Queer cinema over the past few years has forged a deep love affair with the coming of age narrative: gay relationships and teen angst tend to cross paths in many narratives, and with so many other emotions and nuance.

This month’s episode of Beyond Bisexual Lighting is a focus on the Coming of Gayge: Part II Rethinking Platonic Relationships. To be fair, friendship remains an all-around under-explored terrain on the big screen. Those connections, because of their tenuousness and ephemerality, tend to be undervalued. With the following three films, queer friendships allow for the collective activation of imagined possibilities that center embodied ease, love and justice.

Films Mentioned:

• My Name Engraved Herein (directed by Patrick Liu, written by Yu Ning Chu) (2020) (Taiwan)

• Pariah (directed & written by Dee Rees) (2011) (USA)

• My Own Private Idaho (directed & written by Gus Van Sant) (1991) (USA)