Documentary
see all genres ›After decades of invisibility and misrepresentation in mainstream cinema, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender filmmakers dove headlong into documentary territory, seeing it as a vehicle for activism, historical preservation and affirmation of the community's diverse identities.
Watch Documentary Films
Genres / LGBTQ / Documentary
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Uncle Bob
On a fateful night in 1974, millions of Americans tuned in to the Academy Awards® and watched in shock as an anonymous man streaked naked across the stage in the middle of the show. In an instant, the prankster named Robert Opel rocketed to iconic status, but to this day few people know the full...Watch Movie
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Split
SPLIT is a documentary portrait of International Chrysis, a New York "show girl" and drag queen. Surreal herself, Chrysis was one of Salvador Dali's inner circle, a woman from the waist up, a man from the waist down. The movie penetrates Chrysis' hidden world of transsexual and drag queens,...Watch Movie
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Party Monster
Originally a documentary (before it was made into an identically-named narrative film by the same filmmakers), PARTY MONSTER tells the story of the rise and fall of Michael Alig, a kid from Middle America who aspired to take the place of Andy Warhol. Michael quickly rose to become the biggest...Watch Movie
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Body Without Soul
From director Wiktor Grodecki, this startling and disturbing feature is a graphic insider's view of the seedy but burgeoning East Europe industry that trades in nubile young men. The film introduces us to one of the adults (now jailed) who exploits Prague’s youth; the city’s...Watch Movie
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Chop Suey
For over four years Bruce Weber photographed one subject: Peter Johnson. What began as a photographic journey to document Peter's transition from boyhood into manhood led to the making of the film CHOP SUEY. A deeply personal film, feeling very much like a film journal or a scrapbook, CHOP SUEY...Watch Movie
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Transgender Tuesdays
Twelve transgender pioneers of the first Public Health clinic in the United States share stories of their amazing life experiences in the "bad old days" with humor and insight. Compassionate healthcare changed their lives, even as the Tom Waddell Health Center in the...Watch Movie
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Not Angels But Angels
Like no film you’ve ever seen, NOT ANGELS BUT ANGELS is a chilling account of fragile youth caught in the grasp of Earth’s oldest trade. Prague’s economic boom and recently won political freedom have transformed that beautiful city into a new mecca for both Eastern and Western...Watch Movie
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Big Joy
Years before the Beats arrived in San Francisco, the city exploded with artistic expressions: painting, theatre, film, poetry. At its center was the groundbreaking filmmaker and poet James Broughton. BIG JOY explores Broughton's passionate embrace of a life of pansexual transcendence and a...Watch Movie
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Brother Outsider
On November 20, 2013, Bayard Rustin was posthumously awarded the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. Who was this man? He was there at most of the important events of the Civil Rights Movement, but always in the background. BROTHER OUTSIDER:...Watch Movie
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Tongues Untied
Marlon Riggs' essay film TONGUES UNTIED gives voice to communities of black gay men, presenting their cultures and perspectives on the world as they confront racism, homophobia and marginalization. It broke new artistic ground by mixing poetry (by Essex Hemphill and other artists), music,...Watch Movie
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Paul Bowles: The Complete Outsider
Filmed in Morocco and featuring exclusive interviews with cultural icons such as Allen Ginsberg, PAUL BOWLES: THE COMPLETE OUTSIDER explores the esoteric life of the man who wrote the The Sheltering Sky, one of the most provocative and influential novels of the 20th century....Watch Movie
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Before Stonewall
In 1969 the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village, leading to three nights of rioting by the city's gay community. With this outpouring of courage and unity the Gay Liberation Movement had begun. BEFORE STONEWALL pries open the closet...Watch Movie
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I Just Wanted to Be Somebody
What do the religious right and the gay liberation movement have in common? Both were fortified by the efforts of one woman, Anita Bryant. Part document and part poem, I JUST WANTED TO BE SOMEBODY brings us back to the late 1970’s and reflects on Bryant’s life and the impact...Watch Movie
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Rock Hudson's Home Movies
“It was all up there,” says Rock Hudson (Eric Farr) at the start of this rule-breaking, dizzying assortment of clips from Rock Hudson’s Hollywood career that make up Mark Rappaport’s feature film, ROCK HUDSON'S HOME MOVIES. Employing a narrative commentary from beyond the...Watch Movie
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Non, je ne regrette rien
Through music, poetry and quiet, at times, chilling self-disclosure, five sero-positive Black gay men speak of their individual confrontation with AIDS, illuminating the difficult journey Black men throughout America make in coping with the personal and social devastation of...Watch Movie
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She's a Boy I Knew
Filmmaker Gwen Haworth turns her camera on her family for this down-to-earth grassroots documentary that follows her transition from male to female over the course of several years. This thoughtful film is less a detailing of surgeries and more a meditation on family ties, a...Watch Movie
