expression. What unfolds is part silent farce, part social satire, and part accidental queer time capsule.
More than a century later, the film remains startling for its playful treatment of masculinity, femininity, flirtation, and performance. Modern audiences often view it through queer and trans lenses, especially for its depiction of characters experimenting with identity outside rigid social expectations. At moments, the movie feels decades ahead of its time. At others, it is unmistakably trapped within the prejudices of the era that created it.
A Florida Enchantment A strange, fascinating, and deeply complicated artifact from the dawn of cinema, A Florida Enchantment is one of the e
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) dir. Jim Sharman
PRIDE MONTH SPECIAL!
The true cultural legacy of this film belongs to the queer community. Long before the mainstream cinema offered any positive lgbtq representation, the film became a vital sanctuary for several reasons including radical self-acceptance. The film's ultimate thesis is delivered in the song "Don't Dream It, Be It." For generations of LGBTQ+ youth, this line became a profound mantra. It encouraged viewers to stop hiding their true desires and identities and to start living them out loud.
Tim Curry's mesmerising performance as Dr. Frank-N-Further broke the rigid gender boundaries of the 1970s. He wasn't a punchline or a villain because of his gender expression, he was the most magnetic and powerful person in the room. The film made fluid sexuality and gender non-comformity look thrilling and desirable.
The film gave birth to the interactive midnight screening phenomenon. For decades, theatres playing Rocky Horror became physical sanctuaries where queer people, trans people and misfits of all kinds could dress up, shout back at the screen and find their chosen family. In a world that often demanded conformity, the theatre offered complete freedom.
This film created a space for young members of the lgbtq+ community wasn't something to "cure" but something to celebrate.
I just watched this movie called of an age and it is so amazing o my golly gosh, its about a boy who falls in love with his best friends brother whos about to go away to get his phd. probably the slowest slow burn movie i have ever watched highly recommended
i can barely find anyone talking about it anywere?
Queer Tastes: Unconventional Representation in Horror Films by Cat Voleur
A passionate exploration of LGBTQIA+ representation in horror cinema, blending personal reflection, film history, and sharp cultural analysis through twenty unforgettable horror film recommendations.
A passionate exploration of LGBTQIA+ representation in horror cinema, blending personal reflection, film history, and sharp cultural analysi
A 1952 U.S. Navy scare film that turns sex into a deadly game of chance. With roulette wheels, barroom temptations, and stark warnings about syphilis and gonorrhea, Taking Chances is paranoia, propaganda, and pulp drama rolled into one unforgettable reel.
Before health class had pamphlets and polite diagrams, it had films like this—grim, pulsing little nightmares designed to scare young sailors straight (or at least, scare them careful).
Taking Chances transforms sex into a rigged carnival game, where every flirtation, every drink, every shadowy encounter carries the weight of unseen odds. The roulette wheel spins. The music plays. And somewhere between the barroom glow and a stranger’s smile, fate quietly loads the chamber.
The film wastes no time plunging into its warning: syphilis and gonorrhea aren’t just illnesses—they’re lurking predators, invisible hitchhikers waiting for one reckless decision. Through stark narration, clinical imagery, and moments of almost surreal metaphor, the message lands with blunt-force urgency. A drip becomes a threat. A diagnosis becomes a reckoning.
There’s something hypnotic about it all—the way mid-century morality wraps itself in spectacle. The men laugh, gamble, chase pleasure… while the film tightens the screws, reminding viewers that behind every “chance” lies consequence. It’s paranoia dressed as education, wrapped in the aesthetics of smoky bars, fleeting encounters, and quiet regret.
Viewed today, Taking Chances plays like a time capsule of fear and control—yet also an oddly compelling artifact of how desire was policed, pathologized, and dramatized. Equal parts cautionary tale and cultural relic, it doesn’t just warn its audience…
…it hunts them.
Taking Chances (1952) A 1952 U.S. Navy scare film that turns sex into a deadly game of chance. With roulette wheels, barroom temptations, an
Well that was where I started out thematically for this weeks selection, but one of the films I wanted to watch A Different Image (1982), I couldn't find streaming anywhere. So I shifted my parameters a little bit to all for other options. My final list still primarily centered Black women, with two Black women directors, one Black woman who wrote the book the film was based on, and strong Black women leading ladies all around.
This was the final list:
• Burning An Illusion (1981)
• The Watermelon Woman (1996)
• Eve's Bayou (1997)
• Half of a Yellow Sun (2013)
I can say definitively three of the films were solid offerings from front to back, script, story, production, directing, costumes, cinematography and casting. I gave them all a rating of 10 on IMDB. The weakest entry was the queer film The Watermelon Woman, it was a passable story told in an interesting way, but not as polished as the other films. Curiously director Cheryl Dunye didn't really do any other full-length feature films after it, she moved to primarily directing in television.
The film I was most blown away by was the entry from the United Kingdom, Burning an Illusion, out of all my films this one felt the most authentic, I was sorely disappointed to see the director Menelik Shabazz only did documentary work after his feature film debut. It was such an important story centering Black African and Black Caribbean voices and culture. The melding of these two distinct identities, and how that fits into being the product of Englands colonialism, was very fascinating for me. I was seeing a part of Black British cinema I hadn't witnessed before and this was a film from the 80s. More disappointment of course to learn the that two leads didn't go on to have a long and prosperous career in film and television. It was surprising and not surprising at the same time, the UK hasn't been known for a long history of diversity in it's television and film, and I am sure there weren't any roles these two beautiful young people could fit into that merited their ambitions and talent.
The most surprising of all my offerings was the American independent film Eve's Bayou, I think I first saw it when it came out twenty-nine years ago. I was appalled they hadn't been nominated for any Academy Awards, particularly when the film was clearly an instant-classic and was flawless in it's execution, nearly hard to believe this was the director Kasi Lemmons's debut feature film, she understood the assignment and over-delivered. I know everyone thought that Jurnee Smollett had a break-through performance for a child actor, but I have learned to always expect greatness from her whether in 2016's Underground or the runaway hit Lovecraft Country (2020).
I had seen the trailer for Half of a Yellow Sun back in '13 and wanted to see it, but just missed it somehow. I was pleased to finally see this film I had been wanting to see just based on the cast alone. I will be very frank, with all due respect that I am not impressed with the author of the book Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I think she's an eloquent speaker, deep thinker, obviously well-rewarded, but I find her middling as an author. Her New York Times best-selling book Americanah felt bland and hard to follow for me, I was so excited to sit down and read the book I had seen so many copies of when it first came out that all the hype did nothing but raise my expectations, which were quickly deflated.
The film was amazing, Anika Noni Rose is a beast, what can't she do? Sings, voice over, dances, acts, snatches up your edges with her brilliance every-time. Thandiwe Newton was illogically beautiful as one of the characters said about her, I enjoyed her very bougie ass getting raked through the African mud. I am not Nigerian or African for that matter, so I held no issue with a film about a very problematic part of Nigerian history being told by non-Nigerian actors. All the performances were flawless, and more importantly I learned about a piece of history of this western African country.
All in all I had an excellent time being immersed in all this Blackness, thrilling at the Black Girl Magic that was present in all of the films and once again rooting for everyone Black in how we showed up and showed out, as we always tend to do. I'd recommend all of these films, but would really push Burning an Illusion because I didn't expect it to be so fucking good!
