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Top 10 GLBT Documentaries
Gay subject matters are ripe for a great documentary, and there are some excellent films on this list. The can compare to some of the best documentaries of all time, gay or not. Here are my top 10 picks for best gay documentaries:
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10.
Gay Sex in the 70s
What a wonderful time it was. Stonewall had taken place, freeing gay men to come out of the closet. It would be 12 years before the first signs of AIDS sent out a warning sign that signaled the end of the party. This documentary celebrates the freedom gay men felt living in New York at that time in history. I had mixed emotions watching this. A lot of the behavior depicted is what people hate about gay men. But, it was honest and it explains how the HIV virus spread so quickly and did so much damage to gay men. But looking at the men talking about those days, they seem to have few regrets.
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9.
Naked Fame
The premise of this film may turn you off, or turn you on. But it's not what you expect. A former gay porn star tries to make a career change, moving from the screen to being a singer. The porn star is Colton Ford. His boyfriend, Blake Harper, is an even bigger porn star. What's amazing is watching this relationship, two gay men who love one another and yet decided to make their living screwing around. Ford's not a bad singer, but he wants to be a disco diva. Someone needs to tell them gay men love their divas to be women. I'm not much for the club scene, but I suspect Ford's career never took off. But, this film was worth watching anyway.
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8.
Trembling Before G-d
Can you be an orthodox Jew and be gay? Is there a way to reconcile those two worlds? This film talks to a number of orthodox Jews who are gay or lesbian and explores the difficulties they went through to reach some peace in their own lives. While some of them may have found peace, they are still rarely accepted by other orthodox Jews. This film was made by a gay orthodox Jew who understood the difficulties other in his position were facing. And in the end he found a way to accept his homosexuality while never turning his back on God. Other faiths need to explore this subject, since religions are the No. 1 block in the path of gays seeking full inclusion in society.
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7.
One Nation Under God
If you can sit through the first five minutes without throwing something at your screen, you're in for a treat. This film is the best one to date on the ex-gay movement, be it fact or fiction. Can a gay man change his orientation? This film focuses on ex-gays, as well as ex-ex-gays. It's not exactly balanced, but since the subject matter is a bunch of hooey anyways, who cares. You cannot change your orientation, so take your fair and balanced to Fox. They'll be happy to pass along lies as the truth. Here we only deal with what is, not what closet cases and people living in denial wishes were true.
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6.
Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story
Emile Griffin was a boxer who was earning a lot of attention during the 1960s. He was an up-and-comer and on the verge of superstardom. Then came a rematch with Benny "Kid" Paret. Paret had made comments that suggested everyone in boxing knew Griffin was gay. Tempers were rising, because you don't call an athlete gay during the 1960s. Those were words worth killing over. Unfortunately, Griffin killed Paret in the ring, destroying Paret's family and his own career. The one disappointing aspect of this otherwise excellent film, is that Griffin never admits to being gay. He does just about everything else, including admitting to going to gay bars. But he still can't say the words. But I'll get over that. The film features Griffin meeting the son of Paret for the first time. It's very touching.
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5.
Hidden Fuhrer: Debating the Enigma of Hitler's Sexuality
No gay man wants to claim Adolf Hitler as one of our own. When I began watching this, I was very skeptical. I was looking for any reason at all to call it all baloney and dismiss it. Still, when it was over and they had laid out their case, I had to admit they had a better argument than those who claim Abraham Lincoln was gay. Why was I so willing to embrace Lincoln's alleged homosexuality, and so quick to dismiss Hitler's? That's a no duh question. But you can't just cherry pick what you want to be true. The filmmakers make a strong case that Hilter was a closet case, proving once again the tremendous damage the closet has done to the world.
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4.
Common Threads: Tales from the Quilt
I suspect every gay man and woman has heard of the AIDS quilt, though few have probably ever seen it displayed. This film does an excellent job telling the stories of some of the names that are on those quilts. They are gay, straight, man, woman, elderly, youth, black, white, father, child. Few films can bring to life the overwhelming loss of the AIDS pandemic better than this movie does by just telling a handful of the stories of the people memoralized on way too many damn quilts. It's a tear jerker, but should be mandatory viewing for all those bastards who thought this was God's way of dealing with gays.
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3.
Paragraph 175
Jews were not the only people to suffer during the Holocaust. Gypsies were also targets of the Nazis. Oh, and did I mention the gays? This film looks at Paragraph 175, which was the section of German law that made homosexual conduct illegal. More than 100,000 gay men (lesbians were sent for retraining) were shipped off to concentration camps as punishment for being gay. This film tracks down the few remaining survivors of that horror and talks to them about those experiences. For some, they have no desire to relive it. For others, it helps them to heal from wounds that have been festering.
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2.
Celluloid Closet
Who knew Hollywood was sooooooo gay? OK, we all did. But this film showcases exactly how gay Hollywood was, especially during a period in history when being gay was outlawed on screen. If you check this site, you will see some very gay films from 1919 and the 1920s. But what passes for gay in the 1930s and '40s is hardly gay at all. There was a crackdown, and gay for outlawed. Still, filmmakers found ways to sneak some fabulous behavior into their films, right under the noses of the censors. It's a very well made and entertaining film, which is based on the book by Vito Russo.
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1.
Times of Harvey Milk, The
I have this film listed among the top 10 best GLBT films overall, and I'm wondering if I have it too low at No. 10. It's nearly impossible to watch this film and not feel all the emotions, from great pride at Milk's accomplishment, to great shock at his death, to blinding anger at the punishment of his killer, to great sorrow at what we as a community lost. The fact that this all happened before TV cameras means that we get to watch the events unfold much as they did in San Francisco. It is one of the best documentaries ever made and belongs in every GLBT film collection.
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