In honor of Juneteenth and Pride Month, here are five films that center Black queer stories with the nuance and care they deserve.

1. Rafiki (2018)

A tender love story between two young women in Nairobi, Rafiki was so controversial in its home country that it was banned in Kenya for “promoting lesbianism,” a ban the director successfully challenged in court just long enough to qualify the film for Oscar consideration. The film itself is soft, colorful and hopeful.

2. Moonlight (2016)

It is hard to talk about Black queer cinema without mentioning the film that made history as the first LGBTQ film and the first film with an all Black cast to win Best Picture at the Oscars. Moonlight follows a young Black man through three stages of his life as he comes to terms with his identity and his sexuality. It remains one of the most quietly devastating and beautifully shot films of the last decade.

3. Pariah (2011)

Pariah follows Alike, a Brooklyn teenager navigating her sexuality while trying to hold together a family that is not ready to accept her. Dee Rees wrote and directed the film based partly on her own experiences and the result is one of the most honest coming of age stories about Black queer girlhood ever put on screen.

4. Daughters of the Dust (1991)

This one is a bit of a hidden gem. Daughters of the Dust is widely celebrated as a visually stunning portrait of a Gullah family preparing to leave their island home, but the film also carries quiet queer subtext that rarely gets discussed. It was not marketed as a queer film at the time, but watching it now you can clearly see the relationship between Yellow Mary and her lover Trula.

5. The Watermelon Woman (1996)

Made on a budget of less than $300,000, The Watermelon Woman follows a Black lesbian filmmaker researching a forgotten Black actress from the 1930s. Directed by Cheryl Dunye, it was groundbreaking for being one of the first feature films directed by an openly Black lesbian woman and it remains a landmark in queer cinema despite its modest budget.

These five films prove that Black queer love stories have always existed on screen, even when they were not always given the spotlight they deserved.