MC Library Research Guides: LGBTQ+ Pride: Watch

Films

I Love You Phillip Morris

The true story of a spectacularly charismatic conman’s journey from small-town businessman to flamboyant white-collar criminal, who repeatedly finds himself in trouble with the law and on the lam, all in the name of love. Happily married and a member of the local police force, Steven Russell (Jim Carrey) is prompted to make dramatic reassessment of his life after a car accident. Realising he is gay, Steven decides to live his life to the fullest.

Everything Everywhere All at Once

When an interdimensional rupture threatens to unravel reality, the fate of the world is suddenly in the hands of a most unlikely hero: Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh), a flustered immigrant mother. As bizarre and bewildering dangers emerge from the many possible worlds, she must learn to channel her newfound powers and fight her way through the splintering timelines to save her home, her family, and herself in this big-hearted and irreverent adventure through the multiverse.

Ammonite

1840s England, acclaimed fossil hunter Mary Anning and a young woman sent to convalesce by the sea develop an intense relationship, altering both of their lives forever.

Moonlight

MOONLIGHT is the tender, heartbreaking story of a young man's struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.

Neptune Frost

Multi-hyphenate, multidisciplinary artist Saul Williams brings his unique dynamism to this Afrofuturist vision, a sci-fi punk musical that’s a visually wondrous amalgamation of themes, ideas, and songs that Williams has previously explored in his work. The film takes place in the hilltops of Burundi, where a group of escaped coltan miners form an anti-colonialist computer hacker collective. From their camp in an otherworldly e-waste dump, they attempt a takeover of the authoritarian regime exploiting the region's natural resources – and its people. When an intersex runaway and an escaped coltan miner find each other through cosmic forces, their connection sparks glitches within the greater divine circuitry.

Love, Simon

Everyone deserves a great love story. But for Simon it's complicated: no-one knows he's gay and he doesn't know who the anonymous classmate is that he's fallen for online. Resolving both issues proves hilarious, scary and life-changing.

Happy Together

A chamber drama about two male lovers from Hong Kong who start off seeking a new life but end up separating on their way to a waterfall in Argentina. Stuck in Buenos Aires, the two meet up again.

God's Own Country

This simmering drama is a New York Times Critics' Pick and an award-winner at Sundance and Berlinale. Johnny Saxby (Josh O'Connor) works long hours in brutal isolation on his family's farm in the north of England. He numbs the daily frustration of his lonely existence with nightly binge-drinking at the local pub and casual sex. When a handsome Romanian migrant worker (Alec Secareanu) arrives Johnny is confronted with new emotions. An intense relationship forms between the two which could change Johnny's life forever.

The Object of My Affection

Pregnant social worker Nina and gay schoolteacher George become fast friends - and embark on the most important relationship of their lives - when, out of desperation, George moves into Nina's spare room. When Nina finds out she's pregnant with her boyfriend's child, she decides she would rather raise her baby with the man who's closest to her - George "The Object of My Affection" is a comedy-drama that pushes the very tender lines between love, sex and friendship.

Boys Don't Cry

The life and times of Teena Marie Brandon provides the basis for this biographical drama featuring Hillary Swank as a 21-year-old Nebraskan who passed herself off as a boy before aquaintances turned on her in a violent attack. One week later, she and two others were shot to death by the same pair. Under the direction of first-time filmmaker Kimberly Peirce, this true story is based on a sensational murder case in which the hatred and fear of unorthodox sexuality ran deep: "Instead of being shouted, it festers until it explodes in acts of violence whose cause even the killers themselves don't seem to comprehend fully.

The Watermelon Woman

The wry, incisive debut feature by Cheryl Dunye gave cinema something bracingly new and groundbreaking: a vibrant representation of Black lesbian identity by a Black lesbian filmmaker. Dunye stars as Cheryl, a video-store clerk and aspiring director whose interest in forgotten Black actresses leads her to investigate an obscure 1930s performer known as the Watermelon Woman, whose story proves to have surprising resonances with Cheryl’s own life as she navigates a new relationship.

