Best movies like The Extremists' Opera

A young black lesbian filmmaker probes into the life of The Watermelon Woman, a 1930s black actress who played 'mammy' archetypes.

A prudish woman working on tenure as a literacy professor at a large urban university finds herself attracted to a free-spirited, liberal woman who works at a local carnival.

A feisty young woman returns to Glasgow to run her deceased father's curry house.

Nathalie and Louise are friends from childhood. While studying drama at University Louise becomes hopelessly obsessed with her friend. Jealous of the male friends she has she breaks up the friendship, followed by a suicide attempt. Later, Louise marries, but finds time to see the, by now quite accomplished actress, Nathalie. They fight through the years, La Repetition following them as their friendship comes together and breaks up frequently, while never actually reaching anything that can be called a climax.

Keiko is a 23-year-old lonely virgin who lives in a tiny room, and hopes to meet someone in the cafe she frequents. After a bad affair with one of the other diners, she vows to give up men. She then begins a happy lesbian relationship with her co-worker Kazuyo. However she is under constant pressure from her father to marry.

Claude and Ellen are best friends who live in a not-so-nice area of New York. They're involved in the subculture of 90s youth, complete with drugs, live music, and homophobia. All is changed one night when a violent and meaningless death rocks their lives.

An unhappily married housewife and mother of two children seperates from her husband and gets a new job where she developes a mutual attraction to her female boss.

Two real-life lesbian actresses meet by chance when they are cast as lovers in a local stage play, and end up actually falling in love. Robin, who is married to her girlfriend for half a dozen years, and Lacie, someone who never had a lasting relationship, are both cast to play lesbian lovers in a Los Angeles stage play. Innocently, the stage director, Gabriel runs the actresses through a series of rehearsals designed to "bring out the intimacy" in each performer. Soon the two women find themselves increasingly and undeniably attracted to each other and overcome with desire. They must ask themselves whether this relationship is manufactured, created for the sake of the "girl play", or is true love.

Dr. Jean Markham returns to the town she left as a teenager to take over her late father's medical practice. When a school-yard scuffle lands Charlie in her surgery, she invites him to visit the hives in her garden and tell his secrets to the bees, as she once did. The new friendship between the boy and the bee keeper brings his mother Lydia into Jean's world.

The wife of a pastor who preaches against homosexuality embarks on an affair with a female writer.

A Chinese-American lesbian and her traditionalist mother are reluctant to go public with secret loves that clash against cultural expectations.

A drama centered on two women who engage in a dangerous relationship during South Africa's apartheid era.

A 20-something woman goes back to her hometown for the holidays for the first time in several years and is not only met with people from her past, but she's forced to deal with unresolved feelings too.

Tala, a London-based Palestinian, is preparing for her elaborate Middle Eastern wedding when she meets Leyla, a young British Indian woman who is dating her best friend. Spirited Christian Tala and shy Muslim Leyla could not be more different from each other, but the attraction is immediate and goes deeper than friendship. But Tala is not ready to accept the implications of the choice her heart has made for her and escapes back to Jordan, while Leyla tries to move on with her new-found life, to the shock of her tradition-loving parents. As Tala's wedding day approaches, simmering tensions come to boiling point and the pressure mounts for Tala to be true to herself.

Vicky, an out-of-work actress, struggling waitress and lesbian has her whole life thrown into turmoil when her father comes from Germany to visit. The main problem is that Vicky has told him she is a successful actress and happily married. She enlists the help of a gay friend to play her husband. Using a large range of characters—gay, lesbian, straight, transsexuals—the film creates a funny and touching view of family dynamics and sexuality.

A grieving upper class woman becomes a "Lady Visitor" at Millbank prison, hoping to escape her troubles and be a guiding figure in the lives of the female prisoners. Of all her friendships with prisoners, she is most fascinated by Selina - a medium.

High School basketball coach, Dinah Groshardt, falls for the school secretary, Carly Lumpkin, and upsets the entire school in the process.

Old college chums get together for a weekend reunion that is bound to open old wounds and perhaps heal them. New romances find a spark while old ones rekindle.

A film within a film that explores love in all its painful and messy glory. Six months ago Zoe and Mal fell for each other while filming a love scene, which led to an intense, whirlwind affair, followed by a devastating breakup. Soon after their split, things get complicated when the two have to meet on set once more to re-shoot that fateful sequence.

