As a gay man, filmmaker Arshad Khan examines his troubled relationship with his devout, Muslim father Abu. Using family archives and movies, Khan explores his struggle with his identity and compares it to his parents attempts to fit into Canada.
A video essay by Mark Rappaport, which spans René Magritte and Michelangelo to Bonnie & Clyde. Let’s mask up to rob a bank! But make sure that you are home before the curfew.
The 1920s saw a revolution in technology, the advent of the recording industry, that created the first class of African-American women to sing their way to fame and fortune. Blues divas such as Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Alberta Hunter created and promoted a working-class vision of blues life that provided an alternative to the Victorian gentility of middle-class manners. In their lives and music, blues women presented themselves as strong, independent women who lived hard lives and were unapologetic about their unconventional choices in clothes, recreational activities, and bed partners. Blues singers disseminated a Black feminism that celebrated emotional resilience and sexual pleasure, no matter the source.
Canada as a refuge for LBGTQ+ immigrants: Yazan from Iraq, Nata from Central Africa, Aida from Iran and Eilyn from Colombia all had to flee their homelands, where violence, threats, hate and rejection prevented them from living their lives and expressing their sexual orientation openly. All they wanted was to be free. From Beirut to Montreal, Quebec City or Vancouver, this ensemble documentary follows the journeys of four people who are determined to change their future. From the terrifying realities they had to flee to the heartbreaking sacrifices they were forced to make, Renaître is a vibrant and luminous tribute to their quiet strength.
Jojo, a 17-year-old girl from Bangkok, is about to graduate from high school. After her friend Q reveals a secret to her, the two girls grow close and spend all their time together. Jojo's father wholeheartedly approves of the friendship and is just glad that Jojo is not going on any dates with boys.
A film that sets a magnifying glass on the representation of lesbians in fiction products that were broadcasted on Argentine television from 1992 to 2014 on over-the-air channels. Based on interviews with professionals from various disciplines and archival images, the documentary reveals a negative characterization that predominates in the representations. The characters lack social depth and are distant from reality. The small screen presents us with lives marked by a dramatic coming out of the closet or, even worse, their permanence in it. The voices of Albertina Carri, Ernesto Meccia, Analia Couceiro and Vir Cano reflect on fictions from their backgrounds and their own life stories.
Sixteen year olds Palani and Karthik want to become "ladyboys." They're bullied in school and beaten by their families. Their parents would like to see them grow up as normal boys, but they're falling deeper and deeper into the world of the "Aravanis." Loved as dance performers but hated as homosexuals, their stories emblazon the inner conflicts of India's gender culture today.
A portrait of Samuel R. Delany, an award-winning African-American gay author whose credits include everything from science fiction to several issues of the Wonder Woman comic book. Using a range of experimental techniques and borrowed footage from Delany's home movies, Taylor captures his subject's thoughts on racism, violence, and his struggles with sexual identity.
Jessica Bair, a longtime LGBTQIA+ rights advocate with Human Rights Campaign, shares her struggle to remain in her Mormon faith despite coming out as transgender.
One record producer, the creators of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and top indie rock artists come together to create a tribute album benefiting the Hetrick-Martin Institute, home of the Harvey Milk School- the first accredited high school in the country for LGBTQ youth. "Follow My Voice: With the Music of Hedwig" weaves the compelling, courageous stories of four students at this controversial school with a unique chronicle of the yearlong creation of "Wig in a Box," the album whose songs poignantly echo these teens' struggles and aspirations. Through a dramatic and vibrant combination of verite documentation, student video diaries and rare in-studio scenes of artists recording tracks, "Follow My Voice" offers a powerful and poignant look at this unlikely intersection of youth, gender and rock. Includes studio sessions from Yoko Ono, Rufus Wainwright, The Bens, The Breeders, Yo La Tengo, John Cameron Mitchell, They Might Be Giants and more.
Caitlyn Jenner's unlikely path to Olympic glory was inspirational. But her more challenging road to embracing her true self proved even more meaningful.
A Última Sala
A look on transvestites and transsexuals in early 80's Paris. The documentary focuses on Elisa, a Brazilian transvestite and ends with a filming of a surgical operation male to female.
This documentary explores the intersectional identities and experiences of Lao individuals who identify as LGBTQI and live with disabilities.
A documentary film focusing on the lives of a ladyboy who work as sex workers in Phnom Penh. Most of them were kicked out from their families and came to live in Phnom Penh and ended up working in the sex industry. This film sensitively deals with the daily discrimination they face. Sex work places them at risk to gang rape, sex violence, drugs and arrests by police. This documentary offers a window onto the lives of these sex workers in modern day Cambodian society.
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.
The first documentary about the little-known world of transvestites in Montevideo. We are shown the most complicated facets of these people, their consciousness of themselves, and their perceptions of the world and of life. We learn about their everyday (and every night) experiences, and how they cope with the bigotry and old fashioned attitudes that are all around.
In the 1970s, a small Greek island emerges as a symbol of hope, freedom, and self-expression. Mykonos was "paradise on earth," and for some, it still is. The island was a haven for extramarital and queer love during the dictatorship of the military junta that ruled Greece between 1964 and 1974 following a coup d’état, a regime of dominant patriarchy when even pronouncing the word «gay» on the streets of Athens could be considered a criminal act. In an overall conservative Greece, the Italian entrepreneur Pierro Aversa, a mythical figure of the European queer highlife, opened a gay bar where atmosphere and partying took precedence over profit. A free-spirited, encapsulated environment where forbidden desires could be manifested was cultivated; however, its image is not only reflected through idealistic lenses in the film – many people died in the drug-fuelled madness, and many kids were lost as well, as the locals admit.
The documentary follows the life of former Femen member Amina Sboui and the community of LGBTQ+ friends she houses in her Tunisian home. Offering unparalleled insight into life following the Arab Spring, social persecution, and political struggle, from a queer perspective. Dive into the stories of Amina's strong and enchanting group of LGBTQ+ loves and comrades: Sandra, Ramy, Ayoub, and Atef, as they bond and build a queer community against a backdrop of global trauma and struggle.
Luis is a drag actor with the stage name "Dulce Polly" with great contrasts between the comical and overwhelming of his artistic character and the person outside the performance and in his privacy. He in turn is an English teacher and works in a high school in a deprived area of Montevideo. As an artist Luis wants more, he has the need and he will try to fulfill some dreams such as acting in the city of Buenos Aires. Outside of acting, he needs to feel more secure, as well as to find a partner who will fill him in his life to stop feeling loneliness and anguish.