Desert Hearts

Desert Hearts (1985) is an American drama and romance you can watch online on iFILM. Directed by Donna Deitch, this 91-minute film was one of the first Hollywood-adjacent releases to tell a lesbian love story without punishment, without apology, and without looking away.

Reno, 1959. Vivian Bell, a buttoned-up literature professor, arrives in Nevada for a quick divorce and ends up at a ranch full of women doing the same — all of them waiting for a judge to dissolve a marriage. She meets Cay: younger, bolder, operating entirely outside the rules Vivian has lived by. Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau play the growing pull between them with patience and heat, against a backdrop of neon, dust and rock-and-roll radio.

Deitch spent years raising the money to make the film independently, and the result outlasted every obstacle. Stream Desert Hearts (1985) online on iFILM.