This documentary profiles the eight couples who challenged marriage laws in British Columbia in court until same-sex marriage was recognized in 2003. As controversy swirls around this issue worldwide, Why Thee Wed? offers surprising and diverse perspectives on what it means for gay and lesbian couples to walk down the aisle and to fight for the right to do so under the law.
This documentary profiles the eight couples who challenged marriage laws in British Columbia in court until same-sex marriage was recognized in 2003. As controversy swirls around this issue worldwide, Why Thee Wed? offers surprising and diverse perspectives on what it means for gay and lesbian couples to walk down the aisle and to fight for the right to do so under the law.
2005-05-28
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The life story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, who survived the Nazi reign as a trans woman and helped start the German gay liberation movement. Documentary with some dramatized scenes. Two actors play the young and middle aged Charlotte and she plays herself in the later years.
Thomas Haemmerli is about to celebrate his fortieth birthday when he learns of his mother's death. A further shock follows when he and his brother Erik discover her apartment, which is filthy and full to bursting with junk. It takes the brothers an entire month to clean out the place. Among the chaos, they find films going back to the 1930s, photos and other memorabilia.
A behind-the-scenes look inside the case to overturn California's ban on same-sex marriage. Shot over five years, the film follows the unlikely team that took the first federal marriage equality lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Panic Bodies is a 70-minute, six-part exploration of the ways we experience the body's betrayals: disease, decline and death. The film is a panorama of emotionally charged recollections of strange relatives and estranged siblings, staged recreations of fast-fading pasts and personal mythologies, and reflections on the anxious states created by the body's fragile claims on time and space. It's about being a stranger in your own skin. Panic Bodies perfects the phantom quality of any good work about mourning, but it is not reducible to that. It is also enlivened by the intimacy that comes from having made a spectacle of personal secrets." (Kathleen Pirrie Adams, Xtra)
The hotel Gondolín is home to some 30 transvestites who practice prostitution as the only option to survive in a society that excludes them.
Renowned Haida artist Bill Reid shares his thoughts on artistry, activism and his deep affection for his homeland in this heartwarming tribute from Alanis Obomsawin to her friend's life, legacy and roots.
Fred Martinez was a Navajo youth slain at the age of 16 by a man who bragged to his friends that he 'bug-smashed a fag'. But Fred was part of an honored Navajo tradition - the 'nadleeh', or 'two-spirit', who possesses a balance of masculine and feminine traits.
A former U.S. Navy Seal seeks life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness living life as a transgender woman.
Violeta leads a normal life in a well-off family, with loving parents, surrounded by everything the heart of an eleven-year-old girl might wish for. But she hasn’t always been the pretty girl she is today; she was born a boy. At age 6, she baffled her parents (the famous adult movie stars Nacho Vidal and Franceska Jaimes) when she told them she wanted to be called and dress as a girl. After the initial shock, they decided to give her all their support on the long and tough road that will lead to her becoming a woman someday. Violeta faces many challenges, medical (such as deciding whether or not to take hormone-blockers to stop the development of masculine features as soon as puberty kicks in) and legal (obtaining an ID card with her new name and gender). Later, she may consider getting a sex reassignment procedure, or the possibility of becoming a mother through adoption.
Películas is the name of a poetry book by Luís Miguel Nava, a homosexual poet, born in Viseu, who died in Brussels and whose magnificent poetic work remains widely unknown. Drawn from the filmmaker’s family super8 film archive, and excerpts from the film Un chant d'amour, by Jean Genet, the film builds a “body” marked by memories, by various skins, by Nava's films, by his poems and by its landscapes.
Katie Couric travels across the U.S. to talk with scientists, psychologists, activists, authors and families about the complex issue of gender.
The film follows the story of Jamie, a struggling butch lesbian actress who gets cast as a man in a film. The main plot is a romantic comedy between Jamie's male alter-ego, "Male Jamie," and Jill, a heterosexual woman on set. The film's subplots include Jamie's bisexual roommate Lola and her cat actor Howard, Lola's abrasive butch German girlfriend Andi, and Jamie's gay Asian friend David.
Naked in America follows four everyday American couples from all walks of life, as they shed their clothes and inhibitions for a week at a luxury nudist resort in Palm Springs, California. Capturing the reactions of this diverse group to their new environment, the uncensored feature-length documentary examines the American attitude towards the naked human form, and to each other.
Robert Oppel's documentary about the life and murder of his uncle and namesake, Robert Opel, the man who streaked the Academy Awards in 1974.
A documentary incorporating footage of Montgomery Clift’s most memorable films; interviews with family and friends, and rare archival material stretching back to his childhood. What develops is the story of an intense young boy who yearned for stardom, achieved notable success in such classic films as From Here to Eternity and I Confess, only to be ruined by alcohol addiction and his inability to face his own fears and homosexual desires. Montgomery Clift, as this film portrays him, may not have been a happy man but he never compromised his acting talents for Hollywood.
In the spotlight of global media coverage, the first transgender woman ever to perform as Don Giovanni in a professional opera, makes her historic debut in one of the reddest states in the U.S.
Trailblazing artists, activists, and everyday people from across the spectrum of gender and sexuality defy social norms and dare to live unconventional lives in this kaleidoscopic view of LGBTQ+ culture in contemporary Japan.
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.
Vancouver's Downtown East side is home to thousands of drug addicts, prostitutes, and the mentally ill. Amateur cameraman K.R.T. spent one summer on these mean streets getting to know longtime homeless drug addicts Ken and Lisa. This seemingly random footage was given to first time writer/director Josh Laner who found a story of people trying to connect in an area where no one seems connected to much of anything. An intimate and surreal look at life on the streets in Canada's most impoverished postal code. This is Josh Laner's first film.