Gay San Francisco

In this home movie collection of gay men, memory serves as an act of hope, power, and above all, resilience.

In 2012, Stephen Vaughan and Kay Ferreter are invited to address the congregation at St. Joseph's Redemptorists Church in Dundalk, Ireland for the Solemn Novena Festival. In a powerful speech, the pair describe their experiences being gay and lesbian in Ireland, feeling excluded by Catholic doctrine, and the importance of a more inclusive church.

A documentary that offers a return in images to the creation of AHLA, Amazones d'hier, Lesbiennes d'aujourd'hui, a lesbian collective at the origin of the video of the same name shot in 1979 and also the eponymous magazine published between 1982 and 2014. Based on interviews conducted in May 2021 as well as archive footage, this documentary highlights the four founding members of the collective.

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

Many members of the Dutch Underground were gay and lesbian. This film pays homage to them and recounts their story.

A recording of a play about the intangible impacts AIDS has on a community. This is a moving, beautifully photographed combination of theater and documentary that captures the incredible excitement of live theater and intensifies the power of the play's message.

Ricardo was once Sara, a homeless HIV positive transvestite, living in the underbelly of Manhattan. Today he is a churchgoing, married man, "saved" by a Dallas ministry. He has renounced his homosexuality, but is his conversion complete? Susana Aiken and Carlos Aparicio offer an intimate look at Ricardo's transformation.

Look around. Everything you see and touch can taste like vanilla.

Exploring the pre-fame years of the celebrated American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and how New York City, its people, and tectonically shifting arts culture of the late 1970s and '80s shaped his vision.

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.

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.

The true story of the students of Brigham Young University's queer underground, as they lit the school's iconic "Y" in rainbow colors. But, A Long Way From Heaven does a lot more than tell the story of the Rainbow Y. It outlines the history of queer treatment at BYU - the good (where it exists), the bad, and the very, very ugly. The film combines new, original footage with a huge variety of historical images, videos, newspaper articles, and other mixed media from every conceivable source to tell the story of BYU's queer students, and the bravery and risks they constantly take to make their voices heard.

The three-decade-old annual Manhattan gathering of drag queens and their fans is portrayed in this colorful documentary. The film concentrates on the spectacle of the event, providing abundant examples of the elaborate costumes, flamboyant wigs, and campy musical performances that characterize the event.

For six decades Angela Bowen, classical dancer and teacher, black lesbian feminist activist, and professor has influenced and inspired untold numbers speaking out as strongly for the Arts, Black and Women's Rights as she has for Lesbian and Gay Rights. The film depicts Bowen's life across the decades, from the early fifties, with historic footage, photographs and interviews including her dance mentor, dance partner, former husband, partner, children, activists, scholars, and dance and university students. Bowen's candid and compelling stories allow us to understand how race, class, gender, age, and sexuality played into her decisions and choices, her mission, and strategies for survival. Passionate Pursuits is intended to challenge and inspire diverse audiences to pursue their own dreams with tenacity and courage, but not for themselves alone.

A documentary about the alleged Nazi cure homosexuality conducted by a Danish doctor who experimented with a young homosexual in the concentration camp. After the war, he took refuge in Argentina until his death in 1965.

Garden of Des Moines is an intimate interview-style short film that follows drag performers in Iowa as they navigate the challenges of being queer in a conservative state. Through personal stories, the film explores the difficulties they face, from political pushback to societal pressures, while highlighting the joy, resilience, and freedom they find in drag. Set against Iowa's landscape, the film captures the vibrant, defiant beauty of queer expression flourishing in unexpected places

Gay Positive is the story of one man trying to bring to attention the outdated ban on gay men donating blood in the United States of America. This documentary is meant to inform and educate people on this controversial issue. A woman who recently received her nursing degree presents facts that could suggest that in order to keep our blood supply clean and abundant, we must update our current screening process for potential donors. By taking the camera to the streets, Gay Positive captures the opinions of people from many walks of life regarding how they feel about the ban today. One of the questions posed was, "If you were in need of a blood transfusion and the donor was healthy, would it concern you if this generous individual was a gay male?" Recent history proves that when tragedy strikes, donor centers are often in short supply and struggle to meet demand. The ban forces organizations such as The Red Cross to reject willing, disease-free, healthy individuals.

Filmmaker Jan Oxenberg narrates her own home videos, commenting on how her views towards lesbianism and femininity have evolved over time.

Favela Gay tells the story of eleven individuals in their own words. Living in eight slums (favelas) in Rio de Janeiro, these members of the LGBTQ community – two transgender women, a crossdressing man, a travesti prostitute, a famous carnival dancer, two community activists, and even a young man who used to be transgender, but transitioned back – have fought prejudice and seen some of the most unsavoury sides of the city.

Morgana is a filmmaker who has found in experimental cinema a powerful voice capable of encapsulating the most abstract notions of her identity, unfolding in an amalgam of textures, colored lights, and wildly extravagant music. An intimate portrait of a filmmaker, but above all, a dear friend.