The Wound

Brimming with sex and violence, THE WOUND is an exploration of tradition and sexuality set amid South Africa’s Xhosa culture. Every year, the tribe’s young men are brought to the mountains of the Eastern Cape to participate in an ancient coming-of-age ritual. Xolani, a quiet and sensitive factory worker (played by openly gay musician Nakhane Touré), is assigned to guide Kwanda, a city boy from Johannesburg sent by his father to be toughened up, through this rite of passage into manhood. As Kwanda defiantly negotiates his queer identity within this masculine environment, he quickly recognizes the nature of Xolani’s relationship with fellow guide Vija. The three men commence a dangerous dance with each other and their own desires and, soon, the threat of exposure elevates the tension to breaking point.

History/Politics

Framing Agnes

The pseudonymous Agnes was a pioneering transgender woman who participated in an infamous gender health study conducted at UCLA in the 1960s. Her clever use of the study to gain access to gender-affirming healthcare led to her status as a fascinating and celebrated figure in trans history. In this innovative cinematic exercise that blends fiction and nonfiction, director Chase Joynt (No Ordinary Man) uses Agnes's story, along with others unearthed in long-shelved case files, to widen the frame through which trans history is viewed. This collective reclamation breaks down the myth of isolation among transgender history-makers, breathing new life into a lineage of collaborators and conspirators who have been forgotten for far too long.

Before Homosexuals

John Scagliotti, executive producer of the landmark film *Before Stonewall*, guides us in a wondrous tour of erotic history, poetry and visual art in his new documentary on same-sex desire – from ancient times to Victorian crimes. Traveling all over the world and talking with dozens of experts on history, art and sexuality, he revels in lesbian love spells from ancient Rome, censored chapters of the Kamasutra, Native American two-spirit rituals and much more.

Before Stonewall

In 1969 the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village, leading to three nights of rioting by the city's gay community. With this outpouring of courage and unity the Gay Liberation Movement had begun. BEFORE STONEWALL pries open the closet door--setting free the dramatic story of the sometimes horrifying public and private existences experienced by gay and lesbian Americans since the 1920s. Revealing and often humorous, this widely acclaimed film relives the emotionally-charged sparking of today's gay rights movement, from the events that led to the fevered 1969 riots to many other milestones in the brave fight for acceptance.

Casa Susanna

In the 1950s and ’60s, an underground network of transgender women and cross-dressing men found refuge at a house in the Catskills region of New York. Known as Casa Susanna, the house provided a safe place to express their true selves. Told through the memories of those who visited, the film looks back at a secret world where the persecuted and frightened found freedom and acceptance.

Wojnarowicz

A fiery and urgent documentary portrait of downtown New York City artist, writer, photographer, and activist David Wojnarowicz. As New York City became the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, Wojnarowicz weaponized his work and waged war against the establishment’s indifference to the plague until his death from it in 1992 at the age of 37. Exclusive access to his breathtaking body of work – including paintings, journals, and films – reveals how Wojnarowicz emptied his life into his art and activism. Rediscovered answering machine tape recordings and intimate recollections from Fran Lebowitz, Gracie Mansion, Peter Hujar, and other friends and family help present a stirring portrait of this fiercely political, unapologetically queer artist.

How To Survive A Plague

Faced with their own mortality, an improbable group of mostly HIV - positive young men and women broke the mold as radical warriors taking on Washington and the medical establishment. Despite having no scientific training, these self - made activists infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry and helped identify promising new drugs, moving them from experimental trials to patients in record time. How To Survive A Plague is the story of how activism and innovation turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition.

Documentaries

Kumu Hina: The True Meaning of Aloha

Kumu Hina is a powerful film about the struggle to maintain Pacific Islander culture and values within the westernized society of modern day Hawai'i. It is told through the lens of an extraordinary Native Hawaiian who is both a proud and confident mahu, or transgender woman, and an honored and respected kumu, or teacher, cultural practioner, and community leader.

Fractal: Stories Across the Gender Spectrum

A collection of 4 Transgender and Gender Queer Documentary Shorts that explores the wide spectrum of experiences often left out of the traditional narrative. From a successful trans woman running her own salon in New Orleans to a collective experimental video essay road film; the collection expands on the joys, struggles and honest conversations within the community.

Who's On Top?: LGBTQs Summit Mt. Hood

“Who’s on Top?” (narrated by George Takei) is the emotional story of members of the LGBTQ community who challenge stereotypes about gender and sexuality and demonstrate their diverse journeys in overcoming physical and figurative mountains.

