Films
www.ingoodconscience.com – In Barbara Rick’s acclaimed documentary, In Good Conscience, a most unlikely rebel—an American nun—finds herself at the center of a human rights storm. The film chronicles the true story of Sister Jeannine Gramick, who is defying a Vatican edit that she shut down her compassionate ministry to gay and lesbian Catholics, and silence herself permanently on the subject of homosexuality. Her battle takes her all the way to Rome where she attempts an audience with her key adversary over the years—none other than Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger—who would become Pope Benedict XVI.
"Loving Annabelle" - www.lovingannabelle.com - In this controversial 2006 film, 28 year old writer/director Katherine Brooks poses the question: What's a Catholic boarding school teacher to do when she falls in love with one of her students? After seeing the classic 1932 film, Maedchen in Uniform, for the first time eight years ago, Katherine Brooks was inspired to write an updated story of student-teacher love. Annabelle, the high school senior, is the driving force in the film, and a catalyst for Simone to come to terms with her own sexuality.
"Saints and Sinners", a 2002 film directed by Abigail Honor and Yan Vizinberg, follows the challenging and emotional journal of a devotedly Catholic gay couple to marry in a Catholic church. Caring more about formalizing their seven-year union within the Catholic tradition than with legal recognition by the State, Edward DeBonis and Vincent Maniscalco pursue their dream, despite the expected rejection from local church hierarchy. Saints and Sinners is a fiklm which demonstrates that the struggle for equal rights is not just about legal benefits, but the aspiration to find acceptance and affirmation, rather than rejection, from one's chosen religion.
www.saintof9-11.com - "The Saint of 9/11" is the life story of Father Mychal Judge, the FDNY chaplain who perished in the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The film is narrated by Ian McKellen. Gradually and deftly, filmmaker Glenn Holsten reveals the many layers of Judge's life. A Franciscan monk and recovering alcoholic, Judge was also gay and proud. He kept his sexuality somewhat beneath the radar among firefighters, but became a fiercely engaged advocate for AIDS patients as well as society's disenfranchised and addicted.
www.filmsthatchangetheworld.com – "Trembling Before G-d" is a documentary built around intimately-told personal stories of Hasidic and Orthodox Jews who are gay or lesbian. The film portrays a group of people who face a profound dilemma—how to reconcile their passionate love of Judaism and the Divine with the Biblical prohibitions that forbid homosexuality. Ultimately, they are forced to question how they can pursue truth and faith in their lives. (This movie is very relevant to the lives of Catholic lesbians & gays, especially if they attended Catholic school or were raised in a religious home. Moving and inspirational.)
www.boston-keshet.org – A good resource and model for Catholic high school students and educators, Hineini chronicles Shulamit Izen's efforts to raise awareness about gay and lesbian issues at the New Jewish High School (now called Gann Academy) and the events surrounding the creation of the Open House. The Open House was established as a student organization that creates a safe space for students to discuss gender and sexual identity issues in a Jewish context. "I feel like struggling with Torah and with G-d is one thing and I think I can do that...I understand that struggle is essential to being a Jew. What I don't want to struggle with is my community."
"I, The Worst of All" (Yo, la Peor de Todas) - Based on the book "Traps of Faith" by Mexican Nobel prize winner Octavio Paz, this film by Maria Luisa Bemberg tells the story of poet and writer Sister Juana Ines de la Cruz (1651-1695), a target of the Spanish Inquisition, and her passionate relationship with the Mexican viceroy's wife.
www.outcast-films.com – “Damned If You Don’t”, by Su Friedrich,www.sufriedrich.com was inspired by her Catholic upbringing. The central figure is a young nun whose sexual desires have been suddenly awakened by the persistent attention of a beautiful neighbor. The growing attraction between the women is depicted through reminiscences of a woman’s closeted romances at a Catholic school, and testimony from the trial of a 17th century abbess accused of a sexual relationship with another nun.
“Extramuros,” a film by Pedro Almodovar, is the story of love and ambition in Spain during the time of the Inquisition. When Sister Angela decides to fake stigmata in a bold attempt to save her beloved convent from ruin, her devoted lover Sister Ana reluctantly agrees to help. Sister Angela’s scan brings her unexpected fame as well as new enemies that could destroy her relationship with Sister Ana.
"Entre Tinieblas" (Dark Habits), also by Pedro Almodovar, is set in a convent in Madrid where the Mother Superior has fallen in love with a female singer. A hard-edged and intentionally offensive religious satire.
"In This House of Brede," is based on a book of the same name by Rumer Godden. A young nun gets a crush on an older nun who wants to reciprocate but cannot.
“When Night Is Falling,” is about a professor named Camille who teaches mythology at a small, conservative religious college. She's dating an up and coming professor who is on the fast track to become dean of the school. However, Camille’s life is forever changed when she ends up being comforted at a laundromat by a beautiful woman after her dog is killed. Very soon we see that the attraction between these two women cannot be denied and Camille has to decide whether to stay in her safe life with her minister boyfriend, or let passion (and repressed desire) take her wherever the tender and beautiful circus performer may lead her.
"Outing Riley" is a movie about a regular guy who loves his family, sports and his boyfriend. A product of a traditional Irish-Catholic family, Bobby Riley loves to watch ball games and down brewskies with his three brothers--a conservative Catholic priest, a womananizer and a married family man. When hanging out with his sister Maggie he's gay; but when he's with his brothers he's as straight as an arrow. The film is the story of a man in his mid-thirties who comes out to his family.
"The Boys in the Band" by William Friedkin was released in 1970. It was the first Hollywood movie in which all the main characters were gay. The leading figure--Michael--is a tortured and torturing gay Catholic. The movie was attacked by gay activists at the time, but as gay filmographer Vito Russo pointed out, it gave ample evidence of what evil the closet inflicted, and why the closet had to be broken.
