7 Latin American LGBTQIA+ Films to Watch For Pride Month

Happy Pride Month! Remember movies? No, remember going to the movies? Neither do we. Luckily, the country’s successful vaccination campaign means that movie theaters are opening up again and it’s once again safe to head back to one of those big, over-air conditioned rooms. However, while we love going to movie theaters, they do typically lack in foreign language films. Watching movies is a great way to practice your target language, especially practicing listening to multiple speakers at the same time. So what’s a Spanish learner to do? Check out one of these 7 fantastic Spanish-language LGBTQIA+ films for a pride-filled language learning adventure!

1. Fuera de Carta (Spain 2008)

Fuera de Carta (Chef’s Special— literally ‘outside of the menu’) is a comedy about a chef who is running a busy restaurant. Disruptions to his already hectic life come to him in the form of being reunited with his estranged children, a new same-sex romantic interest, and the Michelin Guide food critic is coming to review his restaurant. Can he(name?) have it all? Watch on (streaming platform) to find out!

You can rent Fuera de Carta on Apple TV.

2. Joven y Alocada (Chile 2012)

Have you ever seen the show Awkward? Or perhaps Gossip Girl? Right in line with the late 2000s, early 2010s “Precocious Blogger” aesthetic, Joven y Alocada (Young and Wild) follows (name), a typical Chilean teenager who expounds the details of her personal life on a blog with an audience of zero. As her life becomes tangled in bisexual romance and religious conservatism, her blog gains notoriety as the hottest webpage in town. In addition to being heartwarming and funny, this juicy coming-of-age story is based on a real blog!

    You can rent Joven y Alocada on YouTube and Google Play.

3. Plata Quemada (Spain 2001)

Plata Quemada (Burnt Money) isn’t your classic queer romance flick. It’s no Brokeback Mountain, and it certainly isn’t Call Me By Your Name. This film is a gay Bonnie and Clyde. The story’s got action, crime, and romantic passion and it’s not afraid to play with your favorite movie trops along the way. 

    You can watch Plata Quemada on Amazon Prime Video.

4. Viva (Ireland): 

Although its director is Irish (Paddy Breathnach), Viva is a Spanish-language film. The drama centers on Jesus (Héctor Medina), a young gay Cuban man who dreams of becoming a drag queen. These dreams are put on hold when Jesus’s estranged father (name) returns. Throughout the movie, our protagonist must make a painful choice between living his truth and being with his family. 

You can rent Viva on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube.

5. Contracorriente

Contracorriente (Undertow) is a film that follows Miguel as he sneaks around his small Peruvian fishing village to be with his secret lover Santiago. Without giving too much away, the film quickly takes a turn and weaves a coming out narrative into a story about ghosts and the rumor mill that is inevitable in small-town life

You can rent Contracorriente on Apple TV.

6. Todo Sobre Mi Madre (Spain 1999)

¡Penelope Cruz Alert! Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About My Mother) is a complex trans-positive story that was ahead of its time. The film follows Manuela as she travels from Madrid to Barcelona after the death of her son Esteban in search of Lola, her son’s biological father. Manuela reunites with her self-actualized and transitioned ex-lover as she learns about an entire new world of queer Spaniards.

You can watch Todo Sobre Mi Madre on Amazon Prime Video and YouTube.

7. Elisa y Marcela

This film is based on the true story of the first gay marriage in Spain. Taking place in 1901, the film follows Elisa and Marcela as they try to get their love solidified under the power of Holy Matrimony. While Elisa y Marcela hasn’t received the best reviews from critics, it is still an in depth look at some of the events surrounding the notorious marriage and provides a great way to practice your Spanish.

You can watch Elisa y Marcela on Netflix.

8. Bonus: Gun Hill Road

While this film isn’t in Spanish, it is a fantastic glimpse into Bronx Latinx life. The film follows Enrique as he adjusts back to life after prison and living with his trans daughter, Vanessa. Its storyline has been critiqued as being a touch cliche at times, but the film is praised for providing a slice of life on what it’s like to live in the Bronx, using Vanessa to shed light on the experiences of trans women of color. 

You can rent Gun Hill Road on Amazon Prime Video.

Some Spanish Vocab to Help You Talk About Movies

La película - Film

El cine - Movie theater (Also “film” informally in the US)

El argumento - Plot

El personaje - Character

El escenario - Setting

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Thanks for Reading!

Have any other LGBTQIA+ Spanish-Language films that you love? Comment their names below!