Blaming herself for a tragic accident, Raven Michaels secludes herself at a remote family cabin. She wanders the woods on the verge of a breakdown, seeking peace in isolation. In a last ditch attempt to save her family, Kate Royce takes her two teenagers camping far from the distractions of technology and young romance. When Raven and Kate's worlds collide they offer each other unexpected opportunities for intimacy and healing.

Ambrosia is the story of an Iranian-Canadian couple, Ali and Leila, who dream of an exciting future in Vancouver: Ali owns a pizza shop and thinks of expanding and Leila is an up-and-coming clothing designer. However, their situations change dramatically when Ali's shop is affected by bad economy and Leila is hired to work at a fashion design firm.

Claire of the Moon is set in the 1990s in the Pacific Northwest. Claire Jabrowski, a famous heterosexual author, decides to attend a retreat for all-female writers. Claire's rommate at the retreat is Dr. Noel Benedict, author of a book called The Naked Truth. The movie culminates in a sexual encounter between the two authors.

Two friends reunite in after ten years and one has a secret waiting to come out.

A former child actress attends college in search of independence and ends up becoming romantically involved with a female professor. Their relationship thrives until an opportunity to return to acting forces her to make life-altering decisions.

Dr. Finn Jeffries plays a new stepmother to her deceased lover's daughter Zelly. She also took over her lover's abortion clinic that is being protested by increasingly violent "pro-lifer's".

A talented, but distracted photographer, Lola, on the verge of success in both love and work, could lose it all if she doesn't make it to a crucial meeting on time. But, as usual, Lola is late. With her job and girlfriend on the line, she has three chances to make it right. In a desperate race through the streets and back rooms of San Francisco, time grows short-will Lola make it? Will she come at all? With a pop sensibility that mixes live action, animation and still photography, And Then Came Lola explores love's age old question in a fresh new way, "If you try, try again, will you finally get it right?" (Written by M. Siler and E. Seidler)

A self-proclaimed "ex-lesbian," Jill hunts down her ex-girlfriend Jamie to prove to herself that she is no longer attracted to her. "Heterosexual Jill" is a satire about sexuality where nothing is as it seems.

When her inability to commit leads to a breakup with her girlfriend, opera-loving writer Allegra winds up in the bed of amiable professor Philip. He is so smitten with Allegra that he dumps his lover, Grace, and convinces Allegra to continue their affair. When Allegra meets Grace, sparks fly, and she begins a parallel romance, unaware that her new lover is the woman Philip left to be with her.

Jamie is moving in two weeks from Chicago to New York hoping to become a Broadway actress. Her best friend Jessica is bummed because she's not-so-secretly in love with Jamie. As moving day gets closer, Jessica tries to make Jamie jealous by dating other girls. But Jessica's plan backfires, in a way she could never imagine. Set in working class Chicago and infused with musical dance numbers, "Jamie and Jessie are Not Together" is a love letter to those gray areas of love and lust and to the young romances we will never forget.

After suffering with the dire consequences of being in the closet, a group of lesbian friends forge a pact to deal with the dire consequences of coming out.

A shy and troubled photography student's life is illuminated when her voyeuristic nature behind the camera lens leads her to a beautiful and confident girl.

A struggling actress is cast in her last off (off) Broadway show - a modern take on “A Christmas Carol” - before giving up her dream and moving home. Instead, she finds romance with her director and a renewed passion for her craft and the city. But when the historic theater loses its lease and the show is set to fold, she and her cast mates are need of a Christmas miracle.

Stud lesbian JJ works with her gay best friend Seb as wedding photographers. When JJ falls in love with a beautiful diva, JJ and Seb's friendship is tested, and she’s forced to chose between her hot new lover and her best friend.

A Korean theater troupe travels to Greece to rehearse a new production of Aeschylus' Agamemnon. The secluded setting offers a stunning backdrop to the tensions mounting between the lead actress, the domineering director, and various members of the company. BAMcinemaFest alum Ougie Pak (Sunrise/Sunset) lays bare the group dynamics of artmaking and patriarchal power structures, transposing the framework of classic Greek tragedy to a thoroughly modern context.

A family of friends is forever changed when two of the friends realize that their love for one another goes beyond the confines of their conventional relationship.