Demitra ‘Demi’ Kampakis | Film Editor
As we approach the one-month anniversary of the historical Supreme Court decision made during last June’s Pride month, the momentous gaiety of the occasion still lingers in the air—so to keep the invigorating embers of activism alive in our hearts, here are six crucial LGBTQ documentaries you can watch this summer season that are sure to entertain, enlighten, and inspire.
Though we are well into July, with the dizzying whirlwind of Pride parties and parades—as well as the frenzy of Fourth of July fireworks and festivities—seeming like a distant memory amidst the summer haze, the after-glow of progress made in LGBTQ equality nearly a month ago during June’s truly spectacular (and particularly proud) Pride month still remains; as what is typically a joyous annual month-long affair steeped in rich history, cultural importance, and a tradition of celebratory solidarity was elevated to landmark status with the US Supreme Court ruling in favor of federal marriage equality. Indeed, it was a monumental outcome that represented a significant stride in LGBTQ equality, but since the ruling reflected an essential tenet of civil rights, it was also long-overdue. After all, the fight for marriage equality has been a painstakingly slow journey documented by decades of films that emerged through the years to provide a collective voice to the arduous struggle and those fighting on behalf of it. In fact, cinema has had a long and crucial history of helping construct gay identity, with no other genre playing such a fundamental role in shedding light on the queer experience as documentaries. With their unflinching honesty, journalistic curiosity and dramatic pathos, documentaries have served as powerfully effective and resonant tools for exploring the overlap between the personal and the political—the very territory where identity rests.
In the spirit of reflection, then—both on what was a pivotal turning point in the fight for LGBTQ equality, and in paying tribute to cinema’s potential as a vehicle for social progress—let’s take a look at 6 vital documentaries that made enduring and critical contributions to the queer cultural cache. Portraits of individual experiences, collective struggles, personal journeys and family tensions reveal the full breadth of the queer experience; allowing these docs to foster a social, emotional and political consciousness that illuminates the community’s tumultuous history and distinct culture—through subjects and stories told with intimacy and urgency.
6. The Celluloid Closet (1995)
Written and directed by Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein, The Celluloid Closet is a 1995 American documentary that highlights in depth the historical representation of queer characters in motion pictures (particularly Hollywood films), and how such representations helped shape public opinion of LGBTQ individuals. An intelligent and fundamental cinematic entry point into queer culture, The Celluloid Closet helped cement queer film theory and the New Queer Cinema movement, and has become a staple for LGBTQ curriculums, as well as academic courses in media.
https://youtu.be/zAzYS48vZXY
5. Tongues Untied (1989)
A masterful blend of filmic poeticism and social provocation, Marlon Rigg’s 1989 film artfully critiques racial politics within the gay community through a format and gaze that is part documentary, part spoken-word poetry. Enhanced by powerful archival footage, Riggs documents the lives of several gay black men living through the height of the AIDS epidemic, as they lust after other gay black men and stand up for equality. Considered revolutionary at the time, the documentary’s poignant subject matter is further elevated through intercuts of poetry recited by Essex Hemphill—all culminating in an effective and moving anthropological snapshot of a doubly marginalized and disenfranchised community. A principal work for any intro to queer film studies class, Tongues Untied gives a vital voice to black gay men and brims with the same heart and humanity as its subjects.
4. Tarnation (2003)
A darkly kaleidoscopic compilation of family photos, Super-8 home movie footage, old answering machine messages, video confessionals, dramatic reenactments, and early short films amidst a backdrop of 80s pop culture imagery make up this 2003 biographical documentary from filmmaker Jonathan Caouette; in which Caouette presents a visceral and haunting account of his troubled family history and upbringing. Prompted to make Tarnation after his schizophrenic mother overdosed on her lithium medication, Caouette pieces together footage from his youth to create a work that collectively chronicles his nightmarish childhood punctuated by maternal mental illness, foster home abuse, and burgeoning homosexual desires—as his documentary tells the story of a young gay boy growing up in Houston who dealt with his hardships by stepping outside himself and harnessing the power of role-play offered through films. Comprised of decades’ worth of home movies and videotapes, Tarnation essentially began filming the day young Caouette first got a video camera and dressed up while recording himself playing characters with problems similar to his own. Indeed, in one scene we see 11 year old Jonathan dressed as a woman, as he performs a monologue of “madness and obsession” with a maniacal fervor chillingly out of character (no pun intended) for an 11-year-old. Famous for its $218 budget and having been made on a Macintosh computer and edited with the free iMovie software that came with it, Tarnation is an ingeniously crafted low-budget iteration of the documentary format. Its experimental structure constructs an immediate and intimate (if not haunting), portrait of a tortured and confused upbringing, one in which cinema served as a precious release. By referring to himself in the third person throughout, Caouette adds a distance to between his past and present self; allowing the doc to adopt a clinical and dissonant gaze that feels especially disturbing when juxtaposed with young Caouette’s deeply personal and psychologically transformative ritual of inhabiting different characters. With full command of style and technique—not to mention the welcome tonal balance achieved through the stable adult relationship Caouette shares with his attentive boyfriend—Tarnation provides a harrowing and palpable profile of life’s therapeutic dependency on art, and serves as a testament to cinema’s cathartic escapism. After all, the act of becoming someone else can itself be the most authentic act of triumph and redemption for the person behind the persona.
