GLBTQ Documentaries

Synopsis: The first feature-length documentary about lesbian and gay identity made by gay filmmakers, WORD IS OUT impacted audiences around the world in 1978 by destroying stereotypes of the gay experience. A crew of San Francisco-based filmmakers interviews twenty-six homosexuals, who comprise a sample of American society: women and men, liberals and conservatives, civilians and military officers, students and professionals - all across the subdivisions of class, ethnicity and race. Though their individual stories carry singular insights, they reflect the joys, miseries, hopes and fears with which anyone who is human can identify.

The trailer (which is actually the trailer for the 2008 re-mastered version, but you get the idea)

Synopsis: Winner of the 1984 Academy Award for best documentary, this is the moving and ultimately life-affirming portrait of the first openly gay man elected to political office in California. Milk's tremendous courage and humanity, as he fought for the civil rights of all people, soars above the prejudices of his day. The film chronicles the successes of his life, the tragedy of his assassination, and the uproar which greeted Dan White's infamous "Twinkie Defense."

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Synopsis: In 1969 the patrons of the Stonewall Inn in New York City’s Greenwich Village decided to fight back, transforming a routine police raid into three nights of rioting which marked the beginning of the Gay Liberation movement. BEFORE STONEWALL examines the historical background to this sudden burst of political energy - from the social experimentation of the Roaring Twenties, to the discovery of the true size of this hidden society during World War II, to the scapegoating of homosexuals during the McCarthy era, to the development of the early homophile rights movement - providing an informative and engaging portrait of the history of homosexual experience in America.

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Synopsis: PARIS IS BURNING is a documentary about the Harlem drag balls thrown by predominantly inner city black and Latino gay men and transgender women in the mid-1980s. The film features footage of the actual "drag" pageants, as well as interviews with ball participants, who describe their backgrounds and dreams, and the intricacies of their rich and detailed dialect. A fascinating look at the complexities of this elaborate subculture.

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Synopsis: THANK GOD I'M A LESBIAN is an uplifting and entertaining documentary about the diversity of lesbian identities. Lesbians from all walks of life speak frankly and articulately about issues ranging from coming out, racism, bisexuality, and SM, to the evolution of the feminist and lesbian movements, outing and compulsory heterosexuality.

The trailer:

Synopsis: Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's documentary chronicles the way movies have portrayed homosexuals for the past 100 years and how these images, both positive and negative, have helped shape America's attitudes toward gays. Among the topics examined via interviews and film clips are the various gay stereotypes that recur onscreen, gay subtexts in such macho films as SPARTACUS and BEN-HUR, and how negative images of homosexuality created emotional conflict within the gay moviegoer. But the film also shows how the times have greatly changed, bringing more - and more realistic - gay characters to the silver screen.

The trailer:

Synopsis: This documentary covers the story of a Nebraska triple homicide, beginning with the birth of Teena Brandon, a woman who later made a change of both name and gender. In December 1993, Brandon moved to Falls City, began dating a woman, passed a bad check, and was booked under his real name. When locals learned of his true nature, they were so outraged that they beat and raped him on Christmas Eve. After Brandon filed a complaint, he was found dead on New Year's Eve, along with two other victims.

The trailer:

Synopsis: This sequel to BEFORE STONEWALL documents the history of gay and lesbian life from the riots at Stonewall in 1969 to the present. Narrated by Melissa Etheridge, the film explains the work, struggles, victories, and defeats the gay community has weathered to become a vibrant and integral part of American society.

The trailer:

Synopsis: A documentary about transgender issues at the end of the millennium in California's Bay Area, brought to you by German director Monika Treut. Featuring interviews with a wide variety of individuals, GENDERNAUTS treats transgenderism with an uncritical, sympathetic eye, resulting in a film that is enlightening as well as entertaining

The trailer:

Synopsis: OFF THE STRAIGHT & NARROW is the first in-depth documentary to cast a critical eye over the growth of gay images on TV. Media scholars provide the historical and cultural context for exploring the social implications of these new representations, challenging viewers to consider the value and limits of available gay images: who is represented, what they get to say, and how people respond to them.

The trailer:

Synopsis: PARAGRAPH 175 is a documentary about the 10-15,000 German men who were arrested because of their homosexuality between the years 1933-1945 during World War II. Some of the men were sent to concentration camps to be killed; an estimated 4,000 survived. PARAGRAPH 175 tells the tragic story and includes interviews with seven of only nine living survivors.

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Synopsis: SOUTHERN COMFORT follows the final year in the life of Robert Eads, a 52-year-old female to male transsexual who lives in the back hills of Georgia. He was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, then turned away by more than two dozen doctors who feared that taking on a transgendered patient might harm their practice.

The trailer:

Synopsis: DADDY & PAPA is a documentary that explores the personal, cultural and political ramifications of the growing number of gay men who are making a decision that is at once traditional and revolutionary: to become dads. Taking viewers inside four gay male families, DADDY & PAPA explores the many unique issues that these families face: the ambiguous place of interracial families in America; the wonder and precariousness of surrogacy and adoption; the complexities of marriage and divorce within the gay community; and the legality of gay parenthood.

