Unconscious-Collective, The

1993

The first British-produced lesbian safe-sex video! Released in the U.S. as part of She’s Safe, a lesbian safe-sex video package.

Lee, Ang

1993

Winner of the Berlin Film Festival's top prize, The Wedding Banquet is bound to be one of the year's most talked-about movies. It's a delightful comedy about the conflict between modern sexual and social values and old-world traditions. Director Ang Lee has managed to take the issues of a gay-centered situation and make them relevant to a mainstream audience, with precisely observed details and much heart-warming wit. Gao Wai-Tung has a happy and very settled life in Manhattan. Some shrewd real-estate investments keep him busy and comfortably well off; regular workouts in the gym keep him in good shape; best of all, his Caucasian lover Simon cooks first-rate Chinese food. The only trouble is Wai-Tung's elderly parents back in Taiwan. They expect him to marry and give them a grandchild. They're constantly enrolling him in computer-dating clubs, to find him a suitable bride. It's Simon who comes up with a solution: A marriage of convenience with Wei-Wei, an illegal immigrant badly in need of a green card. But no one reckons on the sheer weight of Chinese tradition when it comes to matters of matrimony and procreation. Through a chain of inevitable accidents, the simple ceremony escalates into a full-scale wedding banquet. "This is to 1993 what Strictly Ballroom was to 1992: a scintillating comedy with a serious undertow and a masterly grasp of emotional highs and lows."—Tony Rayns, Berlin Film Festival, 1993

Marsh, James

1993

Meet the real people behind Lou Reed's classic celebration of '60s transgenderism: Joe Dallesandro and Holly Woodlawn, who both confirm the decadent drag scene that inspired the world-famous song. "Lou was fascinated by transvestites," claims Jayne County. "He had this girlfriend at the time called Rachel and she was a transsexual. It's only natural that he would write a song about three drag queens."

Marsh, James

1993

Meet the real people behind Lou Reed's classic celebration of '60s transgenderism: Joe Dallesandro and Holly Woodlawn, who both confirm the decadent drag scene that inspired the world-famous song. "Lou was fascinated by transvestites," claims Jayne County. "He had this girlfriend at the time called Rachel and she was a transsexual. It's only natural that he would write a song about three drag queens."

Nazario, Nelson

1993

Nelson Nazario's charming lesbian reworking of Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands.

Bernard, Gene

1993

People who you might never want as guests at any party.

Stephan, Tom

1993

England's branch of The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is profiled.

Love, Tony

1993

Bloodifies the revenge of a gay-bashing victim, and features a microcameo by RuPaul.

Sharandak, Natasha

1993

Revealing interviews with six Russian lesbians who convey the hardships and joys of being a lesbian in Russia. While Tatjana speaks hesitantly about her sexuality, believing it to be a private matter, Muchabat charmingly flirts with the filmmaker, "We'll make the movie after we have sex, okay?" This fascinating documentary touches on a range of issues including women's prisons, transsexuality, lesbian and gay community organizing, coming out and homophobia. Under Article 121—which criminalizes homosexuality—lesbians and gay men in Kiev face the threat of imprisonment, blackmail, government harassment, and family rejection.

Hunter, Neil

1993

Tell Me No Lies is a jaunty, bittersweet comedy about the naiveté of some closeted English students; "I think Jane knows I'm gay," says an anxious one to his after-hours boyfriend, "She's reading Genet and she said she'd lend it to me." Better Genet than E.M. Forster.