Pride month is coming up and DirectHer has compiled a top-notch list of lesbian representation in film
We’ve got a bit of everything here, with these films spanning a variety of decades, cultures and genres. Whether it’s a first watch or you’re returning to a beloved favourite, we’ve got you covered.
Desert Hearts (1985, Donna Deitch)
Lesbian Brokeback Mountain? Not really, but it does feature two women in full cowboy getups (one of which is silver with fringe and sparkles) talking by the lake at dawn about the feelings they’re avoiding before passionately kissing, getting caught in the rain, and driving back to the ranch whilst one firmly denies what’s going on between them.
Desert Hearts sees Vivian (Helen Shaver) move temporarily to Reno for a ‘quickie divorce’, only to end up grappling with her sexuality after falling for Cay (Patricia Charbonneau).
You won’t know what you’ve been missing until you watch this beautiful depiction of the first time you have sex with another woman and the sapphic love story set in late ‘50s Nevada.
But I’m a Cheerleader (1999, Jamie Babbit)
Megan (Natasha Lyonne) is just an all-American girl with a passion for cheerleading and a footballer boyfriend. So when she comes home, pom-poms in hand, to an intervention coordinated by her parents and peers and spearheaded by coach Mike (RuPaul), she doesn’t understand. They’ve decided she’s gay – citing both her vegetarianism and the pictures of girls in her locker – and are shipping her off to a conversion camp.
At True Directions, the girls wear pink, and the boys wear blue. Campers go through a five-step programme to erase the gay within, first admitting their depraved sexuality and finally practising simulated sex in nude bodysuits complete with ivy leaves and flowers covering their genitalia. But sticking a bunch of lesbians together in a room each night might be counterintuitive. Megan swiftly comes to grapple with her identity and who really lies in her heart. This campy cult classic is a must.
The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls In Love (1999, Maria Maggenti)
This list wouldn’t be complete without a 90s sapphic romcom filled with scenes of two girls falling for each other in a grassy meadow all summer long. Randy (Laurel Holloman) and Evie (Nicole Ari-Parker) are polar-opposite teens who go to the same high school – Randy is a class-A dyke from a working-class background and ostracised in school for being so, while Evie is wealthy and popular, with a boyfriend to boot. But when they begin talking one day, Evie’s world opens up.
I never hear this film talked about, but it had me giggling and smiling ear-to-ear throughout, and I don’t know if I’ve ever been so giddy watching a first kiss. This one might be my top pick if you just wanna watch two young girls fall in love.
Drive-Away Dolls (2024, Ethan Coen)
Dykes on a road trip! Penis plaster casts, psychedelic sequences, good ol’ gang violence… What a ride.
Directed by Ethan Coen and co-written with his wife, Tricia Cooke, whom he named co-director in an interview for Little White Lies ‘in every way except name’, this movie is instantly bold; a corkscrew shoved in the neck, a head decapitated, a mysterious silver briefcase… before a hard cut to some passionate sex, and someone clearly on the brink of orgasm.
Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) drive from Philadelphia to Tallahassee, stopping in lesbian dive bars, make-out parties, and a jail cell along the way, whilst unknowingly being chased by a group of mobsters.
Goofy and absurd, Coen strikes the balance perfectly and creates the ultimate fun, chaotic and crazy film about two lesbians on the road. If you find you love this as much as me, fear not. This is only the first in a “lesbian B-movie trilogy” from Coen and Cooke.
Bottoms (2023, Emma Seligman)
It’s gay Fight Club. This one’s for the Charli XCX girlies, the Rachel Sennot and Ayo Edebiri girlies, the unhinged humour girlies, the i-wasn’t-exactly-popular-in-high-school-but-my-hilarious-gay-friend-group-made-me-who-i-am girlies.
Loser lesbians PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri), fed up with their lack of action and desperate to hook up with their cheer squad crushes, start a high school fight club so that the girls in their class can learn self-defence–but really so that they can lose their virginity before they graduate. Things predictably go awry.
It’s truly the most fun movie ever. Plus, there’s bloopers during the end credits just like the iconic classics of the late 90s through 2010s. As the crowd on letterboxd have said, the movies are back baby!
Read more about coming of age movies here
The Handmaiden (2016, Park Chan-wook)
Set in 1930s Korea, under Japanese colonial rule, a young girl, Sook-Hee (Kim Tai-ree), is hired as the handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, Lady Hideko (Kim Min-hee). Secretly, she has been employed by a con man to help him seduce Lady Hideko, swindle her of her fortune, and lock her up in a madhouse. Things take a turn when Sook-Hee develops a bond with the heiress instead.
The film oscillates between a psychodrama and an erotic thriller. This is a tale of deceit at every corner, displaying the sickening power of men and the beautiful power of women.
The Watermelon Woman (1996, Cheryl Dunye)
The film follows Cheryl (Cheryl Dunye), a young aspiring black lesbian filmmaker who works in a video store as she researches the life of an actress from the 1930s known as the ‘Watermelon Woman’.
Dunye’s character is autobiographical, while the historical references to the Watermelon Woman are fictional–she serves as an amalgamation of Black lesbian identity. In her monumental first feature, Dunye crafts a beautiful romcom that simultaneously filled the history gaps for Black and queer women in film.
Rafiki (2018, Wanuri Kahiu)
Kena (Samantha Mugatsia) and Ziki (Sheila Munyiva) struggle with their feelings for each other whilst dealing with the pressures around them from their families and political consequences as a result of the laws against homosexuality and LGBTQ rights in Kenya.
Rafiki was the first Kenyan film to be selected for the Cannes Film Festival in 2018 and was banned in its home country because of its homosexual themes and going against Kenyan law and values by promoting lesbianism.
The film is a sweet story about two girls who begin a friendship despite their fathers’ political rivalry. This friendship soon blossoms into something more, but its existence is defiant in itself, and it’s truly a beautiful watch.
Queer representation gets a bad rap, and the film industry certainly needs to be doing better, but rest assured that there’s plenty out there if you want to see more sapphic love stories on your screen. Check out our full list on Letterboxd for more titles (one of our favourites isn’t even included in this selection).
