A Very Natural Thing (1974)

[lb_lee]

Mac: In my hunt for older gay spiritual sexuality books, I found out that one of the books I'm looking for, the Divine Androgyne According to Purusha, is damn near impossible to find and apparently never digitized... but that the writer, Christopher Larkin directed an early gay film, A Very Natural Thing, in 1974, which is available on archive.org! I had to watch it.

So I did, and it was real nice! It's about a monk who comes out, leaves the monastery in the first two minutes of the movie, and then spends the rest of the time figuring out what he wants from life and his partners. There's a lot of gay men just talking about monogamy vs. liberation, sex and love, all that good stuff. Nothing terrible happens to anyone, it's just people dealing with their relationships. I'd say give it a watch! It's definitely for adults, though. Folks use poppers and weed in the movie, there's nudity, sex, the baths, and an orgy, though it's all pretty tame.

There's also clips from the 1973 Christopher Street Pride parade, and seeing that just made us all feel good.

Unfortunately, Christopher Larkin committed suicide in the 1980s. At least his sunbeam of a movie is still around!

EDIT: wow, that user on archive.org uploaded a BUNCH of queer movies I never knew about! Things I want to check out later:

• BloodSisters (1995) lesbian BDSM documentary
• The Watermelon Woman (1996) An Aspiring black Lesbian Filmmaker researches an obscure 1940s black actress billed as The Watermelon Woman.
• Gay San Francisco (1970) Shot between 1965-1970, Gay San Francisco features a collection of incredible footage of San Francisco’s thriving LGBTQ culture, with a focus on the Tenderloin, San Francisco’s first queer neighborhood.
• The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender (1997) Filmmaker Mark Rappaport examines the representation of homosexuality in Golden Age Hollywood cinema. Host Dan Butler.
• My Masters (1986) Infamous leathermen from both coasts converge in this S/M journey to the outside edge of the imagination.
• Some of My Best Friends Are... (1971) It’s Christmas Eve 1971 in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village and the regulars of the local gay bar “The Blue Jay” are celebrating. Not much has changed since Stonewall and its not all “Peace on Earth. Good Will to Men” but the times are a changin.
• Oh hey, someone uploaded Divine Horsemen: the living gods of Haiti, by Maya Deren! I've seen it already, but for folks interested in possession.

Comments

[numb3r_5ev3n]

Oh wow, adding all this to my watch list. Thanks!

[adore]

thank you for the linkage! i'm excited to eyeball these.