Like many people, I was born gay. Since I never heard the word at home and led an intensely preoccupied life of the imagination, I was unable to know it. It manifested primarily in an attachment to my little toy diver and a desire to be a dancing sailor. But by the time I was 8 or 9 my fears of monsters, my fascination with abstract art and women — and my squeamishness towards intimacy — had turned me straight.

However, my artistic engagement with the world of psyche and libido would be on the same frontier as the gay movement — knocking down taboos against creative passion, celebrating ingenuity and portraying romantic transgressions. I was somewhat excluded by a naive and apolitical agenda that, to my surprise, registered to the public as alternately respectful and disrespectful of all relationships. What I had was a firm grip on the imagery of emotions and a knack for putting my foot in it. This would not get me far in the world of sex, but it was great for film-making.

Now with the expanding code of what constitutes “proper” behaviour, I can indulge my fondness for freedom and my solidarity with the outsider by seeing gay films. I can see attractive and talented people of both sexes in sometimes good, sometimes inspirational and sometimes mediocre films. The sense of risk-taking in the gay community is very developed, so the scripts are often wildly imaginative, unique and interesting. And it’s good to participate in the sense of permission and inclusion that permeates a gay film festival — the gay world is a markedly tolerant one. Being among gays, lesbians and trannies can appeal to certain straights such as me, just as staying out after curfew might — it’s delirious relief and a chance to observe human nature in bold relief.

Which is why I invite you to attend the Pout Film Festival of “queer cinema” at the ICA and Curzon Soho cinemas during London Pride Week, until Monday. Classic historical documentaries such as Before Stonewall and The Celluloid Closet, which examines the subtext of more than 100 Hollywood images, take their controversial place beside British cult classics such as The Killing of Sister George , as dramatic and camp with time’s passage as Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Dream Boy stars young Max Roeg, the son of my old pals Nic Roeg and Teresa Russell. Greek Pete is a docudrama about London rent boys. Hustler White, about the “seedy and needy” of LA, is an old-fashioned love story about a country singer, a masochist, a dominatrix and an amputee fetishist. There’s the German Summerstorm, the French wartime drama A Love to Hide, the Cannes sensation Tropical Malady from Thailand and the Oscar- winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, on whose facts the recent Sean Penn film was based.

As a tribute to the Pout Festival, I put on my own mini DVD festival of “queer” films (men, women, transsexuals and transvestites). A random selection, but isn’t it accepted wisdom that film preference is not a lifestyle choice, but in the DNA?

To Die For (or Heaven’s a Drag) — utter trash, but a British cult classic. A man haunts his male lover by interrupting any new affairs. Lots of bitching but a good comic premise.

Longtime Companion — a classic by Craig Lucas, moving, powerful and as good as film-making gets; it won Bruce Davison an Oscar nomination and puts a discerning and human face on the Aids tragedy.

Chuck and Buck — this tale of the divergent life paths of boyhood friends is full of surprises. It starts off with some unpleasant stalking behaviour, but holds the attention with fantastic performances and writing. Buck’s play-within-a-movie is sublime comedy.

Almost Normal — gay professor gets transported back in time to his youthful high-school self, except that it’s an alternate reality where everyone is gay — his mum, dad, the teens and teachers, except for a few deviants derided as “breeders” and “hole-punchers”. Our young gay hero captures the teen athlete of his dreams but finds himself unexpectedly sexually attracted to a woman. The plot twists keep coming.

After Stonewall — an eloquent documentary, the sequel to Before Stonewall, showing at Pout. It clarifies the transformations in the gay pride movement in the decades since the 1969 riots in Greenwich Village that began it all.

The Lost Language of Cranes — moving, flawless, painful portrait of a marriage in breakdown and a son’s coming out. Exquisite writing. The brilliant actors Brian Cox and Eileen Atkins shine. The director John Schlesinger makes a distinguished cameo.

Flawless — Robert DeNiro and Philip Seymour Hoffman in an inspiring, well-acted tragicomic tale about a homophobic ex-cop forced by a stroke to accept therapeutic singing lessons from his outrageous drag-queen neighbour.

How are gays portrayed in cinema? I’ve seen an ocean of lisping and limp wrists between the early Boys in the Band and the stoic studs of Brokeback Mountain. There have been knife-wielding lesbian killers such as Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct and sensitive young men in need of a “cure”, as in Tea and Sympathy. There have been compassionate, transcendent portrayals in great movies such as Midnight Cowboy and Boys Don’t Cry. There have been exquisite comic turns, as in Torch Song Trilogy and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

My favourite “gay-friendly” films will always be my own, of course: The Music Lovers, Women in Love, The Rainbow. It’s a heart thing. Love — it’s so gay.

The Pout Film Festival runs until Monday at the ICA Cinema, SW1 (020-7930 3647), and the Curzon Soho, W1 (0871 7033988)

Explore Film

• Film Reviews

• Trailers

• DVD

• London Film Festival

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010