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Synopsis: DANGEROUS LIVING examines the struggles and triumphs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the Global South. Featured locations include Africa, India, Vietnam, and Honduras among others.

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Synopsis: Over the course of five years, this documentary looks at the lives of six New York City lesbian studs who "dress like a dude" and often pass as men. To be an Aggressive is to be a butch and masculine lesbian, blurring the lines of gender, but not interested in actually being a man. Think you figured out transgendered identities and female-masculinity? THE AGGRESSIVES will challenge every notion you thought was safe.

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Synopsis: Pink or blue. Male or Female. Mommy or Daddy. Categories that we all take for granted are blown wide open in TRANSPARENT, a documentary film about 19 female-to-male transsexuals living in the United States who have given birth and, in all but a few stories, gone on to raise their biological children.

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Synopsis: BOY I AM looks at the experiences of three transgender men - Nicco, Norie and Keegan - following them throughout some major events of their transitions, including starting testosterone and getting chest surgery. The film also includes feminists, lesbians, activists and theorists voicing their opinions and questions about trans issues.

The trailer:

Synopsis: Gay, lesbian, and transgender filmmakers, actors, and critics explore the history of queer cinema, from the experimental films of the 40s and 50s to the AIDS-themed films of the 80s, the "New Queer Cinema" of the 90s, and the filmmakers of today.

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Synopsis: Director Elaine Epstein's captivating documentary explores the shattering of the confines of traditional gender identities by individuals who define themselves not as male or female, but something in between. Jill, who comfortably identifies as gender-queer, faces the challenge of coming out to family. Kim wants to undergo top surgery but must also address the effect the surgery will have on her relationship with her girlfriend Michelle. Lauren encounters confrontations from the gay community in Lauren's conservative home town regarding Lauren's gender-fluid identity and must decide whether to stay or move to another city.

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Synopsis: With gay marriage as one of the most divisive topics in today's political arena, it is clear the fight for equal rights is far from over, and nowhere is this more evident than in small towns in the Deep South. Homosexuals in these communities lack the social outlets of their cosmopolitan brethren. However, in the face of cruelty, ridicule, and even violence, they manage to find sanctuary in the only place they are offered within hundreds of miles – gay bars. Small town gay bar presents an intimate portrait of these establishments and the patrons who inhabit them. What resonates throughout the film is the gratefulness the patrons feel for these bars. What happens there is much more than drinking, dancing, and merriment (although there is plenty of that); more importantly, they create a "family."

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Synopsis: Parvez Sharma's compassionate and moving exploration of Islam and homosexuality talks to men and women of the Muslim faith who are courageous and defiant about their sexuality and choice of lifestyle.

The trailer:

Synopsis: Transsexualism is not a mental illness. Male and female are not the only exclusively valid gender identities. Pigeonholing is akin to terror. The protagonists of BINDING WORDS are radical trans and intersex activists who regularly challenge “unquestioned” conventional standards and analyze the origins of oppression and repression, which the trans and intersex community still face.

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Synopsis: Dan Karslake's provocative, entertaining documentary brilliantly reconciles homosexuality and Biblical scripture, and in the process reveals that Church-sanctioned anti-gay bias is based almost solely upon a significant (and often malicious) misinterpretation of the Bible.

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Synopsis: Lieutenant Laurel Hester is dying. All she wants to do is leave her pension benefits to her life partner - Stacie, so Stacie can afford to keep their house. Laurel is told no; they are not husband and wife. After spending a lifetime fighting for justice for other people, Laurel - a veteran New Jersey detective - launches a final battle for justice. FREEHELD chronicles a dying policewoman's bitter fight to provide for the love of her life.

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Synopsis: QUEER STREETS is a short documentary that takes a look at the reality of life on the street for kids with three strikes against them: They’re young. They’re gay. They’re homeless. Queer youth make up approximately 20 to 50 percent of the 20,000 homeless young people in New York City. Homophobia, poverty and mental illness put them on the streets, where they struggle with violence, drugs, sex work and daily life in the youth shelter system.

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Synopsis: Using interviews, animation, old family footage, and voice mail, Vancouver filmmaker Gwen Haworth documents her male-to-female gender transition partially through the voices of her anxious but loving family, best friend, and wife. Haworth's feature debut is a comic, heartbreaking, and uplifting autobiography that breaks away from the marginalized depictions of transsexuals that populate mainstream media and focuses on the interpersonal relationships of a family who unexpectedly find their bonds strengthening as they overcome their preconceptions of gender and sexuality.

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Synopsis: A powerful documentary following three years in the lives of two transgender sex workers from Ecuador, living and working in Paris. Mujeron, a former boxer who chose prostitution and a solitary life in order to survive and help her family back home; and Romina, who seems to have made her dreams come true thanks to prostitution: a woman’s body, a housewife’s routine, a small flat and some money. Their paths oscillate between optimism and fatalism, guilt and pride, joyful complicity and lonely distress.

