5 documentaries you should watch this Pride Month

It’s still Pride Month, so it’s the perfect time to not only celebrate what we’ve accomplished so far but also to learn a bit more about our community and be mindful of the struggles that our people have faced (and still face) during the continuous efforts to obtain equal rights. That’s why, here at Q+, we’ve rounded up some documentaries for y’all to watch on the different streaming services available around the world.

The movies or series we’ve put together below are, in our humble opinion, great documentaries that highlight the broad struggles our community has experienced over the years and some of the many successes we’ve collectively had along the way.

So buckle up, grab some popcorn, and let the learning begin! Here are 5 documentaries to watch this Pride Month!

Before Stonewall: The making of a Gay and Lesbian community (1984)

Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian community is a documentary that pries open the closet door, setting free the dramatic story of survival, love, persecution, and resistance experienced by LGBTQ Americans since the early 1900’s. 

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. It’s a fascinating and unforgettable experience of a decade-by-decade history of homosexuality in America through eye-opening historical footage and amazing interviews with those who lived through an often brutal closeted history.

Narrated by iconic author Rita Mae Brown, the film includes groundbreaking interviews with Ann Bannon, Martin Duberman, Allen Ginsberg, Barbara Gittings, Harry Hay, Mabel Hampton, Dr. Evelyn Hooker, Frank Kameny, Audre Lorde, Richard Bruce Nugent, Jose Sarria and many more.

Where to watch? Amazon Prime or YouTube

The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017)

The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson is a documentary that focuses on efforts to gain justice for an important transgender activist whose death in 1992 is still surrounded by mystery. 

But the film is more than that. It highlights many critical moments in the history of the LGBTQ movement. Directed by David France and starring Marsha P. Johnson, this film documents the life of the prominent activist in the late 1960s through the early 1990s, and follows the re-opened investigation into Johnson’s suspicious death.

Marsha P. Johnson, out, proud, and committed to helping her community, was pulled from the Hudson River in 1992; authorities called the death a suicide. Years later, Victoria Cruz, a transgender advocate working under the auspices of the New York Anti-Violence Project (AVP), an LGBTQ organization, sets out to find the truth about Marsha’s death. References to and conversations about violence perpetrated, particularly on transgender people, are at the forefront of the movie. 

Where to watch? Netflix

How to Survive a Plague (2012)

Directed by David France, How to Survive a Plague tells the riveting and heartbreaking story of the founding and growth of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), a central player in the struggle to pressure drug companies and the U.S. government to aggressively pursue a treatment and cure for AIDS. 

Through rich and intimate archival material — home videos made by the activists themselves, news broadcasts, footage of protests — viewers learn about the men and women who comprised ACT UP, many of whom were sick with the virus themselves, and see, in real-time, how their bold civil disobedience was born, cultivated, honed, and mobilized at key moments in the struggle.

In a very powerful move, it isn’t revealed until the very end of the film who among the original cadre of activists we get to see during the film lived to benefit from the discovery of an effective treatment for AIDS. This strategy serves to remind us that the political fight for these activists was literally a matter of life and death. A must-watch. 

Where to watch? HBO Max

Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen (2020)

Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen is an unprecedented, eye-opening look at transgender depictions in film and television, revealing how Hollywood simultaneously reflects and manufactures our deepest anxieties about gender. 

Directed by Sam Feder, this documentary tackles a full history of transgender representation in Hollywood, one that goes back to early silent era films, and includes Bugs Bunny, The Jeffersons, The Silence of the Lambs, FX’s Pose, and many more. Leading trans thinkers and creatives, including Laverne Cox, Lilly Wachowski, Yance Ford, Mj Rodriguez, Jamie Clayton, and Chaz Bono, share their reactions and resistance to some of Hollywood’s most beloved moments.  

With hundreds of clips, the doc establishes a long history of images for people who are marginalized to this day, but it faces transphobic media with its cutting analysis – as painful as many misrepresentations in popular culture can be, this documentary is an eloquent wake-up call against cliches (sex workers, murdered characters, psychos) and images that have given everyone the wrong idea, provoking a startling revolution in how we see and understand trans people.

Where to Watch? Netflix

Visible: Out on Television (2020)

Visible: Out on Television is a five-part documentary television series event from Emmy-nominated filmmakers Ryan White and Jessica Hargrave, and executive producers Wanda Sykes and Wilson Cruz. 

The series investigates the importance of TV as an intimate medium that has shaped the American conscience, and how the LGBTQ movement has shaped television. Combining archival footage with interviews with key players from the movement and the screen, the docuseries is narrated by Janet Mock, Margaret Cho, Asia Kate Dillon, Neil Patrick Harris, and Lena Waithe. Each hour-long explores themes such as invisibility, homophobia, the evolution of the LGBTQ character, and coming out in the television industry.

The docu-series features never-before-seen interviews with GLAAD President & CEO Sarah Kate Ellis, Ellen DeGeneres, Oprah Winfrey, Anderson Cooper, Billy Porter, Rachel Maddow, Don Lemon, Sara Ramirez, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and dozens more.

Where to Watch? Apple TV+ 

These documentaries barely scratch the surface when it comes to LGBTQ+ history, but they’re a good way to start.

Happy Pride Month, y’all!

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