Laws of Love: Innocently Outlawed!

Race d'Ep!

October 1979 •French

"Race d’Ep!" (which literally translates to "Breed of Faggots") was made by the “father of queer theory,” Guy Hocquenghem, in collaboration with radical queer filmmaker and provocateur Lionel Soukaz. The film traces the history of modern homosexuality through the twentieth century, from early sexology and the nudes of Baron von Gloeden to gay liberation and cruising on the streets of Paris. Influenced by the groundbreaking work of Michel Foucault on the history of sexuality and reflecting the revolutionary queer activism of its day, "Race d’Ep!" is a shockingly frank, sex-filled experimental documentary about gay culture emerging from the shadows.

Cinema Fouad

January 1993 •Arabic

Cinema Fouad is a documentary portrait of Khaled El Kurdi, a Syrian trans woman living in Beirut, where she earns a living as a domestic worker and belly dancer. Soueid shows us scenes of El Kurdi’s domestic world: eating, applying make-up, dancing in her bedroom, all while reflecting on her life and experiences. She expresses her desire to undergo gender reassignment surgery, and mourns the death of her lover, a Palestinian freedom fighter. She often alludes to the aggressions she faces outside of her home, and through her adept defiance in the face of some of Soueid’s more goading questions, we recognize the echoing of these aggressions in his role as interviewer.

Shannon Amen

September 2019 •English

Shannon Amen unearths the passionate and pained expressions of a young woman overwhelmed by guilt and anxiety as she struggles to reconcile her sexual identity with her religious faith. A loving elegy to a friend lost to suicide.

Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine

October 2014 •English

An intimate portrait of Matthew Shepard, the gay young man murdered in one of the most notorious hate crimes in U.S. history. Framed through a personal lens, it's the story of loss, love, and courage in the face of unspeakable tragedy.

AmbulaTório

November 2019 •Portuguese

Why Do I Feel like a Boy?

October 2019 •Czech

In a small village in the south of the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, filmmaker Kateřina Turečková meets 16-year-old Ben, interested in learning about their newly discovered trans identity in person. Ben seeks refuge for their true feelings in cyberspace, finding moments of happiness by using green-screen technology to imagine their possible future. The film indirectly captures the (mis)understanding and (non-)acceptance Ben faces at school, its focused insight rounded out by the filmmaker’s interviews with Ben’s mother and sister, who inadvertently embody everything Ben hates about themself.

Sex und Identität

April 2021 •German

An explosion of gender identities and sexual orientations is currently underway: They are becoming more flexible, more diverse and, above all, more visible. One is non-binary, gender fluid, genderqueer, trans or cross gender, bisexual or pansexual. There is also strong opposition to this. The Catholic Church sees the "gender ideology" as a "postmodern aberration", and all over Europe thousands of people take to the streets to fight the supposed "gender madness" and to promote the heterosexual nuclear family as the basis of a healthy society. What is it up to the strict distinction between man and woman? Do we no longer need our classic gender roles? Is this so-called binary concept still tenable? This documentary examines these questions from a scientific perspective and shows that the world is definitely more colorful than we long believed.

Puberty: Sexual Education For Boys and Girls

January 1991 •Dutch

This sex education movie explore themes of body development, sexual hygiene, masturbation, menstruation, puberty, sex and giving birth.

Ask the Sexpert

May 2017 •English

A sex columnist gains popularity even while a ban on comprehensive sex education in schools is adopted by approximately a third of India’s states.

I'm a Porn Star

August 2013 •English

I'm a Porn Star follows the lives of guys in the neighborhood who are likely a lot more famous than you - at least on the Internet. There are an estimated 370 million pornographic websites on-line. Porn is now a thirteen BILLION dollar business. So who's doing all this moonlighting? Turns out -- probably some people you know.

Et il voulut être une femme

October 1977 •French

A look on transvestites and transsexuals in early 80's Paris. The documentary focuses on Elisa, a Brazilian transvestite and ends with a filming of a surgical operation male to female.

Man & Wife: An Educational Film for Married Adults

August 1969 •English

Hosted by some unnamed escapee from a twelve-step program, Man and Wife, moves from anatomy charts and Asian erotic art into actual footage of two couples demonstrating nearly fifty different sexual positions.

Spectrum

March 2016 •Greek

Through personal stories, the documentary approaches the issues of gender identity and legal gender recognition in Greece. The three main characters explain how society has treated them, by narrating their experiences from the past and the present.

Do I Sound Gay?

July 2015 •English

What makes a voice “gay”? A breakup with his boyfriend sets journalist David Thorpe on a quest to unravel a linguistic mystery.

Wërapara

June 2023 •Spanish

Amidst the Colombian Andes, a group of trans women from the Embera Chami community make their way into the international fashion scene, empowered through artistic collaboration and creation while preserving their spiritual heritage and ancestral connection to their territory.

My Name is Clitoris

October 2019 •French

This documentary film is a dialogue between young women about female sexuality. Addressing the subject with freedom, courage and humor, they share their stories and experiences with the desire to change the world around them and to assert their right as women to an informed sexual education, free of constraints and taboos.

Extermínio

June 2021 •Portuguese

Exterínio proposes a reflection on the lives of trans women in a city in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul, based on a murder that occurred in 2016. Memories, provocations, life stories that intersect in a plot about the difficulties of living and being trans in the interior of the country that most murders trans women in the world.

Where Love Lives: A Story of Dancefloor Culture & Expression

March 2021 •English

Documentary by the music label Defected and its brand Glitterbox about electronic music, its beginning in New York and its importance for minorities all around the world.

Tie and Red Nail

March 2014 •Portuguese

Several characters realize their personal way to build their own identity from the choice of genre. Transsexual, transgender, crossdressing – the defining of terminologies different ways of looking at yourself are constantly rising, portraying a universe of possibilities, expanding the boundaries of the possible and permitted.

Jean-Gina B.

January 1984 •French

This film is based on the true story of Jean Bella, who served as an officer in the Belgian Marine while being convinced, from an early age, that he was in fact a woman. Director Jean-Pol Ferbus follows Jean Bella and makes him talk about his life, psychological and spiritual experiences and reveals the true poet who remained undisclosed for most of this person's life. The film ultimately isn't about transexuality but about loneliness one can experience when he/she feels very deeply that she/he belongs to the two sexes and this in a deep, almost religious, fashion, to such an extent that sexuality itself is being erased from one's life. Jean-Gina Bella is a woman in the body of a man who bravely lived a life on the sea, eventually fighting the elements, talking to God when lost on the immense solitary ocean. This testimony is a very touching and poetic one.