To Let The Body Grow

In focusing his attention on the competitors of Mr Gay Syria, director Ayse Toprak shatters the one-dimensional meaning of “refugee”. Using the pageant as a means of escape from political persecution, the organiser Mahmoud — already given asylum in Berlin — hopes to offer the winner a chance to travel as well as bring international attention to the life-threatening situations faced by LGBT Syrians.

Love is love. Someday, the pain of being in love will be an endearing memory. No matter who the feelings are towards, no matter what form it takes, all love and lifestyles have the same value. An omnibus anime tells the stories of “The wedding of an ex”, “a student and a teacher at an all-boys’ school” and “childhood friends whose bodies and hearts change with adolescence.”

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.

Featuring Tony Robbins and Melissa Ethridge, Tri Me follows two-time Triathlon World Champion, four-time Hall of Fame inductee, and world-renowned speaker and coach Siri Lindley as she faces the greatest challenge of her life: a terminal cancer diagnosis.

What does it mean to be transgender? How did the trans rights movement come about? What progress has there been made, and what is there still to be done? Absolutely Trans gives us a detailed history...

After the death of his parents, a gay man comes back to his village to live in his small world of happiness, dreams, sadness and loneliness.

After a queer Chinese medicine practitioner is brutalized at a recent protest, their community comes together in quiet acts of healing.

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 Córdoba, far from the Argentine capital, the end of a military regime promises a spring that is all too brief. “La Delpi” is the only survivor of a group of friends who are transgender women and drag-queens, who began to die of aids in the late 80s. In a Catholic and conservative city, the Grupo Kalas made their weapons and trenches out of improvised dresses and lip-syncing. Today the images of unique and unknown footage are not only a farewell letter, but a manifesto to friendship.

Max is gender non-conforming and gives birth to River, who they are raising gender-neutral until River can express their own identity.

In the hyper-masculine criminal underworld, a masochistic high-ranking yakuza and his newly-assigned bodyguard become increasingly drawn to each other.

A fascinating and intimate exploration of the daily lives and struggles of 7 LGBT families in 7 different European countries: The Netherlands, Spain, Italy, France, Greece, Switzerland and in Catalonia. Although separated by borders, they are all united in their struggle to have LGBT family rights recognized. The differences between countries are highlighted, from having full equality in some, to a total lack of rights in others: we are exploring those different laws and irregularities, realizing how the children of LGBT families are being made vulnerable across Europe.

Wes Hurley's autobiographical tale of growing up gay in Soviet Union Russia, only to escape with his mother, a mail order bride, to Seattle to face a whole new oppression in his new Christian fundamentalist American dad.

The story of a baker named Allyson who, with the help of a little bit of magic, realizes that love knows no gender, race, or orientation.

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.

The journey of eight characters of different ages, regions, life trajectories and religions – and behind them, stories of overcoming difficulties, prejudice and self-acceptance, passing through themes transversal to the letters that form the acronym LGBTQIA+ – that culminate in the celebration of being able to be who you are and in the exaltation of these voices.

The story of the iconic singer's fascinating six-decade career in both music and Black and LGBTQ activism.

A documentary that offers a powerful look into the lives of LGBTQIAPN+ artists who challenge prejudice and shine with authenticity amid the conservative reality of Brazil’s interior. Through sincere, unprecedented, and moving testimonies, it gives a voice to those who resist through art, exposes the struggles they face, and celebrates the pride of existing and expressing themselves even where intolerance still tries to silence them.

Manivald is a fox in his early 30s. He is still living at home with his mother. One day a young hot wolf called Toomas comes to fix the washing machine. A love triangle develops between the three of them. Things get out of hand and Manivald realizes that it is time to move out.

In 1980, the first march of gays, lesbians and transvestites took place in Brazil in protest against the constant police operations that took place in São Paulo, which aimed to repress these groups. Based on Renan Quinalha's doctoral thesis, “Against morality and good customs: the sexual politics of the Brazilian dictatorship (1964-1988)”, carried out by the Institute of International Relations, a series of four 5 minute videos about the birth of the LGBT movement during the Military Regime.