A Sinner in Mecca: Challenging Faith in the Face of Adversity

For a gay filmmaker, filming in Saudi Arabia presents two serious challenges: filming is forbidden in the country and homosexuality is punishable by death. For filmmaker Parvez Sharma, however, these were risks he had to assume as he embarked on his Hajj pilgrimage, a journey considered the greatest accomplishment and aspiration within Islam, his religion.. On his journey Parvez aims to look beyond 21st-century Islam's crises of religious extremism, commercialism and sectarian battles. He brings back the story of the religion like it has never been told before, having endured the biggest jihad there is: the struggle with the self.

Paris is Burning

The "unblinking behind-the-scenes story of the fashion-obsessed New Yorkers who created 'voguing' and drag balls, and turned these raucous celebrations into a powerful expression of fierce personal pride.

Keith Haring: Street Art Boy

International art sensation Keith Haring blazed a trail through the legendary art scene of 1980s New York and revolutionized the worlds of pop culture and fine art.

The Archivettes

Founded in the 1970s in a New York City apartment, The Lesbian Herstory Archives is now the world’s largest collection of materials by and about lesbians. For more than 40 years, the all-volunteer organization has striven to combat lesbian invisibility by literally rescuing history from the trash. Frustrated by misogyny and homophobia within academia, Deborah Edel and Joan Nestle co-founded the archives for those conducting research, both professional and personal. Over the years, the organization has witnessed many of the major milestones in LGBTQ+ history and has weathered several storms. Today, with its founders in their seventies, the archives are facing new challenges, including a change in leadership and the rise of digital technology.

It's Still Elementary

It examines the incredible impact of another New Day title, It's Elementary - Talking About Gay Issues in School, over the last decade and follows up with teachers and students featured in the first film to see how lessons about LGBT people changed their lives. It's STILL Elementary also documents the story behind the controversial PBS broadcast of It's Elementary and the infamous right-wing attacks on the film and its creators. It's STILL Elementary is a call to action for parents and educators to continue working for safe, inclusive schools.

Choosing Children

Being a lesbian no longer means giving up motherhood, thanks in part to the culture-changing impact of this feminist classic. These pioneering lesbian mothers figured out how to bring children into their families while overcoming social and legal hurdles Hailed as a pioneering achievement when it was first released in 1984, Choosing Children dramatically challenged the assumption that being lesbian means you can't be a mom. Six lesbian-headed families make decisions about how to become pregnant, navigate the process of adoption, whether to involve men in parenting, and address reactions from relatives, doctors and schoolmates. In so doing, they helped redefine what family means and opened the door for everyone to consider parenting, regardless of sexual orientation.

In My Shoes: Stories of Youth With LGBT Parents

Five young people who are children of LGBT parents give you a chance to walk in their shoes - to hear their views on marriage, making change, and what it means to be a family.

Tales of the Waria

Indonesia is home to the world's largest Muslim population. It is also home to the "warias," a community of biological men who live openly as women. In this eye-opening documentary, four warias search for romance and intimacy. They encounter a host of obstacles-- family pressures, economic burdens, aging-- but strive to stay true to themselves and to find lasting companionship. Shot over three years with the local queer community serving as story consultants and film crew members, the film provides an unprecedented look into topics rarely discussed in Western media: Indonesia, Islamic culture, and the daily life and struggles of transgender communities around the world.

Leitis in Waiting

Leitis In Waiting is the story of Joey Mataele and the Tonga Leitis, an intrepid group of transgender women fighting a rising tide of religious fundamentalism in their highly religious and conservative South Pacific Kingdom. With unexpected humor and extraordinary access to the Kingdom's royals and religious leaders, this emotional journey reveals what it means to be different in a society ruled by tradition, and the challenge of being yourself without forsaking culture and tradition.

(A)sexual

This groundbreaking film introduces viewers to men and women who have never experienced sexual attraction. In 2000, David Jay came out as asexual to his parents, a quality he accepts about himself. And David is not alone; studies show that as much as one percent of the population may be asexual. Living in a society obsessed with sex, how does one deal with life as an outsider? In (A)Sexual, people describe firsthand the challenges of acknowledging to themselves--and others--their asexuality.

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by Niyati Pandya Last Updated Sep 12, 2025 2719 views this year

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LGBTQ+ Pride: Watch