Movies for LGBT Pride Month

One of the most entertaining ways to celebrate LGBT Pride Month is by watching some of the fabulous LGBT movies and TV shows here on Netflix, all available to watch instantly.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Weekend, the surprisingly tender and honest story of a one-night stand that stretches into an eye, and heart, opening weekend for two Englishmen.

For a look at young love this side of the pond, the festival darling Latter Days follows the unexpectedly romantic story of two West Hollywood neighbors – one a conservative Mormon missionary, the other an unapologetic party boy. Keep a close eye out for Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s memorable cameo.

Another “opposites attract” story, the critically acclaimed WWII drama Aimee and Jaguar chronicles the doubly forbidden relationship between a female Jewish journalist and a Nazi officer’s wife in bomb-riddled 1943 Berlin.

Also one to watch is the subtle and moving A Marine Story, inspired by the true “don’t ask, don’t tell” experiences of women discharged from the US military. Dreya Weber delivers a pitch-perfect performance as a female soldier returning home from Iraq who finds meaning mentoring a troubled teenage girl preparing for boot camp.

Switching from combat boots to stilettos…before there was RuPaul’s Drag Race, there was Jennie Livingston’s Paris is Burning – the seminal documentary chronicling the raucous underground ball scene in New York City in the late 80’s. At times hilarious, and other times heartbreaking, the film offers an unprecedented and unmatched glimpse into a tight-knit and multi-faceted world of queer expression that defiantly sashayed in the face of adversity.

That adversity is at the core of the hard-hitting documentary For the Bible Tells Me So, which examines how religious texts have been used to advocate against gay & lesbian rights – by spiritual leaders to their congregations, by governments to their citizens, by parents to their children. It’s an emotional and at times painful film that reminds us to be proud of how far we’ve come, yet also to remember how far we have still to go.

These are just a few of the fantastic LGBT movies that you can watch instantly on Netflix right now. And look out for more new LGBT movies in the coming months!

Tamara Rothenberg and Brian Kendig, Indie Content Acquisition

Superhero Summer!

There’s no time of year better than summer to lose yourself in some great, big Hollywood popcorn movies and Netflix has an incredible line up of superhero blockbusters coming for the whole family to enjoy. Starting today, Netflix members can watch Thor, the mythological protector of mankind, throw down the hammer against his arch-foe Loki. In a few weeks, Optimus Prime and the Autobots will arrive in Transformers: Dark of the Moon and in July, Netflix members can watch in awe as epic battles between good and evil are waged by Conan, the fierce Cimmerian warrior, in Conan the Barbarian and by Theseus, a mortal man chosen by Zeus to protect humanity, in Immortals. Later that month, Captain America, the shield wielding patriotic defender, joins our cast of superheroes in Captain America: The First Avenger.

It’s going to be a great summer!

Pauline Fischer, VP Content Acquisition

Announcing the Netflix Open Connect Network

Around the world, people are enjoying nearly a billion hours per month of movies and TV shows from Netflix.  We’ve been delivering these petabytes of data exclusively through commercial content delivery networks.  

Now, in addition to these general-purpose commercial CDNs, we are enabling ISPs to get Netflix video data from Open Connect, a single-purpose Netflix content delivery network we’ve established.  The world’s other major Internet video provider, YouTube, has long had its own content delivery network. Given our size and growth, it now makes economic sense for Netflix to have one as well.  We’ll continue to work with our commercial CDN partners for the next few years, but eventually most of our data will be served by Open Connect.

Like commercial CDNs, Open Connect will provide the Netflix data at no cost to the locations the ISP desires, or ISPs can choose to get the Netflix data at common internet exchanges.   About 5% of Netflix data is already being served by Open Connect. Interested ISPs can find full details at: openconnect.netflix.com.  

As part of Open Connect, we are also sharing our hardware design and the open source software components of the server.  These cost-efficient designs are suitable for any high-volume provider of large media files.  We welcome commentary and improvements, which will be shared with the community with the goal of a faster, less expensive Internet for all.

Ken Florance

Ken Florance is Vice President of Content Delivery at Netflix