Queers and their mothers. Love them, hate them, can’t live with them, can’t live without them. Mothers, with expectations of their social roles heaved upon them, and their children, fight in a world to be seen and understood, and are linked inextricably together. Even clinical psychologist Michael C. LaSala Ph.D., LCSW has observed the trend in his book, “Coming Out, Coming Home: Helping Families Adjust to a Gay or Lesbian Child,” noting, “Closeness between mothers and their gay sons is a stereotype and like all stereotypes, sometimes they ring true.”

It isn’t only sons, as this series suggests. At once rambunctious and resilient, savage and tender, and a microcosm of relationships not as we want them but as they are, parent and queer child dynamics shimmer on film precisely because of their ability to get closer to a human truth more than most familial or relationship dynamics in movies can. From Pedro Almodóvar to Xavier Dolan, these examples from film history show us just how closely the ties between mother and queer child bind.

Series co-curated by film critic and writer, Kyle Turner. More Mothers at Prospect Park.