1. Young Man on the Bar Masturbating with Rage and Nerve (Muchacho en la barra se masturba con rabia y osadía)
Dance and prostitution play the same role for Cristhian’s body. Virtuosity, desire, technique, and sex intertwine, granting coherence to a way of life that offers many answers to few questions. A leitmotiv that reconciles opposites and contradictions. Answers that are sometimes painful, like all truths.
It has an average vote of 5.3 on TMDB.
2. Brian Anderson on Being a Gay Professional Skateboarder
The skateboarding community worships Brian Anderson as a god, but for many years kept his sexuality a secret from nearly everyone in his life. Our guy Reda sat down with Brian and some of his closest friends to talk about being gay in the professional skateboarding industry and why he chose now to come out.
3. This Day Won’t Last (This Day Won’t Last)
A day that could also be a life. A young man who could also be an older woman. A nightmare that could also be a dream. In Tunisia, while it could also be somewhere else: on the border between the necessity and the fear to make a film, the necessity and the fear for the revolution, is This day won’t last a cooperation with a distance. That is how this self portrait turns into a group portrait. Clandestine, but straight from the heart: an end that could also lead to a new beginning.
4. To Be Heard (Hazte sentir)
In 2018, Brazil's first shelter for LGBT+ refugees opened its doors in the city of Manaus, the largest city of the state of Amazonas. This collaborative documentary film tells the story of three residents who are all trying to build a new life in this incongruous urban metropolis. A candid, and intimate insight into the many challenges faced by LGBT+ refugees.
5. Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
In this entrancing documentary on performance artist, photographer and underground filmmaker Jack Smith, photographs and rare clips of Smith's performances and films punctuate interviews with artists, critics, friends and foes to create an engaging portrait of the artist. Widely known for his banned queer erotica film Flaming Creatures, Smith was an innovator and firebrand who influenced artists such as Andy Warhol and John Waters.
It has an average vote of 6.6 on TMDB.
6. Alfredo Doesn't Like Goodbyes (Alfredo Não Gosta de Despedidas)
Based on family interviews and records of his trajectory, the director André Medeiros Martins performs an analysis of his mother's life history while documenting his own journey through self-knowledge. André is an artist obsessed with sex and who tries to find the reasons for these obsessions in stories about his late mother. From the exhibition of his works and reports from family members, he creates this auto-fictional documentary.
It has an average vote of 4 on TMDB.
7. Amapô (Amapô)
Through a life story the film deals with issues related to human rights, such as the right to difference. The character's life is presented from others, otherness as a logic. The spectators complete the senses and gradually realize that this is a homosexual who, still in his adolescence, became a transvestite; "Amapoa" is a term that comes from Yoruba and has become transvestite slang for women. The film has a brutal ending, revealing that the character suffered a strong violence. Homophobia. The approach leads to identification with the character and allows reflections on the intolerance of today's society.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
8. Riding Giants
Riding Giants is story about big wave surfers who have become heroes and legends in their sport. Directed by the skateboard guru Stacy Peralta.
It has an average vote of 7.6 on TMDB.
9. Sadness
Based on photographer William Yang's one man stage show, "Sadness" chronicles two diverging narratives through the use of slide photography, oral history and stylised recreation. One story follows Yang's pilgrimage into the heart of the North Queensland sugar cane fields as he investigates the murder of his uncle Fang Yuen. The other is a series of moving portraits of the many friends and lovers Yang has lost to AIDS. Director Tony Ayres skillfully weaves these two separate stories together creating a powerful testament to family, friends, love and loss. Cinematography by Tristan Milani. Narrated by William Yang.
It has an average vote of 9 on TMDB.
10. Church & State
Church & State is the improbable story of a brash, inexperienced gay activist and a tiny Salt Lake City law firm that joined forces to topple Utah’s gay marriage ban. The film’s ride on the bumpy road to equality in Utah offers a glimpse at the Mormon church’s influence in state politics and the squabbles inside the gay community that nearly derailed a chance to make history. Church & State is a story of triumph, setback and a little-known lawsuit that should have failed, but instead paved the way for a U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized gay unions nationwide.
It has an average vote of 5.2 on TMDB.
11. The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo
Never before has the extraordinary life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo been framed in relation to the full spectrum of the historical and cultural influences that shaped her. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF FRIDA KAHLO explores the 20th century icon who became an international sensation in the worlds of modern art and radical politics.
It has an average vote of 6.2 on TMDB.
12. Ana Rúbia (Ana Rúbia)
Deep Brazil. Between drifting through a city in the interior of Mato Grosso on the banks of the BR-163, we follow moments of the routine of Ana Rúbia, who is preparing for the launch of the book “School Memories of Travestis”.
13. Mona's Candle Light
Mona's Candle Light was discovered among reels of film that Geoff Alexander, of the Bay Area-based Academic Film Archive of North America, bought at a flea market in an unmarked box. There are no credits, so it is impossible to determine who shot it and for what purpose. The film is 1950s footage, probably amateur, of a well know lesbian club , Mona's Candle Light, and it is an invaluable document of that underground scene.
14. Monte Hanson & Tony Gallo
Two scantily clad men pose, wrestle, and jokingly try to out-flex one another in what amounts to a beauty contest of its own.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
15. To Live Is Better Than To Die (好死不如赖活着)
In the 1990s HIV/AIDS came to Wenlou through a blood purchasing program. To supplement their income many poor villagers sold their blood and 60% of those who sold blood contracted HIV/AIDS from unsanitary equipment. Many have died from the disease. In his documentary film, To Live is Better than to Die, Wiejun Chen tells of the impact AIDS has had in parts of rural China by showing how it has affected the Ma family. It is spring when the film takes up the family’s story.
It has an average vote of 8.3 on TMDB.
16. The Biggest Little Farm
The successes and failures of a couple determined to live in harmony with nature on a farm outside of Los Angeles are lovingly chronicled by filmmaking farmer John Chester, in this inspiring documentary.
It has an average vote of 7.5 on TMDB.
17. Amargosa
The inspirational story of Marta Becket: 76-yr old singer, writer, dancer, painter, visionary, and her creation Amargosa.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
18. Fabulous (Maravilhosa)
A glance at the queer universe throughout vogue battles, an emerging street subculture in which gay, transgender and other LGBTQ people take the lead. The film sheds light on the movement and on the expressiveness of the bodies, while stepping into the space of dance – from the backstage to the stage –, exalting diversity and the LgBT culture.
It has an average vote of 9.5 on TMDB.
19. Dance for All
(Dance for All)
20. Someone Waits For Me
The story of five lesbian and gay seniors in the Northwest Florida region as they navigate coming out, identity, politics, and the challenges and victories inherent in the gay experience. The film weaves together interviews with fictionalized interludes of magical realism that capture their feelings and experiences.