3. We Were Here (2011)
Candid interviews with five people—four gay men and one straight woman—provide the lens through which David Weissman and Bill Weber’s 2011 documentary explores the early years of the AIDS crisis in San Francisco; a time when the epidemic’s onset was being referred to as a “Gay Plague”. Each subject offers a different, yet equally fascinating, perspective on those confusing and tumultuous times as society was forced to confront and cope with this devastating disease. Through their experiences in “care giving, research, art, activism and personal loss,” these five voices shed light on the spectrum of suffering and resilience that marked such a frightening and unprecedented time. In addition to illustrating the community’s proactive fortitude, unity, and spiritual strength in alleviating the disease’s disastrous impact, We Were Here also opened up a critical dialogue between survivors and younger generations of gay men, who often feel too emotionally disengaged or apprehensive to raise questions about the crisis.
2. Paris is Burning (1990)
One of the most defining and ubiquitous queer films ever made, Jennie Livingston’s iconic documentary about late 1980s Harlem ballroom culture marked the onset of the New Queer Cinema movement in 1991, as it pays respect to the solidarity and collective identity that developed within the queer African-American and Latino communities through the underground drag scene. Documenting the elaborate and ornate balls in which drag queens and performers competed, Livingston deftly balances the doc’s flamboyant levity with more urgent commentary on racism and poverty, while bringing a facet of the LGBTQ subculture to the mainstream. Magnetic and engaging, Paris is Burning remains one of the most stirring, stylistic, and timeless artifacts of the queer zeitgeist.
1. Trembling Before G-d (2001)
Alas, we arrive at the last documentary on this list—a film worthy of its placement in the final slot. Centering on the personal stories of gay or lesbian Hasidic and Orthodox Jews, Trembling Before G-d delves deeply into a group of people struggling to reconcile their religious devotion and passionate love of Judaism with the harsh Biblical condemnation of homosexuality. Through interviews and footage of religious gatherings and ceremonial traditions, documentarian Sandi Simcha DuBowski immerses us into the realm of devout Judaism with a textured clarity that beautifully captures the stark cultural incompatibilities, religious hostility, and alienation that plague each person as they struggle to navigate the profound personal dilemmas resulting from the conflict between their faith and sexuality. Reserving judgment, the documentary instead explores religion and fundamentalism with a rare and respectful curiosity, and at times it is both frustrating and commendable to watch each person cling to their religion with such devout dedication; knowing that doing so further fosters their guilt and torment. In fact, all of the stories presented highlight, to some extent, the contradictions that can accompany an unwavering theological devotion—namely, how faith and religion can be both a means of bringing order, meaning and justice to the world; as well as a source of shame and spiritual isolation for those whose lifestyle or identity is deemed unacceptable by the very ideologies they have believed and practiced their whole lives. What happens when the principles you’ve lived by and relied on start to turn on you, forcing you to inhabit two different identities in ways that are confounding and contradictory? DuBowski’s documentary doesn’t presume to offer any simple answers or solutions to the quandaries its subjects face, but it does offer them the opportunity to acknowledge these uncertainties and reckon their faith. A fascinating contribution to the religion/homosexuality discourse, Trembling Before G-d tells each story with a riveting complexity that breaks barriers, stereotypes and cultural assumptions about faith and the faithful, while forcing us to confront the limitations of our own beliefs.
NOTE: Trembling Before G-d is available to stream on Hulu and Amazon Instant Video. Click image below or here for trailer.
