Queer flick picks: Big Joy, The King of Escape, and more

Everyone wants to be happy in life. But what price are you willing to pay for it?

The biographical documentary Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton previously screened in Vancouver at the 2013 DOXA Film Festival. But if you missed it, now's your chance to catch it again on the big screen on July 20 and 23 at the Cinematheque.

James Broughton was an American filmmaker and poet who touted the message "Follow your weird" and became a pioneering figure in both experimental cinema and the gay rights movement.

While he explored unmitigated ecstasy and a lust for life in his work, the film reveals his dark side, and the impact that had on his loved ones.

Broughton's landmark erotic short film "The Bed" will screen with Big Joy.

If you enjoyed the French art-house thriller Stranger By the Lake that screened earlier this year in Vancouver, one of director Alain Guiraudie's earlier films, The King of Escape (Le roi de l'évasion) from 2009, will be screening July 23, 25, and 27.

Unlike the slow-burn erotic tension of Stranger, The King of Escape is a French comedy-adventure about a middle-aged gay man who falls into a sexual relationship with…a teenage girl. (It happens. Of course, you can always say no to heterosexuality, if you like.) After being caught, the pair go on the run from her father and the police.

Also, Saturday (July 19) is your last chance to catch Alejandro Jodoroswky's surrealist opus The Dance of Reality, also at the Cinematheque, which features a sprinkling of drag and trans side characters, and a dash of homophobia and nudity.

Of course, for a full-meal deal of queer cinema, don't forget that the Vancouver Queer Film Festival is also to come, running from August 14 to 24.