How Do I Look

An investigation of how Hollywood's fabled stories have deeply influenced how Americans feel about transgender people, and how transgender people have been taught to feel about themselves.

From the rains of Japan, through threats of arrest for 'public indecency' in Canada, and a birthday tribute to her father in Detroit, this documentary follows Madonna on her 1990 'Blond Ambition' concert tour. Filmed in black and white, with the concert pieces in glittering MTV color, it is an intimate look at the work of the icon, from a prayer circle before each performance to bed games with the dance troupe afterwards.

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.

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.

25 years after Paris is Burning, we dive back into the fierce world of voguing battles in the Kiki scene of New York City, where competition between Houses demands leadership, painstaking practice, and performances on point. A film collaboration between Kiki gatekeeper, Twiggy Pucci Garçon, and Swedish filmmaker Sara Jordenö, we’re granted exclusive access into this high stakes world, where tough competitions act as a gateway into the daily lives of LGBTQ youth of color in NYC. The new generation of ballroom youth use the motto, “Not About us Without Us”. Twiggy and Sara’s insider-outsider approach to their stories breathes fresh life into the representation of a marginalized community who demand visibility and real political power.

It’s the resilience and love that keeps this community marching to the beat of its own drum; each generation redefining what it means to be queer and to be seen.

In 1967, New York City is host to the Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant. This documentary takes a look behind the scenes, transporting the viewer into rehearsals and dressing rooms as the drag queen subculture prepares for this big national beauty contest. Jack/Sabrina is the mistress of ceremonies, and their protégé, Miss Harlow, is in the competition. But, as the pageant approaches, the glamorous contestants veer from camaraderie to tension.

In 1990, seven young male dancers joined Madonna on her most controversial world tour. Their journey was captured in Truth or Dare. As a self-proclaimed 'mother' to her six gay dancers plus straight Oliver, Madonna used the film to make a stand on gay rights and freedom of expression. The dancers became paragons of pride, inspiring people all over the world to dare to be who you are. 25 years later, the dancers share their own stories about life during and after the tour. What does it really take to express yourself?

Check Your Body At The Door is a documentary film about some remarkable underground house dancers in NYC during the golden decade of the 1990s. It follows master free-stylists into the clubs, their jobs, and their everyday lives. Filmed in the studio as well, the dancers’ virtuosic moves are brilliantly revealed in silhouette or light pools. In their words they describe the importance of clubbing, why they dance, how they dance, and what it means.

Since 2000, Michael T, Justine D, Johnny T and Georgie Seville have come together to put on one of the most exciting events in nightlife: Motherfucker. Influenced by 90's clubs such Jackie 60 and Squeezebox, Motherfucker reinvigorated the New York club scene after it spiraled into remission following its murderous and violent past. This documentary profiles the scene itself as well as the club’s promoters, a loving and sometimes feuding family headed by their mother, Michael T. Performance footage intercuts with interviews featuring David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain of the New York Dolls, Moby, Alan Cumming, The Juan MacLean, vogue icon Willie Ninja and many others, weighing in on how Motherfucker figures into the lineage of NYC nightlife.

A group of young lost rebellious outsiders are given a home in New York City by Emmy Award-winning fashion stylist, Patricia Field, and together take on the world, changing it forever. Field, has done a lot more than Sex and the City. She has spent several decades saving lives and giving hope to lost outsiders who society frowned upon--transsexuals, club kids, drag queens, gay teenagers, butch-dykes, people who needed to escape from their hometowns because they were never understood. This is the story of a close-knit unconventional family in New York that has single-handedly changed music and fashion for the world several times over. Toronto filmmaker, Mars Roberge, has spent a decade becoming one with them so that their story could be told. In doing so, he becomes part of their family.

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.

Short film starring founding member of the house of St Laurent; Octavia.

Portrait of the last year of the life of famous New York drag queen Consuela Cosmetic.

A quickfire portrait of the New York City ballroom scene in the ‘80s.

Trans people were at the forefront of the 1969 uprising at Greenwich Village’s Stonewall Inn, but their stories have not always been central in film representations of LGBT life in the city. T.V. Transvestite captures a fierce House of LaBeija Ball thrown at a Harlem Bingo Hall. Considered “lost” and not screened in public for over two decades, the film shows legends Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Sugar in the period before voguing and the advent of AIDS. A stirring example of how queer focused and produced film has long flourished in NYC.

Matthew, a young schizophrenic, finds himself out on the street when a slumlord tears down his apartment building. Soon, he finds himself in even more dire straits, when he is threatened by Little Leroy, a thug who is one of the tough denizens of the Fort Washington Shelter for Men. He reaches out to Jerry, a streetwise combat veteran, who takes Matthew under his wing as a son. The relationship between these two men grows as they attempt to conquer the numbing isolation of homelessness.

A collage of erotic images and a call to arms, with a feverish hip-hop energy that celebrates the lives of African American men.