Golden Globe nominated screenwriter and playwright Susan Sandler makes her feature documentary directorial debut with Julia Scotti: Funny That Way—available to watch online until March 21st as part of this year's virtual Athena Film Festival at Barnard College—a tender and heartwarming portrait of the charismatic trans comedian. If you watch America's Got Talent you'll likely... Continue Reading →
At the start of each of the four episodes in the new docu-series Trans in Trumpland, streaming now on Topic, we hear the unsettling words of candidate Trump vowing, "I will do everything in my power to protect our L...G...B...T...Q citizens", as he struggles to utter those letters, followed by snippets of news reports of... Continue Reading →
Yana Ugrekhelidze's debut feature documentary Instructions for Survival opens with harrowing footage of an anti-LGBTQ mob on the streets of Georgia surrounding and attacking a minibus. The incident happened in May 2013 as a small number of LGBTQ Georgians gathered to mark the annual International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia and were met with... Continue Reading →
Over two decades after her award-winning documentary Gendernauts: A Journey Through Shifting Identities premiered at the 1999 Berlinale, filmmaker Monika Treut returns to the festival to premiere Genderation, which sees her reconnecting with the pioneering trans, gender-diverse, and sex positive subjects she encountered in San Francisco in the late 90s for that film. With many... Continue Reading →
Directors Aisling Chin-Yee and Chase Joynt take us on a thought-provoking and emotionally potent journey as they track the life and legacy of trans masculine icon American jazz musician Billy Tipton, who enjoyed a successful career in the 1940s and 50s. When he died in 1989 his story was co-opted and sensationalised by the media,... Continue Reading →
The outstanding feature documentary P.S. Burn This Letter Please, now streaming in the US on Discovery+ and premiering iun the UK at 35th BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival, uncovers the history of New York’s drag queens of the 1950s and '60s. Following the discovery of a box of old letters in a storage unit... Continue Reading →
Patrick Sammon and Bennett Singer's riveting feature documentary Cured, which had its world premiere at Outfest and screens this month as part of the virtual 35th BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival, examines the fascinating chapter in queer history that saw gay liberation activists successfully overturn the US psychiatric profession's classification of homosexuality as a... Continue Reading →
Peter Murimi's I Am Samuel, part of the 35th BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival March 17-28th 2021, is an intimate portrait of Samuel, who lives in Nairobi, Kenya, and his partner Alex. Shot in verité style, the documentary opens with footage of the two men visiting a beauty spot, a waterfall in a forest,... Continue Reading →
Jonas Poher Rasmussen's remarkable Flee world premiered at Sundance 2021, winning the festival's World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Documentary. As the film opens a caption tells us that this a true story and that some of the names have been changed to protect the subjects' anonymity. In present day Copenhagen, Denmark we meet 36... Continue Reading →
UPDATE: The Sparks Brothers is released in US theaters Friday June 18th, 2021. BAFTA-nominated British filmmaker Edgar Wright, known for his adept and creative use of music in movies like Baby Driver and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, has devoted several years to making his feature documentary debut about his favourite band, Sparks. Whether you're... Continue Reading →