Thumbnail photo by Photo by Corina Rainer

Posesiones and the Importance of Pronouns

A look at Sebastián Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman

By JP Linguistics

Sebastían Lelio is a Chilean director known for directing films such as Gloria, Disobedience, and A Fantastic Woman. Each film is a carefully meticulous character study of the societal mistreatment towards women. In Sebastían Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman, the way one addresses another holds significant and lasting weight.

In Lelio’s work, there are always outsiders encroaching onto the female protagonists as they themselves are battling through internal conflicts. In A Fantastic Woman, Marina, played by Chilean trans actress Daniela Vega, is a talented singer who has reached the honeymoon stage in her relationship with Orlando. Nights dancing. Birthday dinners. Spontaneous road trips. Ultimate bliss. All this shifts when her lover, Orlando, who is significantly older, begins to feel sick in the middle of the night. As they rush to the hospital, it’s too late – He’s gone. However, Marina cannot mourn her partner’s loss, as her lover’s family decides that her presence is an offense to them.

Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classic

For Marina, all she wants is to be at her lover’s funeral, but outside elements prevent it from being possible. In the hospital, as she is suffocating under the shock of losing Orlando, a police officer asks to see her I.D. Despite presenting herself as Marina, he insists that her card says otherwise. As he begins to question her, he uses gendered words towards her such as, ‘lo’ and ‘el.’ The doctor barely acknowledges her, and Orlando’s brother is scared to approach her. Lelio makes it a key point that any character that is in direct conflict with Marina undermines her by using the language as their weapon. 

Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classic

Newly settled in at Orlando’s apartment, Marina is startled by an uninvited intrusion from Orlando’s son, Bruno. Bruno purposely calls her ‘Marisa’ as he barges in to claim both the apartment and Orlando’s dog, Diabla. As Marina tries to explain that Orlando gave Diabla to her, Bruno doesn’t attempt to correct himself. He spews hateful insults towards her and continues to call her ‘Marisa.’ Marina, played by Chilean trans actress Daniela Vega, stands her ground. Using language as her weapon, Marina claims her name and prepares to fight. She corrects him one last time as a slamming door is met to his face. Names and pronouns become the battleground in this film.

Recognizing the power of language, Marina comes prepared when she has to hand over Orlando’s car to his ex-wife, Sonia. Each time Marina addresses Sonia, she uses usted, a second person pronoun, as a sign of respect and formality. Sonia tells Marina to ‘drop’ the usted, in her attempt to make the conversation light. The conversation, however, is saturated with thick hatred as Sonia forbids her from attending Orlando’s funeral. 

Confronted in a cold office lobby, this scene creates a disturbing twist in the use of gendered language. The grammatical gender in Spanish has words that are either masculine or feminine. Many nouns endings in –a are treated as feminine, while words ending in –o are masculine. When conjugating, the grammatical gender la is associated as feminine, while el is masculine. For native speakers, it has always been second nature to conjugate according to someone’s gender identity. In the movie, Marina promises to be discreet at the funeral, but Sonia doesn’t care. As Sonia addresses Marina with feminine pronouns to explain to Marina that as a mother, she has to protect her children. She offends Marina further by promising to compensate her financially for all that she’s done. Marina doesn’t understand how she can prevent her from saying goodbye to someone she loved. This outrages Sonia and her language changes as she uses Marina’s dead-name to drive home the fact that Marina is not welcome at the funeral.  A dead-name is the name before she/he/they have transitioned. Marina, fazed yet strong, continues to address Sonia with usted. Even if Sonia can’t respect Marina, Marina will never stoop to her level.

Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classic

Things proceed to get more complicated as Marina returns to Orlando’s apartment to find that Bruno has taken Diabla. His hateful words have turned into impermissible actions. Marina becomes outraged. The film spirals as Marina is wrongfully investigated by the police as she tries to find the whereabouts of both Diabla and Orlando’s funeral. Forget Sonia, it’s Bruno who becomes her ultimate tormentor as she seeks moments of solace in the arms of her sister or by the piano of her voice teacher’s apartment. For that’s one thing that’s been robbed from her – time to mourn her partner’s death. She still sees him everywhere she turns, waiting for her to say her final goodbye. 

Despite these heavy moments of sorrow, Lelio finds time to showcase Marina’s beauty. There are glorious glimpses of Marina dancing in a shimmering coat in a neon-lit club. Marina being pushed against a gust of wind as she falls forward, not backwards. Marina staring at her body with absolute love and adoration. And a final glimpse of Marina, on stage, using the thing that matters the most to her – her voice. 

Watch It For Yourself!

A Fantastic Woman is a great demonstration of how pronouns can be used and abused to greater extents than one may learn in a classroom. A Fantastic Woman can be purchased online across multiple streaming platforms.