LGBTQ+ documentaries can be informative, enlightening, moving, funny, sad or all of these at once. Some are journalistic reports on a scene; others are the cinematic equivalent of a personal essay.
The LGBTQ+ documentary is not only able to connect people within a community, but also to explain the community to outsiders. Can LGBTQ+ documentaries change the world? Perhaps — but they can certainly change worldviews and make their audiences more informed and empathetic.
1. Paris Is Burning
Where to watch: Max, Criterion Channel, rentable from Apple
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2. Becoming Leslie
Where to watch: IndieFlix, Plex, rentable from Google Play and YouTube
3. Oriented
Jake Witzenfeld’s 2015 documentary Oriented is about the lives of three gay Palestinians in Israel. The three subjects live in Tel Aviv, perhaps the most gay-friendly city in the Middle East. One of the subjects, activist Khader Abu Seif, told the Associated Press that when he’s in Tel Aviv, he doesn’t get pushback for being gay, but he does get flack for being Palestinian: “At the airport, while my Jewish partners … are already at the duty-free, I’m still being checked.”
Where to watch: Dekkoo, rentable from Fandango, Amazon, Google and YouTube.
4. Compared To What: The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank
Where to watch: Not on streaming, but available on physical media.
5. Tongues Untied
Where to watch: Criterion Channel, Kanopy, OVID.
6. Little Richard: I Am Everything
Where to watch: Max, rentable from just about every platform.
7. The Times of Harvey Milk
![harvey milk, george moscone, lgbtq+ documentaries](https://lgbtqnation-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/2019/05/milk-moscone.jpg)
The 1984 documentary The Times of Harvey Milk is a must-watch for anyone interested in the life of the gay politician, one of the first to be out in the United States. The film tracks Milk’s beginnings as a camera shop owner, to supervisor of San Francisco, up to his assassination by fellow supervisor Dan White, and the riots that followed White’s sentencing.
Where to watch: Max, Criterion Channel, rentable from just about every platform.
8. She’s Not a Boy
She’s Not a Boy is about Tatenda Ngwaru, the founder of the first intersex organization in Zimbabwe, Africa. It follows her immigration to the U.S. from Zimbabwe, landing in New York City — where she still has to fight against disparities in healthcare.
Where to watch: Not available for streaming, but the Newark Public Library has the film posted to its social media platforms, along with a Q&A from the filmmakers, embedded above.
9. The Freedom to Marry
The Freedom to Marry was released just about a year following the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage in the United States. The documentary is about Evan Wolfson, the “architect” of the same-sex marriage movement, along with other figures in the marriage equality movement. Watch it now before the conservative Court rolls back its decision.
Where to watch: Peacock, Fubo, Roku, Hoopla, Tubi, FlixPremiere, Flex, rentable from the usual suspects.
10. Thanks to Hank
Experimental composer Bob Ostertag directed Thanks to Hank, about Hank Wilson, who started the AIDS Candlelight Vigil. Wilson was a former kindergarten teacher who ran an HIV-positive hospice in San Francisco during the worst parts of the AIDS epidemic. He also launched the first queer comedy club in the city, the Valencia Rose Cafe, hosting legendary comedians like Whoopi Goldberg and Lea DeLaria.
Where to watch: Dekkoo, OVID.
11. Queer Planet
Where to watch: Peacock (appropriately)
12. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
![all the beauty and the bloodshed, lgbtq+ documentaries](https://lgbtqnation-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/2024/06/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed.jpg)
Oscar-winner Laura Poitras directed All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, the 2022 portrait of artist and activist Nan Goldin. Goldin is known for her photos of queer culture and the AIDS epidemic. The film also focuses on her fight against the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma over the opioid epidemic.
Where to watch: Max, rentable most everywhere
13. Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero
Where to watch: Max
14. State of Pride
Where to watch: YouTube
15. Stories of Intersex and Faith
![stories of intersex and faith, lgbtq+ documentaries](https://lgbtqnation-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/2024/06/marissabirthday.jpg)
Megan DeFranza’s 2019 documentary is about five intersex people, and their struggles with society not knowing how to handle them. The film shows that “religion can and has been a tool to support secrecy and surgeries but how their own faith has also helped them find healing, courage, and hope,” according to the film’s official website.
Where to watch: Rentable at the filmmakers’ website only.
16. How to Survive a Plague
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The 2012 documentary is about ACT UP NYC’s activism during the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s. The queer community had to come together to fight for their lives in the face of a government that literally laughed at AIDS. The film not only contains lots of great footage from their memorable direct-action protests — including a “die-in” during a Catholic cathedral and a giant condom being placed over the house of anti-gay Sen. Jesse Helms — but also how ACT UP NYC eventually suffered from in-fighting just as new pharmaceuticals appeared.
Where to watch: AMC+, Kanopy, Mubi, PlutoTV, Plex, rentable at major outlets.
17. Chasing Chasing Amy
Where to watch: Not streaming, but still touring cinemas. Check the film’s website for details.
18. The Celluloid Closet
Where to watch: Rentable at major outlets
19. Out in America
Out in America, directed by Andrew Goldberg, aired on PBS in 2011, looking at LGBTQ+ Americans across the United States. The documentary focuses on normal, average queer people — though there are a few celebrity ringers like Armistead Maupin.
Where to watch: Not streaming, but available on physical media
20. Blue
The above image is a still from Blue, the 1993 film by Derek Jarman; it is not a rendering glitch. The film visually features only a field of blue — the only color Jarman could see by the end of his life, due to AIDS-related complications. Through the film, Jarman talks about living and dying of AIDS, and shares a fable about the color blue personified. He would die in early 1994, shortly after its release. This film may not be for everyone, but those viewers it clicks with will be forever changed.
Where to watch: Kanopy, OVID, Plex, Metrograph
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