Why We Need Pride

Canadian icon Shane Koyczan has brought his spoken word poetry to stages all over the world, including TED Talks that have gone viral and the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. This documentary, both an introduction to his poetry and an exploration of his relationships with those around him, highlights his journey of seeking reconciliation with his father who abandoned him at an early age, and how in order to accomplish this, Koyczan has to rely on his poetry's vulnerability like never before.

The film Sugnu Sicilianu unfolds like a series of flashbacks through time, connecting memory and dreams. This film is a journey through inheritance, where histories are both confronted and reshaped. Sugnu Sicilianu questions heritage, family, and identity through a return to the places that once tied me and my family to our roots.

Yayoi Kusama born March 22, 1929 is a Japanese artist and writer. Throughout her career she has worked in a wide variety of media, including painting, collage, scat sculpture, performance art, and environmental installations, most of which exhibit her thematic interest in psychedelic colors, repetition and pattern. A precursor of the pop art, minimalist and feminist art movements, Kusama influenced contemporaries such as Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg and Yoko Ono.

Poet, rapper, playwright and recording artist Kae Tempest is one of the most viscerally exciting artists working in Britain today. They are the youngest ever recipient of the prestigious Ted Hughes prize and have been nominated for both the Brit and Mercury music awards. Tempest has always found support and respect within the queer art scenes, a place close to their heart. In July 2020, they came out as non-binary, announcing that they would publish and perform under the name Kae. This film delves deep into their creative process and gains rare, intimate insights into Kae’s life throughout a period of profound personal and artistic change.

A deep dive into the historical, social and political forces which shaped the development of the queer community in Calgary. Featuring extensive footage and B-roll film from Calgary Pride in the 90’s, queer leaders recount a decade of turmoil, loss, and growth of activism and human rights. The film is a first-hand account of the frontlines of LGBTQ2+ activism at a time when the right to be out in Alberta was not legally protected, visible or developed. Spanning stories from 1960-present day, this feature length documentary delves into the moments and victories which brought an entire community from the darkness into the light.

Following the lives of Queer creatives behind Norwich’s queer collaborative ‘Stripped Sets’. We discover the reasoning behind the need for safe spaces, and the stories that come with them. Through live events, photoshoots and history, we see the process in creating such an important event.

A short film by Albert Watson from 1997 starring Henry Rollins as himself, doing his spoken word bit "I Know You" from the album The Boxed Life.

Thousands of people walk past a Manhattan jewelry store everyday, unaware of the hair salon directly beneath their feet. This documentary goes downstairs to capture the life of Joey P. Ryan — a hairdresser and performer that has navigated a lifetime of obstacles to finally exist on his own terms. Interviews explore themes of pride, identity, artistry, and self-expression.

The world of hip-hop lyrics has changed, simple rhyme schemes just don't cut it. Rhymes are put under a microscope, and there is no lyrical leeway for emerging artists. This gripping documentary tells the story of Jeff Walker.

Award winning documentary by Joslyn Rose Lyons exploring the relationship between spiritual connection and the creative process in hip-hop music.

A queer photographer documents nightlife, drag culture, and chosen family in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, revealing a thriving LGBTQ+ community and challenging assumptions about where queer joy can exist in small-town America. Winning 'Best Documentary' awards from Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival, Red Rose Film Festival, and Appalachian Queer Film Festival, the short film serves as a proof-of-concept that's currently in the works.

Three spoken word poets and event organizers based in Dublin - Melissa Ridge, Hazel Hogan and Kasey Shelley - reveal the positive impact poetry has had on their lives, and the challenges they have turning their hobby into a career.

A short documentary immersing you in the intimacy and harsh reality of young LGBTQ+ artists, working in Los Angeles in the midst of the glamorous neighborhood of West Hollywood.

In partnership with filmmaker Lauren Tabak and writer/consulting producer Barry Walters, we dive into the music career of Sylvester, starting from church choir in South Central LA to his early years in San Francisco. It follows his ascent to stardom through his evergreen, international hits "Dance (Disco Heat)" and "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)". Through his groundbreaking career, Sylvester blew open the doors for queer visibility and gender fluidity in mainstream music, leaving a legacy that continues to influence today's pop music.

World-renowned Drag Queen Miz Cracker helps a Texas family that’s experiencing strange occurrences after renovating their 1892 home. As a lover of the paranormal, can Miz Cracker solve their ghost problem and help them coexist peacefully with the spirits?

Over the course of a year, film follows Vancouver Pride Society president Ken Coolen to various international Pride events, including Poland, Hungary, Russia, Sri Lanka and others where there is great opposition to pride parades. In North America, Pride is complicated by commercialization and a sense that the festivals are turning away from their political roots toward tourism, party promotion and entertainment. Christie documents the ways larger, more mainstream Pride events have supported the global Pride movement and how human rights components are being added to more established events. In the New York sequence, leaders organize an alternative Pride parade, the Drag March, set up to protest the corporatization of New York Pride. A parade in São Paulo, the world's largest Pride festival, itself includes a completely empty float, meant to symbolize all those lost to HIV and to anti-gay violence.

Chenevelles, population just over 400. A grocery store-bar-service station. Its church and château. A village lost in New Aquitaine. Nothing to distinguish it from neighboring towns. Until the day when a few posters, community social networks and local newspapers invited the surrounding area to participate in the first rural Pride - on July 22, 2022! The region's LGBTQIA+ community, along with Cyril, the mayor, and his constituents, got together to ensure that this celebration resonated throughout the country. The grocer, Léo, a young man in transition, and the Poitiers-based Coloc Drag collective all had the same goal: to surpass 1,000 participants to spread the word that the countryside has broken free from prejudice and celebrate tolerance. 

When is the moment you think: I'm going to hoist my regional flag? Who are these flaghoisters? And what does it mean to identify with your region? These are questions that filmmaker Okki Poortvliet, theatermaker Hans van der Werf and designer Vera Vos asked. So, they went through the whole of Drenthe, a region in the North of The Netherlands where all three of them grew up, to collect as many stories as possible from hoisters of the flag of Drenthe. The Flaghoisters is a film about the confrontation between the countryside and, as people from Drenthe call it, “the city dwellers”. A story about a disappearing language, the safety of your village, greeting each other, being proud, and just acting "normal".

Footage from the first ever São Paulo LGBTQ Pride Parade, which took place on the 28th of June 1997 on Avenida Paulista. The annual event would go on to become the largest pride parade in the world.

A group of individuals who came out as LGBTQ+ later in life reflect on the emotional and often complicated paths that led them to finally embrace their true identities. After years of living in secrecy—some as long as decades—they share personal stories of internal conflict, family tension, and the courage it took to step into the light. From a nonagenarian to a former priest and a military veteran, each narrative reveals the unique challenges of coming out in midlife, while celebrating the profound freedom and self-acceptance that can emerge at any age.