This documentary reviews and summarises the development of homosexuality as an issue in the past three decades in China. We interviewed thirty prominent figures in the gay community, who have experienced the changes of views and life-styles regarding homosexuality.
A portrait of an artist Risto Vilhunen.
An emotional look at the struggle for marriage equality in Ireland.
Fumi and Kazu have a lot to teach us about love. When they decide to stick their necks out and create the first LGBTQ+ law firm in Japan, they are drawn into the lives of people searching for protection and support. Despite their own relationship having no legal status, they work pro-bono for long hours, all the while foster-parenting a teenager. We meet with a colourful cast of misfits, dissidents and artists – from a delightful eccentric being prosecuted for her kitschy vagina sculptures, to a troubled outsider who, as the child of an ‘immoral woman’, has no legal identity. A saying is repeated throughout the film, that one must ‘read the air’ – conform to the tacit conservatism that forbids sexual diversity. With love, humour and serious legal chops, Fumi and Kazu do exactly the opposite.
Danish-Norwegian artist duo Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset began their creative journey as lovers in 1995. In 2009, they were specially nominated for both the Danish and Nordic Pavilions at the Venice Biennale. Recognized as one of the world's most iconic queer art duos, this documentary chronicles their artistic evolution. Through a selection of their bold and playful works, the film humorously unpacks critical themes such as identity, gender, and democracy, revealing the rebellious, unapologetic spirit that defines queer art.
Mark Gatiss explores the life and career of Aubrey Beardsley, an artist who wielded outrage as adroitly as his pen. A lifelong fan, Mark shows how Beardsley was more than just a genius of self-promotion who scandalised the art world of the 1890s. He was also a technological innovator, whose uncompromising attitude still feels remarkably modern.
The Purge traces a dark and little-known moment in Canadian history: the systemic discrimination faced by members of the LGBT community within the Armed Forces and the federal public service. From 1950 to 1996, it was yesterday, no effort was spared to flush out these men and women deemed "immoral" and representing a "danger to national security": intensive and coercive interrogations, humiliating tests, polygraphs, forced confessions and denunciations.
Two young actors are exploring the topic of representation of LGBTI people through the history of Yugoslav cinema and social circumstances that have resulted in different treatment of these characters.
An intimate documentary that follows Tig Notaro, a Los Angeles based comedian, who just days after being diagnosed with invasive stage II breast cancer changed the course of her career with a poignant stand-up set that became legendary overnight. It explores Tig's extraordinary journey as her career ignites and as her life unfolds in grand and unexpected ways, all the while continuing to battle a life-threatening illness and falling in love.
Ilyes Djadel : en vrai de vrai
This powerful documentary explores the intersection of two crises — war and the HIV epidemic. The film follows HIV-positive Ukrainian activist Yana Panfilova as she joins “Through Positive Eyes,” a global photo-storytelling project. The film looks to the resilience of a new generation, navigating survival and community through art and activism.
A documentary essay on coming of age and the power of the unconscious. In the same vein as Sweatlodge Song, this is a message of courage and hope.
In appreciation of the eponymous stream, this poem is a love letter to the beauty found in nature. Written and spoken in English and Anishinaabemowin.
This entertaining and enlightening documentary sheds a light on a pioneering moment in film history and the gay rights movement, as it revisits the break-through 1960s gay films of Pat Rocco. Rocco was responsible for the very first gay films that were shown openly to the paying public in the late 1960s. Situated before hardcore porn became the norm, and in marked contrast to the somewhat darker gay porn that was coming out of New York at the time. Pat Rocco’s film were more sun-dappled, featuring tanned and happy-looking naked men on sail boats and on beaches, celebrating their identities and the beauty of the male body. The filmmakers got to talk to the generous, rather humble and open-minded Rocco just before his death. It took a team of dedicated Canadian filmmakers to capture a fairly obscure moment of indie film history that deserves to be remembered.
Portrait of an artist who has marked the history of contemporary photography with his images in sequences where gravity and humor and even writing are mixed. Through the emblematic themes of his work, such as love, desire, death or immortality, this film proposes to revisit the places that have marked him: Pittsburgh, the flagship city of the steel industry, the city of his childhood and his first discoveries; New York, where he has been living for many years with his companion Frédéric, a city that symbolizes encounters and desire; and finally Vermont, for the nature, the seasons and the disused hotel where he works. These places bring out the artist's fantasy, humor and emotion. Duane Michals is a young man of 80 years, with a great freedom of spirit and vitality, his enthusiasm is contagious and this film is a reflection of it.
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.
Cherry Grove (Fire Island, NY) is the first openly LGBTQ community in the United States. One of the most accepting resort communities in the world, it is a place where everyone can discover who they really and enjoy being a free spirit.
Two British families discuss the challenges they face raising children who identify as a gender different from the one they were assigned at birth.
Québec en silence
My work explores my relationship to my own sexuality. In this particular piece, I try to come to terms with my body issues stemming from my avid pornography consumption, that started in my teenage years, and which have shaped my distorted vision of beauty and masculinity.