Kiki

Love is in the Legend

May 2022 •English

A documentary relating to a video of the Grand Street Ball of 1988, held by Patricia Field and the House of Field. The film explores the relationships and connections between the music and culture of the Paradise Garage with the ball culture of the mid 1980's, driven by the participants' need to belong, each working, dancing, and surviving together despite the epic sweep of larger societal conflicts of the time. They are featured in present day interviews, along side 1980's archival photography and film, and iconic music representative of the theme, bridging this piece of history to the present day by the passion that lives on.

Free CeCe

June 2016 •English

This film confronts the culture of violence surrounding trans women of color. It is told through the voices of Laverne Cox and Cece McDonald.

black enuf*

September 2017 •English

A queer oddball seeks approval from Black peers despite a serious lack of Hip-Hop credentials. This short animated documentary takes you on a quest for belonging.

Otherland

March 2018 •English

A vogue dancer performs at a Voodoo Carnival Ball, an important dance contest where he will have to prove himself to be accepted by the local ballroom community. Based upon the biographical story of Elvin Elejandro Martinez.

The L Word Mississippi: Hate the Sin

August 2014 •English

Gay women living in the Deep South of the United States share stories of the bigotry, sexism, intimidation, and racism that confronts them in a part of the country known for its culture of Christian conservatism.

How Do I Look

January 2006 •English

The icons from the "Harlem Drag Balls" are influencing the biggest stars in pop culture for decades and they are telling their untold stories of their time. The creative lifestyle, fierceness and fabulousness, is the ultimate challenge in fashion, on the runway and dance floor for recognition and fame. Wolfgang Busch is capturing the creative way society's disenfranchised express themselves through movement and creativity.

Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn

March 2023 •English

An inspiring love story about a self-described “poor, gay, black man from North Philly” on his historic run for the United States Senate. But this race is about more than taking on the political competition. It’s about taking on an entire system.

Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution

December 2023 •English

From the sweaty basement bars of 70s New York to the glittering peak of the global charts, how disco conquered the world - its origins, its triumphs, its fall and its legacy.

Bill T. Jones: Still/Here

January 1997 •English

Bill Moyers and filmmaker David Grubin give viewers a rare glimpse into dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones’s highly acclaimed dance Still/Here. At workshops around the country, people facing life-threatening illnesses are asked to remember the highs and lows of their lives, and even imagine their own deaths. They then transform their feelings into expressive movement, which Jones incorporates into the dance performed later in the program. For this documentary, Jones demonstrates the movements of his own life story: his first encounter with white people, confusion over his sexuality, his partner Arnie Zane’s untimely death from AIDS, and Jones’s own HIV-positive status.

Fidel Lemoy

October 2020 •Spanish

Equatorial Guinea became independent 51 years ago from Spain. This African country lives under one of the longest-lived dictatorships in the world, Teodoro Obiang, a military man trained in Zaragoza. His regime strongly represses all freedoms, including sexual ones. Franco Spanish laws are still in force in the country, such as the «public scandal». It is not possible to protest on the street and the only LGTB organization in the country has not been able to legalize itself. In addition, the country’s Parliament is studying hardening the current penal code. To denounce the situation, the group «We are part of the world» has collected the voices of the community in a documentary that pays tribute to Fidel Lemoy, one of its best-known faces, who disappeared last year.

Fabulous

June 2019 •French

Ninja is famous around the world for her fierce ballroom performances, but she is not as well-known in her native country of French Guyana. But a trip home to teach a workshop might change that.

Paris Is Burning

March 1991 •English

Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Made over seven years, PARIS IS BURNING offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion "houses," from fierce contests for trophies to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia, transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women — including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza.

QUIMERA

November 2022 •Portuguese

PAJUBÁ - Vivendo a Interseccionalidade

March 2018 •Portuguese

"Pajubá" is a language created by black LGBTs as a mode of resistance. Given this, the present short film seeks to rescue the reality of people who experience in their own skin the strength of intersectionality between race, gender and sexuality in the São Francisco Valley region.

Affirmations

June 1990 •English

A look at what it's like to be gay and black in America.

Lua

March 2024 •Portuguese

Joseph Wilson meets the dance teacher fighting transphobic violence through voguing in Rio’s favelas.

Tongues Untied

March 1990 •English

Marlon Riggs, with assistance from other gay Black men, especially poet Essex Hemphill, celebrates Black men loving Black men as a revolutionary act. The film intercuts footage of Hemphill reciting his poetry, Riggs telling the story of his growing up, scenes of men in social intercourse and dance, and various comic riffs, including a visit to the "Institute of Snap!thology," where men take lessons in how to snap their fingers: the sling snap, the point snap, the diva snap.

Jo

July 2020 •French

Jo is a 40-year-old transgender man addicted to cocaine. This addiction prevents him from achieving his transition in good conditions, and from maintaining fulfilling relationships. He is trying to quit drugs and to make a fresh start.

Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin

January 2003 •English

Documentary on Bayard Rustin, best-remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.

Portrait of Jason

September 1967 •English

Interview with Jason Holliday aka Aaron Payne. House-boy, would-be cabaret performer, and self-proclaimed hustler giving one man's gin-soaked, pill-popped view of what it was like to be black and gay in 1960s United States. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Milestone Films in 2013.