Live your truth
25 years after Paris is Burning, we dive back into the fierce world of voguing battles in the Kiki scene of New York City, where competition between Houses demands leadership, painstaking practice, and performances on point. A film collaboration between Kiki gatekeeper, Twiggy Pucci Garçon, and Swedish filmmaker Sara Jordenö, we’re granted exclusive access into this high stakes world, where tough competitions act as a gateway into the daily lives of LGBTQ youth of color in NYC. The new generation of ballroom youth use the motto, “Not About us Without Us”. Twiggy and Sara’s insider-outsider approach to their stories breathes fresh life into the representation of a marginalized community who demand visibility and real political power.
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Self (Archive Footage)
29 Jan 2020
Kelet is a twentysomething black trans woman, whose greatest dream is to be on the cover of Vogue magazine. For the Finnish-born and Manchester-raised Kelet, such models as Naomi Campbell and Iman served as role models giving her strength – and during the darkest times, kept her alive. After coming out, then 19-year-old Kelet was cut off from her family and she moved back to Finland on her own.
01 Jan 1995
This is an experimental documentary chronicling the March 1995 groundbreaking conference on lesbian and gay sexualities in the African diaspora. The conference brought together an array of dynamic scholars, activists and cultural workers including Essex Hemphill, Kobena Mercer, Barbara Smith, Urvashi Vaid and Jacqui Alexander to interrogate the economic, political and social situations of diasporic lesbians, gay men, bisexual and transgendered peoples. The video brings together the highlights of the conference and draws connections between popular culture and contemporary black gay media production. The participants discuss various topics: Black and queer identity, the shortcomings of Black nationalism, and homophobia in Black communities. Drawing upon works such as Isaac Julien's "The Attendant" and Jocelyn Taylor's "Bodily Functions", this documentary illuminates the importance of this historic conference for Black lesbians and gays.
13 Mar 1991
Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Made over seven years, PARIS IS BURNING offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion "houses," from fierce contests for trophies to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia, transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women — including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza.
25 Jun 2021
The intimate journey and unpublished backstory of BeBe Zahara Benet – a charismatic drag performer originally from Cameroon, and the very first winner of the culture-changing phenomenon, RuPaul’s Drag Race. With over a decade of unprecedented access, we observe BeBe’s struggles with celebrity, authenticity, success, and failure.
10 Nov 2019
Maurice Hines, a charming, gay African-American entertainer navigates the complications of show business while grieving the loss of his more famous, often estranged younger brother, tap dance legend Gregory Hines.
13 Apr 2008
This documentary is about the perspectives and lives of black lesbians from assorted backgrounds.
26 Apr 2015
Game Face shows the quest to self-realization of LGBT athletes and the acceptance in society. The film follows athletes during their coming out process, and sheds light on the obstacles LGBT sports players deal with throughout their career.
29 Sep 1967
Interview with Jason Holliday aka Aaron Payne. House-boy, would-be cabaret performer, and self-proclaimed hustler giving one man's gin-soaked, pill-popped view of what it was like to be black and gay in 1960s United States. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Milestone Films in 2013.
01 Jun 1994
African-American documentary filmmaker Marlon Riggs was working on this final film as he died from AIDS-related complications in 1994; he addresses the camera from his hospital bed in several scenes. The film directly addresses sexism and homophobia within the black community, with snippets of misogynistic and anti-gay slurs from popular hip-hop songs juxtaposed with interviews with African-American intellectuals and political theorists, including Cornel West, bell hooks and Angela Davis.
17 Mar 2023
An inspiring love story about a self-described “poor, gay, black man from North Philly” on his historic run for the United States Senate. But this race is about more than taking on the political competition. It’s about taking on an entire system.
22 May 2018
From adoption and homelessness to navigating relationships and overcoming self-harm, the four transmen in MAN MADE all have something else in common: they are all bodybuilders. Through the lens of FTMFitCon, the world’s only FTM bodybuilding competition, we delve into the lives of Dominic, Rese, Mason, and Kennie as they define what it means to be a man while contextualizing that definition through the social, racial, and economic realities of their lives. For the men of MAN MADE, it’s not about winning—it’s about stepping on stage and being seen for everything they are.
20 Jan 2003
Documentary on Bayard Rustin, best-remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.
21 Jul 2019
The lives of three LGBTQ homeless youths who congregate on Christopher St. in New York City.
16 Mar 1990
Marlon Riggs, with assistance from other gay Black men, especially poet Essex Hemphill, celebrates Black men loving Black men as a revolutionary act. The film intercuts footage of Hemphill reciting his poetry, Riggs telling the story of his growing up, scenes of men in social intercourse and dance, and various comic riffs, including a visit to the "Institute of Snap!thology," where men take lessons in how to snap their fingers: the sling snap, the point snap, the diva snap.
No overview found
21 Dec 2017
A glance at the queer universe throughout vogue battles, an emerging street subculture in which gay, transgender and other LGBTQ people take the lead. The film sheds light on the movement and on the expressiveness of the bodies, while stepping into the space of dance – from the backstage to the stage –, exalting diversity and the LgBT culture.
05 May 2022
A documentary relating to a video of the Grand Street Ball of 1988, held by Patricia Field and the House of Field. The film explores the relationships and connections between the music and culture of the Paradise Garage with the ball culture of the mid 1980's, driven by the participants' need to belong, each working, dancing, and surviving together despite the epic sweep of larger societal conflicts of the time. They are featured in present day interviews, along side 1980's archival photography and film, and iconic music representative of the theme, bridging this piece of history to the present day by the passion that lives on.
15 Jan 1997
Bill Moyers and filmmaker David Grubin give viewers a rare glimpse into dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones’s highly acclaimed dance Still/Here. At workshops around the country, people facing life-threatening illnesses are asked to remember the highs and lows of their lives, and even imagine their own deaths. They then transform their feelings into expressive movement, which Jones incorporates into the dance performed later in the program. For this documentary, Jones demonstrates the movements of his own life story: his first encounter with white people, confusion over his sexuality, his partner Arnie Zane’s untimely death from AIDS, and Jones’s own HIV-positive status.
07 Jun 2019
Ninja is famous around the world for her fierce ballroom performances, but she is not as well-known in her native country of French Guyana. But a trip home to teach a workshop might change that.
08 Aug 2014
Gay women living in the Deep South of the United States share stories of the bigotry, sexism, intimidation, and racism that confronts them in a part of the country known for its culture of Christian conservatism.