2015 was another good year for queer cinema from mainstream to indie particularly for documentaries, one our favorite genres, and here is our pick of the very best of them that we saw this year.
10) “Before The Last Curtain Falls”
The German/Canadian documentarian Thomas Wallner’s very moving record of the closing night of the ‘Gardenia’ the famous Belgian Cabaret that had been touring Europe for the past years pries far too closely for comfort into the melancholy filled lives of the performers. They are a group of elderly, mainly overweight, transsexuals and gay men who are drag queens and have gathered together for one final performance in the only thing that has given them any real pleasure in life.
As the dust settles down on the historic decision of SCOTUS to pave the way for same-sex marriage to be legalised for all Americans in every State some commentators still consider we achieved so much in a short time. That is probably because what is in their mind as the starting point was when the State of Massachusetts ruled that the ban on same-sex marriages was illegal in 2004. In reality the struggle for recognition actually almost 30 years before that when a gay couple managed to get married in Boulder Colorado when a feminist Court Clerk decided to issue licences. This is their heartbreaking story.
8) “Tig”
It’s not unusual for comedians to use their stand up routines as a substitute for a session with their therapists as they use their audience to unburden all their woes too. Tig Notaro however went much further than most when she went on stage to do her usual act one night in the Largo Club in L.A. and she simply blurted out to the somewhat startled packed crowd ‘I have cancer!’ What followed in the next hour was one unprecedented remarkable set where Tig brought everyone up to date with her extraordinary turn of events.
Out gay Muslim filmmaker Parvez Sharma has followed his award -winning documentary ‘A Jihad For Love’ with an even more daring look at what it takes to renew his faith when he goes to Mecca for his sacred pilgrimage called a Hajj. Every Muslim is expected to do this at least once in their lifetime, as it is their way of being forgiven for all their sins by Allah. The trouble is that it takes place in the fiercely conservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia where homosexuality is not only forbidden, but is punishable by death.
Greg Louganis is an American Hero. The sad thing is that it has taken such a long time for many people to truly acknowledge that. Despite him being a four-time US Olympic diving champion whose many records remain unbroken today, he never always got all the acclaim and rewards that other sportsmen got just because he was gay. In this new documentary that covers focuses mainly on his more recent past filmmaker Cheryl Furjanic paints an affectionate and stirring portrait of a remarkable man who has survived more his fair share of trauma and who has come through it all with a big smile on his face.
Stu Maddox is a very determined gay activist and filmmaker whose passionate obsession with LGBT history has resulted in three excellent documentaries that deal with different aspects of gay communities in the past. This latest one ‘Reel in the Closet’ is a feature length movie that is comprised of a wealth of unseen footage of old gay and lesbian home movies that date back to the 1930’s and are backed up with some recorded news stories of the times.
If you are unfamiliar with the alternative drag scene in London’s vibrant East End, then discovering the extraordinary performance artist Jonny Woo who had been the ringmaster of it all for the past decade, is quite an eyeopener. In this new documentary from first time filmmaker Colin Rothbart made over six years on a minuscule budget, right from the opening titles it is hard not to be mesmerized by this dynamic larger-then-life strapping powerhouse in his provocative scantily clad glamorous costumes as he struts around the stage belting out his latest rap, or lip-syncing to some anarchic song. Part glam rock, part new wave punk, part S & M with an excessively painted face, he defies you not to take him too seriously.
When journalist David Thorpe found himself single again in his mid-forties he started to angst as to what could possible be so wrong with him that he should be dumped so unceremoniously. His immediate thought was that the problem was his voice that he had always hated was now a turn off for other men too. This started off this glorious and brilliantly witty investigation which always touches the nerve of every gay man.
Tab Hunter was …. and still is at age 83 years-old …a stunningly handsome man. When he was a teen idol in the 1950’s he was the ultimate clean-cut all-American boy and seemingly butter would not melt in his mouth. Now living as an openly gay man in L.A. he opens up to Emmy Award Winning filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz and talks about his life in and out of the closet as one of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars in this fascinating documentary.
For years the veteran gay activist, author and playwright Larry Kramer refused all offers from filmmakers to make a documentary on his life. Now as he approached his 80th birthday he relented and allowed his good friend the filmmaker Jean Carlomusto unlimited access to make this compelling profile on one of the greatest LGBT figures ever but also of the activist movement that he was a major part of in the troubling AIDS decades and ever since.
