Stephen & James: Best Girlfriends
A love letter to early ’90s cruising in NYC.
A rare look inside Cuba’s LGBT community, this compelling film follows the efforts of Mariela Castro, daughter of President Raúl Castro, as she champions LGBT social reforms and acceptance of diversity.
A love letter to early ’90s cruising in NYC.
A nuanced portrait of a new generation, Dear Thirteen is a cinematic time capsule of coming of age in today’s world. Through the eyes of nine thirteen-year-olds, we see how pressing social, geographical and political challenges are shaping, and being shaped by, young people: rising anti-Semitism in Europe, guns in America, gender identity and racial divisions across Australia and Asia. With no adult commentary outside the filmmaker, Dear Thirteen offers an intimate view into the universal uncertainty inherent in growing up.
Trans-Action tells the story of an extraordinary woman. Anna Grodzka who in 2011 became the first transgender person in the Polish government, and the third transgender member of government in world history, was born in the male body and decided to finally begin her life as a woman only in her 50s. The film documents the most important chapters in this intimate process of transformation. We observe Anna in her daily activities in Warsaw, we witness her intimate conversations with her son and closest friends.
Through the voices of Americans from all walks of life, The Out List explores the identities of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community in America. In this series of intimate interviews, a diverse group of LGBTQ personalities bring color and depth to their experiences of gender and sexuality. With wit and wisdom, this set of trailblazing individuals weaves universal themes of love, loss, trial, and triumph into the determined struggle for full equality.
In 1972, John Wojtowicz attempted to rob a Brooklyn bank to pay for his lover’s sex-change operation. The story was the basis for the film Dog Day Afternoon. The Dog captures John, who shares his story for the first time in his own unique, offensive, hilarious and heartbreaking way. We gain a historic perspective on New York's gay liberation movement, in which Wojtowicz played an active role. In later footage, he remains a subversive force, backed by the unconditional love of his mother Terry, whose wit and charm infuse the film. How and why the bank robbery took place is recounted in gripping detail by Wojtowicz and various eyewitnesses.
Caught between two genders, the artist Eli Leven and Ester Martin Bergsmark touch and caress each other, while they bath together in clouds of steam. A persuasive voice-off describes the often hard and painful growing process, which led them to choose to be neither males nor females. But something else entirely. While memories of adolescences scarred by homophobia and discrimination are presented, the audience is also captivated by poetic evocations of bodies, of snowy woods, water, nature, and snails: the symbol of androgyny. This movie moves the audience profoundly. It is a hymn to sexual fluidity, which reveals the search for the true self, rendered through the use of contrasting, vivid, and often acid bright photography. Intended as a television portrait of the transgender artist Eli Leven, it is a psychedelic docu-fiction, a hybrid movie inspired by Derek Jarman's Sebastian.
A filmed record of the 1978 "Alternative Miss World" beauty pageant held in a circus tent on Clapham Common in South London.
Erik had to leave Jehovah's Witnesses after coming out as homosexual, now he is going to celebrate christmas for the first time.
The memory and testimony of two characters: Fernando García, known as Pinolito, who was a child actor in the seventies and Doña Lilia Ortega, his mother, an actress. Fernando came out as a transvestite, some years ago, and now calls himself Coral Bonelli. They live together in Garibaldi yearning for their past in the movies, while Coral bravely comes to terms with her gender identity. They both still perform.
How did Hollywood pitch movies about gays and lesbians between 1956 and 1977? Here are theatrical trailers for 27 mainstream and art-house films, presented chronologically from "Tea and Sympathy" to "Outrageous!" More than half are films released between 1968 and 1972. Half are dramas and half are comedies, with farce dominating the films released after 1971. At least three advertise X-rated films: "The Killing of Sister George," "Midnight Cowboy," and Visconti's "The Damned." There's no voice-over commentary for this compilation, but it does include advertisements for snacks and one warning against public displays of affection aimed at "her" to control "him."
Never before has the extraordinary life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo been framed in relation to the full spectrum of the historical and cultural influences that shaped her. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF FRIDA KAHLO explores the 20th century icon who became an international sensation in the worlds of modern art and radical politics.
Examines the diversity of human sexual and gender variance around the globe, with commentary by scientific experts and first-hand accounts of people who do not conform to a simple male/female binary.
20th-century Canadian sports legend Lionel Conacher begat a line of other star-athlete descendants. But in this simultaneously nostalgic and forward-looking documentary, their 21st-century progeny explores the very different fields of non-binary queer identity.
Former child prodigy James Harries and his family may at first sight seem to be a houseful of geniuses, but although every single member has a Ph.D. in Metaphysics, we soon discover that some were purchased from a fake university in the USA, while the others were awarded to them by themselves. They regard themselves as morally, intellectually, and financially superior to the rest of society, even though the clan (housed in a mock mock-Tudor cottage in the middle of a Cardiff council estate) includes a convicted arsonist, an astral projectionist, a former Bunny Girl, a part-time private detective and a transgender daughter (James is now Lauren), all of whom seem to live their lives in a parallel universe.
A documentary about political activism, rebellion, squatting, and the do-it-yourself attitude among young people on the eve of the 70s. This is the story of how Blitzhuset came to be. We interviewed those active during the uprising; the young people who were at the forefront, the politicians and the police who were supposed to keep the city clean of the excrements. This is an exciting documentary about an era that has been mystified and lived in the shadows for far too long.
An intimate look into the lives of one of the most iconic folk-rock bands in America - the Indigo Girls. With never-before-seen archival and intimate vérité the film dives into the songwriting and storytelling of the music that transformed a generation.
This film weaves across sound, image, time, rhythm and place and is made up of a number of layers both sound and visual layered on top of one another, talking to and informing each other. It is made using digital transfer versions of c90 tape compilations I made between 1992-1995, juxtaposed with moving image footage of me in 2018 and 2020 and a typeface font graphic ‘See Me’ that I designed in 2005. The c90 cassette on screen is the cassette compilation that I still have from 1994. The film also includes drawings and photographs and other artworks from my personal archive as an artist from the last 25 years. As I walk down the streets that were so important in shaping my life as a young gay man living in London, I revisit the gay bars and pubs that have been my safe spaces for the last twenty years and more, spaces that are now closed.
In What Makes a Woman, Munroe Bergdorf sets out to explore the changing world of gender and identity by way of her very own, very personal journey. Showing her in quiet, intimate, and extremely vulnerable moments. An honest insight into gender identity, Bergdorf prepares for a life-changing facial surgery, helping her finally picture herself as a woman.
Explore timely, personal stories of LGBTQI+ families who strive to build lives in their communities despite biased legislation and mounting prejudice.
Through archival footage of his parents' wedding, the filmmaker embarks on a personal and societal reflection on the theme of love and marriage in contemporary Serbia. The film follows scenes from a traditional Balkan wedding, where songs, dances, and rituals reveal deeply rooted heteronormative values. As he watches these moments, the filmmaker questions his own relationship to marriage as an LGBT individual in a society grappling with change, yet resistant to equality. Will he, as their son, ever have the chance to experience love and marriage the way his parents did? The film explores the dilemma between tradition and modern love, confronting the past with hopes for a future where everyone has the right to love and union without restrictions. Through this personal narrative, the filmmaker addresses the issues of acceptance, family, and dreams that may never become reality in the current social context.