“We wanted to show the positive impact that honest portrayals of LGBTQ+ characters can have on queer people”
BY DANIELLE MUSTARDE. IMAGE NETFLIX.
Meet Jess and Sophie, two queer women living in Margate, England – who we’ve just fallen a little bit in love with.
As part of a new series of shorts exploring #QueerNostalgia, Jess and Sophie share personal stories of their most loved lez/bi characters and storylines, classics like Bad Girls, Sugar Rush, Coronation Street, OITNB – “That was rammed full of lesbians” – and of course, The L Word.
“It’s really reassuring to see queer characters living normally, that’s what I think we need more of,” says Sophie, as the pair chat about what they’ve been watching more recently.
The shorts themselves were made by filmmakers Emily McDonald and Christo Geoghegan.
“When we were growing up, there wasn’t much content being made for queer people and what little there was, was often difficult to access,” Emily and Christo told DIVA. “When you don’t see anyone like you on TV, you’re essentially told you that don’t exist.”
“Nowadays with platforms like Netflix, it’s so much easier for LGBTQ+ people to access queer content; long gone are the days of sneaking down to use your family computer to get your solitary fix of gay content in the form of LiveJournal Buffy + Faith queer fanfic entries, before swiftly and expertly deleting your dial-up internet browser history.”
“When Netflix approached us to make these films, we wanted to show the positive impact that honest portrayals of LGBTQ+ characters in TV and film can have on queer people of all ages. Television has the power to affirm the lives and feelings of LGBTQ+ audiences whilst also educating straight cisgender audiences in the process.
“These films are our love letter to queer characters and storylines and the space they hold in our, and the hearts of other LGBTQ+ people, across the UK and Ireland.”
This, the first in the series, is a beautifully made short well worth five minutes of your precious time. (Oh, and if you’re a Clare Balding fan, you’re in for a treat…)
Only reading DIVA online? You’re missing out. For more news, reviews and commentary, check out the latest issue. It’s pretty badass, if we do say so ourselves.
