In honor of PRIDE month, here are three films that shed light on the struggles and complexities of growing up as an LGBTIQ youth. We, at Vanity Teen, highly recommend them as they surely will not leave you indifferent. Happy PRIDE 2023!
- “1:54” by Yan England: This movie intertwines two common issues: bullying and the realization that your sexuality makes you “different”. In this chaos, director Yan England focuses on a boy who stops running completely after his mother and coach passed away. However, a bullying environment and a specific incident with his best friend lead the protagonist to reclaim himself and engage in a race where beating his personal best is the perfect metaphor for the empowerment that comes from self-acceptance.
- “Marvin or The Beautiful Education” by Anne Fontaine: Building one’s identity is quite simply the most crucial process of childhood. Yet this important process can be disturbingly fragile when your environment, rather than providing the necessary tools, becomes a straitjacket that prevents growth. This is what the protagonist of “Marvin or The Beautiful Education” feels until a teacher opens the doors to a world where he can find himself: the theater. By the way, this Anne Fontaine’s film features Isabelle Huppert.
- “THEY” by Anahita Ghazvinizadeh: In English, “they” is the non-binary pronoun many people use to refer to themselves, thereby avoiding the binary choice of “he” or “she”. This film by Anahita Ghazvinizadeh features J, who chooses ambiguity even in their own name and takes hormone blockers to delay puberty, thus postponing the moment they have to make a definitive decision about their sexuality. After two years of therapy and treatment, however, J faces a weekend with their sister and best friend where that final decision can no longer be deferred.