Art Johnston and Pepe Peña are civil rights leaders whose life and love is a force behind LGBTQ+ equality in the heart of the country. Their iconic gay bar, Sidetrack, has helped fuel movements and create community for decades in Chicago's queer enclave. But, behind the business and their historic activism exists a love unlike any other.
The Same Difference is a documentary about lesbians who discriminate against other lesbians! The Same Difference, through a series of lesbian women stories, discusses the hypocrisy in terms of gender roles and the per formative expectations.
The Same Difference
2015
3
In this witty monologue, Quentin Crisp advises and opines about personal style (with a few digressions).
An Evening with Quentin Crisp
1980
10
Nude men in rubber suits, close-ups of erections, objects shoved in the most intimate of places—these are photographs taken by Robert Mapplethorpe, known by many as the most controversial photographer of the twentieth century. Openly gay, Mapplethorpe took images of male sex, nudity, and fetish to extremes that resulted in his work still being labelled by some as pornography masquerading as art. But less talked about are the more serene, yet striking portraits of flowers, sculptures, and perfectly framed human forms that are equally pioneering and powerful.
Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures
2016
7
When Howard Brookner lost his life to AIDS in 1989, the 35-year-old director had completed two feature documentaries and was in post-production on his narrative debut, Bloodhounds of Broadway. Twenty-five years later, his nephew, Aaron, sets out on a quest to find the lost negative of Burroughs: The Movie, his uncle's critically-acclaimed portrait of legendary author William S. Burroughs. When Aaron uncovers Howard's extensive archive in Burroughs’ bunker, it not only revives the film for a new generation, but also opens a vibrant window on New York City’s creative culture from the 1970s and ‘80s, and inspires a wide-ranging exploration of his beloved uncle's legacy.
Uncle Howard
2017
6
GlitterBomb is a fantastic 32-minute documentary that showcases the best of the 2015 Mardi Gras season. It features interviews with Courtney Act, Bianca Del Rio, Nick Jonas, Alex Greenwich, Dan Murphy and Jake Shears, as well as local identities and international tourists, each sharing their experiences and perspectives on our fabulous Festival celebrations including Harbour Party, Pool Party, Parade and MG Party.
GlitterBomb
2015
0
A legendary entertainer and a pioneer of gay activism, Miwa was born Akihiro Maruyama. As a young singer, Miwa popularized androgyny as a fashion statement, fusing the masculine and the feminine into a signal of a new generation of aesthetics. This evolved into performing as a woman and living off-stage as a man. With glitter, wit, evening gowns, and enchanting storytelling, Miwa looks back over a 50-year career and a fascinating life in music, film, and television.
Miwa, à la recherche du Lézard noir
2013
6
In hidden basements, bedrooms and bars across London, "Chemsex" is a documentary that exposes frankly and intimately a dark side to modern gay life. Traversing an underworld of intravenous drug use and weekend-long sex parties, "Chemsex" tells the story of several men struggling to make it out of 'the scene' alive - and one health worker who has made it his mission to save them. While society looks the other way, this powerful and unflinching film uncovers a group of men battling with HIV, drug addiction and finding acceptance in a changing world.
Chemsex
2015
6
A documentary about the International Queer Film Festival Hamburg that celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2014. The filmmakers have filmed, interviewed, gleaned the archives, watched hours of footage and edited reams of material into a small masterpiece. With its gorgeous shots and sublime soundtrack, the documentary entertainingly brings across both the unique atmosphere and 25-year history, and above all, illuminates the complex mesh that both forms and carries the festival. On another note, the film tries to detect the ways a queer film festival like this has functioned as a platform for unheard voices - and continues to do so in the present. For some people, its sole existence has been a life changing momentum.
Acting Out: 25 Years of Queer Film & Community in Hamburg
2014
0
Soft boys by day, kings by night. The film follows a group of young Bulgarian Roma who come to Vienna looking for freedom and a quick buck. They sell their bodies as if that's all they had. What comforts them, so far from home, is the feeling of being together. But the nights are long and unpredictable.
Brüder der Nacht
2016
5
An in depth look at Rochester, New York's LGBTQIA+ history. The documentary condenses over 375 hours of interviews and more than 100 participants into a 90 minute film to bring you through the journey of these men and women. It covers the first efforts at organizing in the 1970s, political funding battles and the contributions gay Rochesterians made at the outset of the AIDS crisis.
Shoulders To Stand On
2013
9
Historians agree 1968 was a watershed year and so it was particularly fitting that the Yale Class of 68 invited William Sloane Coffin Jr. to their 35th reunion to give what would be his final speech. No one shared more in the actions and passions of his era then William Sloane Coffin Jr., a hero for civil rights, peace and activism, a legendary clergyman who received international acclaim for his antiwar speeches and messages of international peace. This rare and vital documentary intercuts fascinating footage of the Class of 68 with President George W. Bush (Yale 68) at the White House as well as profound and moving comments and reminiscences by prominent members of the Yale class of 68
Splendor and Wisdom
2008
0
Loving someone of the same gender is frowned upon in Sami communities. Sparrooabbán (Me and my little sister) shows what it’s like to be a minority within a minority. Suvi describes how her little sister Kaisa wishes to be accepted as she is. Like her sister, Kaisa is a Sami, but also in a relationship with a woman, and she also works as a deacon. There are obviously more constricting communities in the film than only one.
Sparrooabbán
2016
4
"The Pearl" explores the raw emotional and physical experience of being a middle aged to senior transgender woman against the backdrop of post-industrial logging towns in the Pacific Northwest. The film leans into the struggle of those who were reared and successful as men and have reached middle age or later with a burdensome secret that they can no longer keep.
The Pearl
2016
5
In 1990, seven young male dancers joined Madonna on her most controversial world tour. Their journey was captured in Truth or Dare. As a self-proclaimed 'mother' to her six gay dancers plus straight Oliver, Madonna used the film to make a stand on gay rights and freedom of expression. The dancers became paragons of pride, inspiring people all over the world to dare to be who you are. 25 years later, the dancers share their own stories about life during and after the tour. What does it really take to express yourself?
Strike a Pose
2016
6
A feature-length documentary that explores the immense changes that occurred for gays, lesbians and transgender people living in the Global South. In the last decade of the 20th Century, a new heightened visibility began spreading throughout the developing world and the battles between families, fundamentalist religions, and governments around sexual and gender identity had begun. But in the West, few people knew about this historic social upheaval, until 52 men on Cairo’s Queen Boat discothèque were arrested for crimes of debauchery. That explosive story focused attention to the lives and trials of gay people coming out in the developing world and the film chronicles those events.
Dangerous Living: Coming Out in the Developing World
2003
4
Two gay leather beauty pageants form the core of this German documentary. The events, the International Mr. Leather Pageant and the Mr. Drummer Pageant held in San Francisco and Chicago respectively, are filled with scads of strangely dressed leather aficionados. These leather men are seen sauntering down streets, and hotel corridors; some of them are interviewed. Also interviewed are former Mr. Leathers who discuss the inherent responsibilities of their titles and the groupies they attract.
Menmaniacs: The Legacy of Leather
1995
5
Sex/Life in L.A.
1998
6
Mabel tells us through her experiences how it is that at such a young age she starts in a world of prostitution, leading her to a process of evolution and transformation throughout her life.
Mabel
2021
8
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.
Middle Sexes: Redefining He and She
2005
3
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.
Little Lady Fauntleroy
2004
9