From Cowboys to Truckers: Latin American Cinema Is Telling Hidden Queer Stories

Held during Pride Month, the Frameline Film Festival celebrated its 50th edition in San Francisco last week. Hailed as the longest-running queer film exhibition in the world, it featured a robust program that included several Latin American movies. I share a review of two features from Frameline's lineup, both from Mexico, in this week's newsletter. But up first are two additional must-see LGBTQ flicks: one to stream at home and one to watch in a theater.

Happy Watching,

— Vanessa

Shot on Super 8 and 35mm, this gritty queer crime thriller tells a transgressive tale of power struggles, betrayal, vengeance, and pulp violence. Actor Milton Gonçalves stars as "The Devil Queen," often donning sparkly eyeshadow and a shiny tiara. Sometimes holding a smoldering cigarette and other times a menacing blade, he uses violence as one tool in his arsenal to hold on to his place at the top of the criminal underworld. His henchmen range from femme hustlers to butch drug dealers and follow his lead when he hatches a plan to find a scapegoat for the missteps of one of his favored fellas. The 4K restoration brings the 1974 Brazilian dictatorship-era release back to theaters.

Playing in theaters in Philadelphia and New York.

This short documentary begins with a gentle voice: "Ever since I was little, I could never be who I wanted to be, because I didn't want to hurt my family." Karyna was born male in Mexico. As a teenager, she came out as gay, but not until she was 45 years old did she begin to identify as a woman. Through quiet moments and poetic voice-overs, she tells her story. Of coming out. Of her struggles with alcohol and her hard-fought sobriety. And of telling her reluctant siblings that, at 50, she wanted a quinceañera with the requisite ball gown. They obliged and helped her organize the lavish party. It's a touching portrait of a late bloomer and coming to terms with who we are.

Streaming on PBS.org and YouTube.

Toxic masculinity leaves all kinds of wreckage in its path. As the impetus behind machismo, misogyny, homophobia, and often physical violence, its victims can be male or female, gay or straight. But the most hyper-masculine environments can, maybe not surprisingly, be particularly damaging to men, especially gay ones.

There's nothing more manly, some would say, than a rugged cowboy in blue jeans and boots atop a bucking bull. In the stylized documentary "Jaripeo" directed by Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig, we get a peek behind the curtain of Mexican rodeos where men secretly (and sometimes openly) desire other men. After the world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this past winter, it's making the rounds on the festival circuit, including last week's Frameline Film Festival in San Francisco.

Penjamillo, in the Mexican state of Michoacán, is where we meet our guide to the queer scene hidden inside the annual bullriding and lassoing competitions. In a quiet, intimate interview from inside his truck, shot from behind, with his face shielded from view and set against the backdrop of dusty mountains seen through his windshield, Mojica invites us to see what it's like to be a young queer ranchero.

The gatherings, known as jaripeos, draw large rowdy crowds who chat, cheer, dance, and throw back plenty of booze. The event opens with a prayer, moves to the main event, bull riding, and closes with a ruckus dance party to the beat of Mexican regional music, with its thumping bass and requisite large horns.

One of the most compelling subjects we meet is Noé, a burly, bearded vaquero who confesses he doesn't have many friends and spends a lot of time with his untamable horse, Dulce. It's not hard to deduce that his isolation is tied to his outwardly hetero-coded appearance clashing with his secret trysts with men in a small town where his fear of being shunned keeps him closeted. In a revealing conversation with Mojica, shot verite-style, he hesitantly delves into his fear of rejection from friends, society, and his family after coming out to his mom. His aching loneliness is palpable.

Noé's feelings of alienation while traipsing through an especially virile, macho setting are mirrored in the slow-burn seductive drama "En el camino" ("On the Road"), directed by David Pablos and produced by Diego Luna. Also part of this year's Frameline program, it's at times brutal, hard-hitting, and violent, yet punctuated by moments of tender romance and forbidden desire. It's both a tale of star-crossed lovers and a dark narco thriller.