Growing Up Coy

Fragmentary perspectives on Human Rights and transgender (trans*) People in Turkey. What remains at the place where a murder happened? What constitutes trans* life? How to cope with daily violence and hatred? We begin to search for traces. We follow the tracks of resistance and survival. We are collectors of the expelled. We gather fragments of trans* lives inspired by texts of Nazim Hikmet, Foucault, Benjamin and Zeki Müren. Trans*BUT is a documental research study driven by the question: “What keeps you going when all else falls away?”

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.

For over 85 years, steamship Ste. Claire transported generations of Detroiters to Boblo Island, an amusement park nestled in the waters between the US and Canada. When the vessel comes under threat of ruin, a doctor, psychic and amusement park fanatic unite to save their beloved steamship from the scrapyard. Interweaving local lore and mythology, "Boblo Boats" explores the whitewashed history of amusement parks and one crew's crusade to bring back the memories.

When a feature film is made about them seven years after their break-up, Benjie Nycum visits his ex-boyfriend Michael Glatze and finally tries to get answers about his bewildering shift from gay activist to ex-gay evangelical.

Gay saunas are places where men meet strangers to have sex. With exclusive access to one Nottingham business, this candid one-off documentary enters the often controversial and always secretive world of the gay sauna for the very first time. The programme meets the people who go there for sexual pleasure - from teachers to plumbers to Tory councillors - and the staff who clean up after them.

In a first-person documentary, Diako Yazdani, a political refugee in France, returns to see his family in Iraqi Kurdistan and introduces them to a 23-year-old gay man from Kojin who seeks to exist in a society where he seems unable to find its place. With humor and poetry, the director delivers a moving portrait where the meetings of each other invite to a universal reflection on the difference.

Jon Sistiaga takes an immersive trip to Poland, a country divided into two zones: on the one hand, the urban and pro-European, and on the other, the rural and ultra-Catholic, still anchored in the traumas of the war and the post-war period. Is Poland a homophobic country or does it have a homophobic government? How does the European Union allow this situation?

I'm a Porn Star follows the lives of guys in the neighborhood who are likely a lot more famous than you - at least on the Internet. There are an estimated 370 million pornographic websites on-line. Porn is now a thirteen BILLION dollar business. So who's doing all this moonlighting? Turns out -- probably some people you know.

A documentary on the late American entertainer Dean Reed, who became a huge star in East Germany after settling there in 1973.

In the small Mexican coastal village of El Roblito, 16-year-old Ñoño lives what seems to be an idyllic existence with his loving family. But he holds a secret. Defying gender norms, Ñoño works up the courage to tell his family he wants to live his life as a woman, a fraught decision in a country shrouded in machismo and transphobia.

A young non-binary trans photographer, Laurence Philomène asserts themselves as one of the most original and inspiring voices of their generation and an icon of the LGBTQ+ community. Revealing both Laurence's intimate world and creative process, "LARRY (they/them)" paints a luminous and committed portrait of the complex and often misunderstood multiplicity of trans and non-binary identities and experiences.

Monroe, Aura, Marlene: Three drag queens from the Ukrainian LGBTQ+ community raise funds for the frontlines, re-defining resilience and hope between glamorous shows and wartime life.

Archive footage from 2006 - 2010 of a young girl growing up during the ages of four to eight. Only fragments of what is remembered exists. Words from a transgender man float to the surface as fleeting memories go on.

Caitlyn Jenner's unlikely path to Olympic glory was inspirational. But her more challenging road to embracing her true self proved even more meaningful.

July, 1949: four young black men are wrongly accused of rape by a 17-year-old farm wife in rural Lake County, Florida. The case of “The Groveland Four” included a race riot, torture, multiple murders, two trials and a Supreme Court reversal. Though widely covered by the national press, the case has been largely forgotten... even though it helped lay a foundation for the Civil Rights Movement.

Fifty years on from the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK, this BBC Two documentary explores how safe it is to be gay in Britain today. With homophobic hate crime on the rise, this film takes a 360 degree look at the issue, hearing from the victims, their families and the police. What makes someone attack another person because of their sexuality? How do victims deal with these unsolicited and unprovoked assaults? And what are we doing about this in Britain in 2017?

Hacking at Leaves documents artist and hazmat-suit aficionado Johannes Grenzfurthner as he attempts to come to terms with the United States' colonial past, Navajo tribal history, and the hacker movement. The story hones in on a small tinker space in Durango, Colorado, that made significant contributions to worldwide COVID relief efforts. But things go awry when Uncle Sam interferes with the film's production.

After a traumatic encounter, a young gay Egyptian joins the LGBT rights movement. When his safety is jeopardized, he must choose whether to stay in the country he loves or seek asylum elsewhere as a refugee. "Half a Life" is a timely story of activism and hope, set in the increasingly dangerous, oppressive, and unstable social climate of Egypt today.

50 years on, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy is the oldest continuing protest occupation site in the world. Taking a fresh lens this is a bold dive into a year of protest and revolutionary change for First Nations people.

This compelling and thought-provoking documentary provides riveting portraits of a diverse group of six men who once were women and chose to change their gender. The award-winning film is an unforgettable story of self-discovery and challenges all of us to re-examine the foundations of our ideas and feelings about gender, sexuality, and identity.