On June 28, 1969, the Stonewall riots changed everything. On that day, the queer patrons of New York City's Stonewall Inn took a stand and fought back against police brutality; that event would prove to be a turning point and the spark for the gay liberation movement, and it is why, more than half a century later, Pride Month is celebrated in June.
The history of gay rights is the story of the one and the many, and queer people have had to fight to not only have those stories told, but to be the ones to tell them. The world of documentary filmmaking has long allowed LGBTQ+ artists to capture the truths of their lived experience and to preserve the histories of the community in all of their complexities. These stories offer viewers a window into the past — at the queer ancestors whose shoulders the current generation stands on, at the moments that forever altered the course of history — that allow everyone to better look to the future and at the fight still to come.
From underseen essentials to Oscar-winning classics, the following list highlights some of the documentaries that have best captured the struggles and joys of the queer experience, that spotlight LGBTQ+ voices and stories and continue to push the conversation forward for a better, more inclusive tomorrow.
Decades before RuPaul’s Drag Race popularized drag queen competitions, 1968's The Queen portrayed a rarely-seen side of New York City’s drag scene. Directed by Frank Simon, the trailblazing film documented the days leading up to the 1967 Miss All-America Camp Beauty Pageant. The Queen went behind-the-scenes and introduced viewers to dressing rooms, rehearsals, and most importantly, perspectives during a time when anti-cross-dressing laws made it illegal for men to appear in women’s clothing.
When gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk was elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors in 1977, he became California's first openly gay elected government official. Directed by Rob Epstein, 1984's The Times of Harvey Milk marks Milk's ascent to public office and his assassination, which cut short his career and his life in 1978. The film won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
Directed by Marlon Riggs, Tongues Untied depicted the intersectional experiences of gay Black men like himself who were caught between the homophobia within the African American community and the racism of the predominantly white LGBTQ+ society at the time. The scene in the film that depicted two men kissing was attacked by conservative viewers who found it inappropriate for PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts to be publicly funding "pornographic" art. Riggs defended the film on the basis that it was shattering the "nation's brutalizing silence on matters of sexual and racial difference." Today, Riggs is regarded as a pioneering activist whose work, among other things, addressed the shame around sex and desire.
Director Jennie Livingston's landmark 1990 documentary Paris is Burning chronicles New York City's vibrant 1980s ballroom scene during the 1980s, focusing on the ball circuit and voguing, a stylized dance performed by ball-goers. The film, shot over six years, dives deep into the experiences of those in the ball circuit, portraying everything from the politics of rival houses in competition to the poverty afflicting the gay and transgender people of the city.
The film captured both the joys experienced and the hardships endured by its subjects. Some ball-goers are portrayed being rejected by their biological families and finding safety in joining houses under house mothers. They're shown struggling to survive, getting by through sex work and shoplifting. Heartbreaking in parts and exuberant in others, Paris is Burning remains an essential documentary.
David France began his journalism career reporting on the LGBTQ+ community in crisis during the AIDS epidemic in the U.S. in the 1980s. Thirty years later, he pulled together archival footage from that era for this 2012 documentary, which depicts the activism and work of organizations like ACT UP and TAG. France documents the urgency and desperation of gay men and activists who tirelessly searched for medicine for HIV to survive. How to Survive a Plague received critical acclaim and went on to be nominated for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar.
Often credited as resisting police on the front lines of the Stonewall Riots, Marsha P. Johnson lived a storied life as a leading trans activist throughout the '70s. The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson takes a closer look at her legacy and her untimely death at the age of 46, her body found in the Hudson River in 1992. The film pays homage to her work to advance the rights of people of color and transgender people in the larger gay rights movement and the suspicion clouding the circumstances of her death. (Many in the LGBTQ+ community continue to believe that she was murdered.)
The late Howard Ashman is the lyricist mastermind behind the music in Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty in the Beast, amongst other, for which he earned seven Oscar nominations and won two: Best Original Song for "Under the Sea" and "Beauty and the Beast." Directed by two-time Oscar nominee Don Hahn, Howard looks back on his legacy, his fruitful partnership with the composer Alan Menken, and his many, many musical accomplishments, as well as Ashman's diagnosis with HIV/AIDS while in production of The Little Mermaid and his death at age 40 in 1991.
Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen explores the representation of transgender people in Hollywood and the impact it has had on the industry and LGBTQ+ life as a whole. The film interviews luminaries like Laverne Cox, Angelica Ross, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, and Yance Ford on their work as filmmakers and actors striving to create better and more nuanced portrayals of trans lives beyond stereotypes and fearmongering.
Reminiscent of the fictional baseball drama series A League of Their Own (2022), A Secret Love documents the real life of a lesbian professional baseball player. For nearly seventy years, Pat Henschel and baseball player Terry Donahue kept their lesbian relationship a secret from everyone — including friends and family. Facing ailing health in their old age, the two decide to come out as a couple, sharing stories of what it was like falling in love in 1947 when raids of lesbian bars were common and put their livelihoods at risk.
In the animated documentary Flee, Amin Nawabi is on the verge of entering a marriage with his long-term partner. But there’s still one secret that threatens to unravel his life, the story of how he escaped his war-torn home country, Afghanistan, before arriving as a refugee in Denmark. The film artfully pairs Nawabi’s recountings of his passage with archival footage and animated footage in a gut-wrenching narrative that highlights the plight of Nawabi’s journey and other Afghan refugees.
Flee made history by receiving three Oscars nominations; one for Best Animated Feature, another for Best Documentary Feature, and another for Best International Feature Film. No film had ever been nominated in all three categories before.
Framing Agnes brings to life UCLA’s gender clinic in the 1950s by having trans actors perform as the people interviewed and as themselves. The film’s ingenuity lies in its unique portrayal of historical and contemporary trans figures, which is grounded by transgender historian Jules Gill-Peterson who shares how transgender people have always existed, and have sought autonomy and gender-affirming healthcare throughout modern medicine.
Little Richard, the King and Queen of Rock 'n' Roll, broke gender norms and racial segregation at a time when Jim Crow laws still separated white and Black Americans. Little Richard: I Am Everything follows the trajectory of his seven-decade career as a seminal musician in the genre of rock and roll and his contradictions as a Black man who struggled with reconciling his Christianity and sexual orientation. We see how his legacy has continued to inspire future generations of artists, including the Beatles, while paving the way for the gender-expansive expression of other singers, including Prince and David Bowie.
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Kokomo City is director D. Smith's exhilarating and humanizing portrait of four Black transgender woman — Daniella Carter, Liyah Mitchell, Dominique Silver and the late Koko Da Doll — navigating their identities as Black women, trans women, and sex workers. "At the end of the day, these are representations of people in our community — the human community," Smith says. "These are complex, beautiful, intelligent women that have been, in so many ways, shunned and discredited." Kokomo City premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the NEXT Innovator Award and the Audience Award.
MORE: D. Smith Reflects on the 'Life-Changing Experience' Directing 'Kokomo City' (Exclusive)
As defined in Every Body, intersexuality is "any variation in a person's sex characteristics" that doesn't "fall neatly into that male-female box." The film centers around three intersex individuals — actor and filmmaker River Gallo (they/them), political consultant Alicia Roth Weigel (she/they), and Ph.D. student Sean Saifa Wall (he/him) — who have moved from childhoods marked by shame, secrecy and non-consensual surgeries to become the activists they are today. Every Body is helmed by filmmaker Julie Cohen, one-half of the team behind the 2018 Ruth Bader Ginsburg doc RBG.
MORE: How 'Every Body' Director Julie Cohen Brought 'Intersex Joy' to Her New Documentary (Exclusive)
