Jewelle: A Just Vision

The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin celebrates one of the world’s most beloved storytellers, following his evolution from a conservative son of the Old South into a gay rights pioneer whose novels inspired millions to reclaim their lives.

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.

With a fist full of credit cards, a lucky run at the horse track, and a title that called to mind a certain French film star, Franco Stevens launched the best-selling lesbian lifestyle magazine ever published, connecting her community in an unprecedented way. AHEAD OF THE CURVE is a new feature documentary about the extraordinary woman who started Curve magazine, and by doing so helped accelerate the political and social evolution of the nation.

This profile of storied trumpeter of jazz, Tiny Davis, and her cohort pianist-drummer, Ruby Lucas, is an amalgam of artifacts about the two women, accompanied with poetry by Cheryl Clarke.

The story of the AIDS epidemic from its early, ominous beginnings and the wave of death that followed, through the formation of ACT UP and the arrival of life-prolonging medicines. This program is comprised of interview outtakes from the documentary motion picture VITO, about gay activist and film historian Vito Russo.

Both famous and infamous lesbians talk about love and sex, and relate some of their funniest experiences about the realization of their love for women.

A documentary about lesbians preserving their history, with a focus on the work of the Lesbian Herstory Archives. Includes interviews with Joan Nestle, Jewelle Gomez, and Mariana Romo-Carmona, among others. Profiled are Mabel Hampton, Marge McDonald, theater group 5 Lesbian Brothers, and Asian Lesbians of the East Coast.

After the Stonewall riots and at the height of the gay liberation movement in America, an entire generation were busy celebrating their newfound emancipation, unaware of an impending epidemic. A disease that seemed determined to wipe out an entire generation of gay men, was largely ignored by politicians and the mainstream media. Gaetan Dugas was a French-Canadian flight attendant, who offered to help early scientific research into the origins of AIDS. An unfortunate series of events followed and he would be vilified as Patient Zero, the man who gave us AIDS.

Now known internationally as the world's first "gay hometown," San Francisco's Castro District was a quiet, working-class neighborhood of European immigrants only a few decades ago. In this documentary, the story of the Castro's transformation is told by those who lived it, young and old, straight and gay. It's a tale of social upheaval, exuberant street culture, political assassination, and the inspiring coming-of-age of an entire community an ongoing saga even today.

The 1920s saw a revolution in technology, the advent of the recording industry, that created the first class of African-American women to sing their way to fame and fortune. Blues divas such as Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Alberta Hunter created and promoted a working-class vision of blues life that provided an alternative to the Victorian gentility of middle-class manners. In their lives and music, blues women presented themselves as strong, independent women who lived hard lives and were unapologetic about their unconventional choices in clothes, recreational activities, and bed partners. Blues singers disseminated a Black feminism that celebrated emotional resilience and sexual pleasure, no matter the source.

This documentary is about the perspectives and lives of black lesbians from assorted backgrounds.

A young black lesbian filmmaker probes into the life of The Watermelon Woman, a 1930s black actress who played 'mammy' archetypes.

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

In this romantic thriller, blackmail, kidnapping, and fraud combine to give two lesbian private detectives (and lovers) their toughest case. Will their relationship survive? Produced by women for women.

Dana, a famous lesbian tennis player meets a girl she wants to get to know. A lesbian romantic comedy set on the Buttercup Bras Women's Tennis Tour.

A wildly original extravaganza, FtF: Female to Femme presents a saucy, indelible portrait of a people central to the gender revolution. Part doc-, part mock-umentary (see if you can tell which is which!), FtF explores the variations of femme identity. Interviews with famous femmes, including Guinivere Turner, Bitch and Leslie Mah (from Tribe 8) are interspersed with scenes from a parodic consciousness-raising group. FtF asks a lot of hard questions like “Does wearing a push-up bra make one a bad feminist?” Sub-genres such as the retro femme, fat femme, tomboy femme, punk femme, and high femme are all given their due. FtF is a savvy, defiant documentary that’ll make you laugh, make you think and make you want to dismantle the patriarchy, while in stilettos.