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Movies, TED Talks, documentaries, short videos and more exploring different perspectives and experience within the LGBTQ community. Some are available freely online and others can be viewed through Kanopy or Hoopla by signing in with your library card.
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Movies
Oscar-winner for Best Picture, Moonlight is a moving and transcendent look at three defining chapters in the life of Chiron, a young man growing up in Miami. His epic journey to adulthood, as a shy outsider dealing with difficult circumstances, is guided by support, empathy and love from the most unexpected places.
Set against the stifling conformity of pre-World War I English society, Maurice is a story of coming to terms with one’s sexuality and identity in the face of disapproval and misunderstanding. Maurice Hall (James Wilby) and Clive Durham (Hugh Grant) find themselves falling in love at Cambridge.
Cheryl Dunye plays a version of herself in this witty, nimble landmark of New Queer Cinema.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
Based on the celebrated novel by Emily M. Danforth, The Miseducation of Cameron Post follows the titular character (Chloë Grace Moretz) as she is sent to a gay conversion therapy center after getting caught with another girl in the back seat of a car on prom night.
It’s Christmas Eve in Tinseltown and Sin-Dee is back on the block. Upon hearing that her pimp boyfriend hasn’t been faithful during the 28 days she was locked up, the transgender sex worker and her best friend, Alexandra, embark on a mission to get to the bottom of the scandalous rumor.
Ronit (Rachel Weisz) returns to the Orthodox Jewish community that shunned her decades earlier for an attraction to a childhood friend Esti (Rachel McAdams). Once reunited, their passions reignite as they explore the boundaries of faith and sexuality.
Bursting with the colorful street style & music of Nairobi’s vibrant youth culture, Rafiki is a tender love story between two young women in a country that still criminalizes homosexuality. Kena and Ziki have long been told that “good Kenyan girls become good Kenyan wives” – but they yearn for something more.
Documentaries
How to Survive a Plague is a 2012 American documentary film about the early years of the AIDS epidemic, and the efforts of activist groups ACT UP and TAG. It was directed by David France, a journalist who covered AIDS from its beginnings
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.
From her early infatuation with books to her first experience in a gay bar; from her early marriage to her 15-year relationship with legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz, Regarding Susan Sontag is a fascinating look at a towering cultural critic and writer whose works on photography, war, illness, and terrorism continue to resonate today.
The Year We Thought About Love
What happens when LGBTQ youth decide to create a play about queer love to tour to area high schools? The Hollywood Reporter writes that the play “shocks, entertains, and awes!”
Go on an intimate and eye-opening journey inside a new frontier. Told from the perspective of parents, doctors, and, most revealing of all, eight transgender kids themselves, ranging in ages from 9 to 19, FRONTLINE takes a powerful look at this new generation, exploring the medical possibilities, struggles, and choices transgender kids and their families face today.
During the repressive 1950s, Dr. Evelyn Hooker undertook groundbreaking research that led to a radical discovery: homosexuals were not, by definition, “sick.” Dr. Hooker’s finding sent shock waves through the psychiatric community and culminated in a major victory for gay rights – in 1974 the weight of her studies, along with gay activism, forced the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from its official manual of mental disorders.
This documentary chronicles the US tour of a group of Black lesbian poets and musicians, who become present-day stewards of a historical movement to build community among queer women of color.
TED Talks Love is Love playlist
7 short moving, personal talks that share stories of love and commitment in the LGBTQ community.
Short YouTube Videos
Have questions about the LGBTQ community but are too afraid to ask? The Advocate is here to introduce you to the queer world.
Follow one trans Latinx woman’s yearlong, life-changing journey as she shares her gender transition story and the importance of being unapologetically yourself in this docuseries.
