Queering the Canon Celebrates Queer Stories Beyond the Big City – front mezz junkies, Theater News

Frontmezzjunkies reports: Queering the Canon: We’re Out Here at BAM

By Ross

Not every queer story begins under neon lights in a big city. Some begin in desert towns, quiet Swedish suburbs, or rural communities where identity is discovered slowly, carefully, and often bravely. That spirit drives this year’s edition of Queering the Canon: We’re Out Here.

The lineup screening at the Brooklyn Academy of Music blends beloved classics, influential international works, and vital documentaries. Among the highlights is “Desert Hearts“, Donna Deitch’s landmark Nevada-set romance celebrating its 40th anniversary in a new restoration, still widely considered one of the most luminous love stories in queer cinema. The series also reaches across continents with films like “Dakan” from director Mohamed Camara, a groundbreaking West African queer drama that stirred both celebration and controversy upon its Cannes premiere, and the Swedish coming-of-age favourite “Show Me Love” by Lukas Moodysson, whose portrait of teenage longing in a sleepy town remains painfully relatable decades later.

The program also widens the conversation about what “queer canon” can mean. Documentary filmmaker Ellen Spiro’s road-trip chronicle “Greetings From Out Here” captures openly gay life across the American South, while “Southern Comfort” from Kate Davis offers a deeply humane portrait of the trans community and resilience. Even a beloved comedy like “Waiting for Guffman“, directed by Christopher Guest, fits neatly into the theme, affectionately skewering the eccentric personalities that make small-town cultural life so memorable. And from Mexico comes the fierce and influential “The Place Without Limits” by Arturo Ripstein, a daring film that helped push queer representation forward decades ago.

Taken together, the series forms more than a retrospective. It’s about a truth the title proudly declares: queer stories are everywhere, and they always have been.