A gay hustler drama, a voyeuristic Warhol film & an AIDS quilt doc are now officially part of American history
the Library Of Congress has announced that 25 influential movies will be joining the National Film Registry, an archive dedicated to preserving titles deemed to be “of cultural, historic or aesthetic importance to preserve the nation’s film heritage.”Every year since 1988, the organization has selected 25 films for historic preservation, and this year’s crop includes some fascinating picks like bone-chilling horror Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Cheech & Chong’s stoner buddy comedy Up In Smoke, and Facebook origin story The Social Network.Oh, and Spy Kids is also there for some reason—which may sound like a curveball, though you know what?
It is pretty iconic!Spy Kids being inducted into the National Film Registry…it’s about time. ? https://t.co/WKQ43Yuxbu pic.twitter.com/jSWQFztIZGBut, for our purposes, what’s most exciting is the inclusion of three culture-shifting works that have had a major impact on the LGBTQ+ community and beyond: Andy Warhol’s 1966 surreal experimental art film The Chelsea Girls, the 1989 chronicle of the AIDS Memorial Quilt Common Threads, and Gus Van Sant’s 1991 landmark road movie bromance My Own Private Idaho.This trio will be joining other previously selected queer cinema classics like sub-textually gay western Red River, landmark ballroom documentary Paris Is Burning, and Ang Lee’s culture-clash gay rom-com The Wedding Banquet, which was just added last year.
