The Best Films You've Never Seen: Queer Edition

Experience a double feature of defining queer cinema with Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho and Kenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising, as part of the cult series The Best Films You've Never Seen.

Gus Van Sant's haunting and elliptical road movie features two Hollywood stars at their most luminous: River Phoenix as Mike, a narcoleptic hustler working the desolate highways of the American Northwest, and Keanu Reeves as his friend, Scott. Ranked 10th on BFI's list of the greatest LGBTQIA+ films of all time, My Own Private Idaho refigured the representation of queer desire on screen.

Completing the double bill is Kenneth Anger's ferocious short Scorpio Rising. Seized by police on obscenity charges on release, Anger’s film is now considered a landmark of the American Underground and a blueprint for the modern music video.

Filmmaker Patrick Kelly introduces the program, providing context for audiences encountering the works for the first time, or revisiting with fresh eyes.