BY: Amanda Jane Stern

June is officially Pride Month, and while we’ve come a long way in terms of LGBTQ+ rights and queer representation on screen, we still have ways to go. At PROVOKR we’ve highlighted many feature films with LGBTQ+ main characters and storylines, but we don’t always highlight the documentaries. With that in mind, here is a list of 10 great LGBTQ+ docs for Pride that are available to stream. Bear in mind that a lot of these films deal with sensitive topics that can be triggering to some viewers.

 

Changing the Game

This 2019 sports documentary follows the lives of three transgender athletes as they compete to be the tops in their fields, while challenging stereotypes. 

Available on Hulu

 

Disclosure

This 2020 film explores the ways that transgender people have been depicted in Hollywood films and how this impacts how they are perceived in the real world.

Available on Netflix

 

Welcome to Chechnya

This hard-hitting documentary follows LGBTQ+ activists who risk their lives to confront Russian leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s deadly campaign against LGBTQ+ people in Chechnya.

Available on HBO Max

 

The Brandon Teena Story

Many people are familiar with the Academy-Award winning feature film Boys Don’t Cry, but this film from one year earlier explores the same story through documentary.

You can watch an edited version for free on PROVOKR this week.

 

Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine

This movie paints an intimate portrait of Matthew Shepard, who was brutally murdered in a hate crime in 1998.

Available on Tubi

 

Circus of Books

This Netflix documentary follows a couple who take over an adult bookstore in 1976 that goes on to become the largest US distributor of gay porn.

Available on Netflix

 

The Circle

This Swiss docudrama, that follows an underground gay network in the 1950s,  was Switzerland’s submission for Best Foreign Language FIlm at the 87th Academy Awards.

Available on Tubi

 

Before Stonewall

This 1984 documentary explores the ways that LGBTQ+ people were perceived and treated in the years leading up to the Stonewall riots of 1969.

Available on Kanopy

 

Paris is Burning

This 1991 documentary follows drag queens in New York City and their “house” culture as they work to compete in elaborate balls.

Available on Criterion Channel

 

L Word Mississippi: Hate the Sin

This movie explores the lives of several gay women living in the deep South and how they face bullying and discrimination.

Available on Prime

 

The Celluloid Closet

This 1996 documentary is an adaptation of Vitto Russo’s seminal novel of the same name that looks at the history of queer cinema.

Available on Criterion Channel