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Synopsis: Blending fiction, nonfiction, and experimental film genres, AGAINST A TRANS NARRATIVE employs a gender-busting combination of intimate diary footage, stylized dramatic scenes, spoken word performance,faux audition tapes, and roundtable interview footage to explore and initiate a dialogue between feminists, queers, and transfolk about the way we construct personal and historical narratives. Careful attention is paid to the ways generation, race, class, and culture impact our understandings of gender.

The trailer:

Synopsis: The iron curtain between gay and straight is crumbling. Recent studies suggest that bisexuality is drastically more widespread than we ever thought. And for young pople, dating a girl one week and a guy the next is no big deal. Journeying through the changing sexual landscape of America, the directors of BI THE WAY investigate the latest scientific reports and social opinions on bisexuality, while following five members of the emerging "whatever generation" - teens and twenty-somethings who seem to be ushering in a new sexual revolution.

The trailer:

Synopsis: A unique collaboration between British artist Isaac Julien and the film's narrator, Tilda Swinton, in which the life, vision and legacy of Derek Jarman is fondly remembered and celebrated. Revealing, frank and charismatic interview footage is combined with a moving collage of home-movie footage, film extracts, pop promos, rare on-set footage and current affairs footage from the 60s to the 80s.

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Synopsis: A couple engage in discussions with people on the street, politicians and religious leaders about the discrimination against gays and lesbians in Italy.

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Synopsis: CITY OF BORDERS follows the daily lives of the Israeli bar owner and four Israeli and Palestinian patrons as they navigate the minefield of politics, religion and discrimination to live and love openly. Set against the construction of the separation wall between Israel and the Palestinian territories and the struggle for a gay pride parade in Jerusalem, these four inter-woven stories reveal the contradictions and complexity of the struggle for acceptance.

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Synopsis: After 42 years, feisty and delightful lesbian couple Edie and Thea are finally getting married. From the early '60s to the present day, the tireless community activists persevere through many battles, both personal and political. As Edie says "We just went on with this talent we have for wrestling joy from the shit."

The trailer

Synopsis: Director John Greyson’s operatic tour-de-force smashes conventional barriers of form and genre to reinvent the documentary. The protagonists of FIG TREES are two of the patron saints of AIDS activism: Tim McCaskell, a founder of the Canadian AIDS Action Now, and Zackie Achmat, who went on a treatment strike, refusing to take anti-retroviral drugs until they were made generally available in South Africa. The story is a grand-scale narrative of personal heroism in the face of evil as personified by politicians and pharmaceutical company executives, with millions of lives hanging in the balance. The result is a postmodern pastiche of palindromes, queer history, music history, and Catholic theology. Riffing off another famously queer opera, Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson’s FOUR SAINTS IN THREE ACTS, the film features a first-rate score by collaborator David Wall.

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Synopsis: When Joe Wilson married his husband in Washington DC he put a wedding announcement in the newspaper of his small hometown in rural Pennsylvania. The ad was met with an outpour of hate. However, amongst the abuse there came a cry for help in the form of a letter from Kathy Springer, the mother of CJ, a sixteen year old high school boy who was being relentlessly persecuted just for being gay. Wondering how his hometown has changed in the twenty-five years since he left, Joe returns to see the place where he grew up and the boy in need of his guidance. With camera in hand, Joe and his husband/filmmaking partner Dean Hamer, begin to document CJ’s struggle to live as who he is in the place he calls home.

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Synopsis: This self-described "transfabulous rockumentary" highlights transgender and gender variant musicians from across the U.S. and Canada. Bands and musicians speak candidly and at length about coping and adjusting to changes in vocal pitch and range while taking hormones, performing and choosing venues, understanding trans identities as political as well as personal identities, passing, not passing and gender presentation on stage. The film culminates with the notions that identities and bodies are undeniably political, and that the trans experience isn't always one of tragedy, but one of creativity and joy.

The trailer:

Synopsis: Identifiable by their full figures, natural hairiness, and masculine demeanor, the community known as bears can easily be described as double-outsiders. Their attraction to other men sets them apart from mainstream culture while their embracing of added pounds and body hair puts them at odds with the gay community that often idolizes slender, smooth forms. So where do ‘Bears’ fit in? The answer may be everywhere and nowhere, but as Malcolm Ingram’s delightful film shows- the bears are here to stay!

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In Uganda, a new bill threatens to make homosexuality punishable by death. With unprecedented access, the filmmakers follow David Kato - Uganda's first openly gay man - and his fellow activists as they work against the clock to defeat the legislation while combatting vicious persecution in their daily lives. But no one, not even the filmmakers are prepared for the brutal murder that shakes their movement to the its core and sends shock waves around the world. CALL ME KUCHU depicts the last year in the life of a courageous, quick-witted and steadfast man whose wisdom and achievements were not fully recognized until after his death, and whose memory has inspired a new generation of human rights advocates.

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