Chile just approved marriage equality legislation in a landslide vote on Tuesday, making it the eighth Latin American country to allow same-sex marriage, as well as the 31st worldwide. To celebrate this fantastic development Queerguru takes a look at our favorite queer Chilean movies. It includes the work of one of our all-time favorites queer Chilean filmmaker Teddy Award Winner Sebastian Silva
Here in alphabetical order are QUEERGURU'S 10 MUST-SEE QUEER CHILEAN MOVIES
Always Say Yes: will get this country boy a great deal of action This latest queer movie from Chilean filmmaker Alberto Fuguet takes a very fine line between sexual fantasy and actual pornography. It’s the story of young Hector (Gerardo Torres Rodríguez) who leaves his rural him in Hermosillo for the bright lights of Mexico City where he has hopes of being chosen to pose naked for a Feral a photography collective.
Cola De Mono: It’s an unbearably hot Santiago Christmas Eve 1986 in those pre-tech days before cellphones were invented and when families still had to talk to each other. However Borja (Cristóbal Rodríguez-Costabal) ‘s family don’t. Well not very much. He’s a precocious teenager about to turn 17 and obsessed with movies especially the stack of obscure ones on VHS tapes that he inherited from his late father a movie critic. This is the 6th movie from openly gay Chilean writer/director Alberto Fuguet and his first to have an LGBT theme. Impressively made on a mini budget, it’s a compelling movie mixing his very dark themes with a fair smattering of humour and a great deal of reality as probably a lot of the story is taken from his own life. Inspired casting, especially using the Rodríguez-Costabal brothers to play the brothers (and in the final part of the movie when it fast forwards to 1999 the older brother plays the adult Borja). They and none of the cast have any inhibitions at all about the large amount of nudity that features throughout the whole movie.
From TLA Releasing the movie is streaming Vimeo on Demand and also on Dekkoo
Disobedience is the first English language film for award-winning Chilean writer/director Sebastián Lelio, and with it, he continues his theme of stories that are centered around strong unique women. First, there was ‘Gloria’ followed closely by his Oscar-winning A Fantastic Woman that starred Daniela Vega a trans actress, and now comes this tale of a lesbian love affair within London’s Orthodox Jewish community starring Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams
(The movie is streaming on HULU and Amazon Prime)
El Principe aka The Prince : is the directing debut of filmmaker Sebastián Muñoz is one of the most homoerotic prison movies we have seen for some time, and it bears the influences of other queer movies of that genre. The main difference of this tale set in Allende’s Chile in the 1970s is that young Jaime (Juan Carlos Maldonado) ….. who is given the nickname The Prince …. is actually happy to be in jail. In only his 2nd movie role, Maldonadoand gives a magnetic performance as Jaime which is pitch-perfect, The other kudos should probably go to the production design which Muñoz usually does, and made the grim-looking jail so authentic. This, and his direction, helped the film win the prestigious Queer Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
This film is streaming on Apple TV, Dekkoo, and Google Play
Forgotten Roads : Despite all the problems in the world, 2020 saw a remarkable crop of such excellent queer debut feature films from first-time directors/writers. Forgotten Roads from Chilean filmmaker Nicol Ruiz Benavides is right up there amongst them. Kudos for both his script and his visual interpretation but especially for the sublimely nuanced performance from his veteran lead actress Rosa Ramírez Ríos in her very first movie. The camera (and we) love her.
The movie is streaming on Lesflicks
In The Grayscale : the title of this film refers to the sexuality of Bruni a married man who realizes he may not be straight after all. In this compelling drama from newbie Chilean filmmaker, Claudio Marcone explores how it is increasingly obvious that Bruno doesn’t fit into any norm and is now confused as to where he truly belongs.
The movie is streaming FREE on Roku
Jesús: Despite several very disquieting factors about Chilean filmmaker Fernando Guzzoni’s story about a dysfunctional father/son relationship, the drama does nevertheless make for compelling viewing. Jesús and his pals spend all their time getting wasted on anything they can get their hands on, and randomly pick up girls to have sex. On one of their very many drunken nights out they stumble upon a half-conscious gay man in the park who they mock and taunt before they literally beat the living daylights out, leaving him for dead. Whichever you look at it, this is a harrowing and despicable story that is so powerfully told that it keeps one engaged to the very last frame.
The film is streaming on Amazon Prime and on D-Movies
Nasty Baby : Chilean filmmaker Sebastian Silva wrote, directed, and starred in this his first film shot in English in NY. It’s the story of a gay couple trying to have a baby with the help of their friend Polly. It’s a delicious black comedy which won Silva the prestigious Teddy Award …. and the hearts and minds of so many gay men. The film was produced by fellow Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain whose new film Spencer has a neat queer subplot.
This movie is streaming on Amazon Prime, Apple TV and Google Play
Rara: When Chilean lawyer Paula (Mariana Loyola) divorces her husband Victor (Daniel Munoz), her new partner Lia (Agustina Muñoz) moves in to share her home in this small conservative town. One day Paula is summed for a meeting with the school Principal after her 8-year-old daughter Catalina (Emilia Ossandon) had made a drawing of their family showing her two ‘mummies’ and her 13-year-old sister Sara (Julia Lübbert). This ‘official’ reprimand to voice disapproval of her sexuality is just the beginning of public dissent that will start to try and eventually break the family up. The movie directed and co-written by Pepa San Martin is actually based on the true story in 2004 when a Chilean Judge lost custody of her own children purely on the basis of her sexuality. Rara (which means ‘sad’) stops before the Trial begins, but it seems quite inevitable that things are going to end badly for Paula and her children.
This movie is streaming on Film Movement.
The Strong Ones For his debut feature film Chilean writer/director Omar Zúñiga Hidalgo adapted his own short film San Cristabel which won the prestigious Teddy Award at the Berlinale in 2015. It is a beautifully executed queer love story that is a near-perfect as it could be. Lucas (Samuel González) has just won a scholarship to go study in Canada so he leaves his home in Santiago to go say goodbye to his sister who lives in a small coastal town in the South. Whilst he is there he also says ‘hello’ to handsome broody Antonio (Antonio Altamirano) a local fishing vessel’s boatswain…….. and he never looks back
This movie is streaming on Amazon Prime, Google Play and Dekkoo
To read the full reviews of the movies and over 1500 other queer films at https:// queerguru.com and be sure to sign up to receive our rants and raves of the best and worst of LGBTQ movies from around the globe. Best of all its FREE
Plus here’s an interview we filmed with Sebastian Silvaa when he launched Nasty Baby …..
