New Int’l LGBTQ+ Documentaries to Watch this Summer
by Christine Kinori
Documentaries are a great way to tell an in-depth and informative side of a story, creating the perfect platform to start a dialogue. They are a great way to engage around the world with important issues and provide varied and reliable information which is critical to the story. Documentaries give us a captivating and creative way to bring important topics to the table and spark conversations and social movements. They allow us to see real people and hear their stories, they give global issues that seem distant or un-relatable a human face. Documentaries allow us to put ourselves in these people’s shoes and build bridges of empathy and compassion. Here are some of the LGBTQ+ documentaries that have been released this year. Hopefully, they will spark some much-needed dialogue on equality, mental health, and many other challenges the queer community faces in their daily lives.
➤ Always Amber
This is a Swedish documentary by Lia Hietala and Hannah Reinkainen. It follows 17 year old Amber, who is transitioning and on a quest for self, love and friendship. The viewers get to see the transition and it is an intimate, personal journey. The film also explores Amber’s friendship with Sebastian, who is also exploring their sexuality. The documentary talks about these issues but also factors in the emotional rollercoaster of being teenagers and the journey to finding oneself. It is a coming of age film and resonates well with this generation.
➤ Divinely, Evil
This is a film by the renowned Brazilian filmmaker Gustavo Vinagre. The story is about Wilma Azevedo, who is Brazil’s “queen of sadomasochistic literature.” She is 74 years old and is recounting her vibrant life story. It is a turbulent, sexually explicit story and it is definitely not for the faint of heart.
➤ The House of Love
This is a film by Luca Ferri who hails from Italy. The main character is Bianca, a 39 yr old transexual woman who is living in Milan and works as a prostitute. For two decades, she had been seeing a Japanese person who is temporarily living in Brazil. The story follows their relationship and their bond that has remain unshaken even with the distance between them. This is the third part of a trilogy which focuses on three domestic environments in three different formats and narratives. It is a real, natural film that explores the dynamic of Bianca’s life and its delicate spontaneity.
➤If It Were Love
This is a French documentary by Patric Chiha. It focuses on the professional and personal lives of the dancers in the traveling dance performance, Crowd. There are 15 dancers who are touring Crowd, Gisele Vienne’s dance piece on the 90’s rave scene. The film documents their intimate relationships and perfectly captures how reality and fiction blend together off and on stage in these dancers lives. It is a really transformative film that is truly captivating.The film recently won the Best Documentary from the Teddy Award program for LGBTQ themed films.
➤ Little Girl
This is a French documentary directed by Sèbastian Lifshitz. This film takes a unique look into gender dysphoria and transgender issues as it dives into the life of a young girl named Sasha. All her life, she has wanted to be a girl, and the viewers get to see the journey as her family works to help her be who she really is.The film lifts the veil on the distress of a transgender person contending with the feeling of mismatch between her assigned sex and the gender she identifies with.
These are really great films that dissect different LGBTQ issues while giving them real faces and identities. They helps us see the struggle and the joys of different LGBTQ lives and it is a wonderful thing that these films are being made and shown. They will help more people learn and understand the LGBTQ community, they will get to see that we are all humans, and there is no need for judgement.
About the Author:
Christine Siamanta Kinori grew up in a little village in Kenya known as Loitoktok near the border of Kenya and Tanzania. All she wanted to do when she grew up was to explore the world. Her curiosity led her to join Nairobi University to pursue a degree in Journalism and Mass Communications. She later got a job with an amazing travel magazine Nomad Africa which gave her the opportunity to explore Africa. She also writes for numerous travel websites about Africa and tries to create a new narrative in the media about our aesthetic continent.
Christine claims to have somewhat unhealthy addiction to TV and reading, as it is a fun way to keep herself occupied during the long journeys for her travel writing. She is also a believer of letting people be their beautiful selves. To her, love is love and it is the greatest gift we have as humans.
