Our favorite lesbian themed movies.
Photo from Stud Life
Stud Life (2012)
J.J., a lesbian, and Seb, a gay man, are best friends – they work together and play together. Then J.J. falls for Elle and has to split her attention between them? Mates b4 muff? What would you do?
Stud Life is a light take on the darker side of queer street life in London, directed and written by Campbell and produced by Nadya Kassam and Stella Nwimo. The film is a post-modern LGBTQ She’s Gotta Have It for the YouTube generation. Stud Life deals with sex and sexuality and taboo subjects in the queer community.
Stud Life takes the viewer into a slice of life of an urban gay scene where casual sex and drug taking are not treated as deviant. Where gender is up for grabs, but desire follows stringent rules. Where violence can be part of sex as well as random attacks on the street. J.J. and Seb inhabit a world where white queers are familiar with Black street culture and reject the mainstream “G.A.Y.” world. This is Stud Life.
Family (2008)
Family is a coming-of-age dramedy centering on the lives of a group of lesbian friends who all experience continual strife in their personal and professional lives due to being closeted. Some women must deny and reject the women they love. In contrast, others struggle with the suffocating confines of closetedness for the sake of their careers. When the strain becomes too great, the women forge a pact to come out together within thirty days in every significant relationship and situation in their life.
Set It Off (1996)
Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox and Kimberly Elise as four close friends who decide to plan and execute a bank robbery. They choose to do so for different reasons, although all four want better for themselves and their families.
Stranger Inside (2001)
Yolonda Ross delivered a phenomenal performance as an institutionalized African American juvenile in the detention system for as long as she can remember. Then on her 21st birthday, she’s transferred to the State Facility for Women, where she meets a seasoned convict masquerading as her long-lost mother.
Pariah (2011)
Pariah is the feature-length expansion of writer/director Dee Rees’ award-winning 2007 short film Pariah follows a 17-year-old African-American woman who has a flair for poetry and is a good student at her local high school. She is quietly but firmly embracing her identity as a lesbian.
Passing (2021)
Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga star as two mixed-race childhood friends who later reunite in middle-class adulthood and become increasingly involved in each other’s lives. While Irene (Tessa Thompson) identifies as African-American and is married to a Black doctor, Clare (Ruth Negga) “passes” as white and has married a wealthy bigoted white man.
Watermelon Woman (1996)
Cheryl is a 25-year-old African-American lesbian working with her friend Tamara at a video rental store in Philadelphia. She is interested in films from the 1930s and 1940s that feature Black actresses, noting that the actresses in these roles are often not credited. After watching a movie titled Plantation Memories, in which a Black actress playing a mammy is credited only as “The Watermelon Woman,” she decides to make a documentary in which she attempts to uncover the Watermelon Woman’s identity.
Cloudburst (2011)
Stella and Dotty are an older lesbian couple from Maine who embark on a Thelma and Louise-style road trip to Nova Scotia to get married after Dotty is moved into a nursing home by her granddaughter. Along the way, they pick up Prentice, a hitchhiker traveling home to Nova Scotia to visit his dying mother, and the three bond as they travel together.
Rafiki (2018)
Kena and Ziki long for something more. Despite the political rivalry between their families, the girls resist and remain close friends, supporting each other to pursue their dreams in a conservative society. When love blossoms between them, the two girls will be forced to choose between happiness and safety. Inspired by Monica Arac de Nyeko’s “Jambula Tree,” which chronicles a story of two girls in love in Uganda, Rafiki challenges deep-rooted cynicism about same-sex relationships among actors, crew, friends, and family in Kenya.
