Queer Video Vault Big Idea List
This list of films will be available at the Big Idea Bookstore in March 2014. DVDs may be rented to members for free.
In Fall 2013, the Queer Video Vault project raised money to purchase these movies from the Dreaming Ant, an independent video rental store that was going out of business.
In Fall 2013, the Queer Video Vault project raised money to purchase these movies from the Dreaming Ant, an independent video rental store that was going out of business.
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- DirectorRamón SalazarStarsMónica CerveraPablo PuyolMiguel O'DoghertyA narcoleptic transvestite who yearns to become a transsexual dreams up elaborate musical numbers in which she's the star.
- DirectorReed CowanSteven GreenstreetStarsSpencer JonesTyler BarrickDustin Lance BlackA scorching indictment of the Mormon Church's historic involvement in the promotion & passage of California's Proposition 8 and the Mormon religion's secretive, decades-long campaign against LGBT human rights.
- DirectorCraig ChesterStarsCraig ChesterMalcolm GetsParker PoseyFollows two New York city couples -- one heterosexual and one gay who explore the peaks and the valleys of their respective relationships.
- DirectorJulie DavisStarsDan BucatinskyRichard RuccoloSasha AlexanderWhile the flame of Jackie and Brett's attraction intensifies, Eli and Tom, the unlikely pair they attempt to bring together, appear destined to spiral out of love rather than make any sort of progress toward becoming a genuine couple.
- DirectorMiguel AlbaladejoStarsJosé Luis García-PérezDavid CastilloEmpar FerrerPedro, a gay man with an active social life and many friends, takes in his nephew Bernardo for a couple weeks. When the arrangement becomes permanent , Pedro turns to his friends for guidance as he and Bernardo forge a household together.
- DirectorFenton BaileyRandy BarbatoStarsCherChaz BonoGeorgia HoltDocumentary following Chaz (formerly Chastity) Bono's gender transition. Includes interviews with family members and friends as the transition is followed.
- DirectorOlivier MeyrouIn 2002, three French neofascist skinheads went to a public park in Rheims looking for an 'Arab' to attack when they came across Francois Chenu, a young gay man.
- DirectorThomas BezuchaStarsArye GrossEric SchweigTim DeKayBig Eden is a small, fictional northwestern Montana town.
- DirectorDavid HamiltonStarsPatti D'ArbanvilleMona KristensenBernard GiraudeauA coming of age story centering on the exploits of a young girl during summer vacation.
- DirectorAuraeus SolitoStarsNathan LopezSoliman CruzJR ValentinA young boy falls in love with a handsome policeman who is investigating his family's criminal activities.
- DirectorKimberly PeirceStarsHilary SwankChloë SevignyPeter SarsgaardA young man named Brandon Teena navigates love, life, and being transgender in rural Nebraska.
- DirectorLaurie LyndStarsTom CavanaghBen ShenkmanNoah BernettEric, a sports announcer and former hockey player, doesn't know how to deal with the flamboyant young boy to whom he and his partner suddenly become guardians.
- DirectorÉdouard MolinaroStarsUgo TognazziMichel SerraultClaire MaurierThe manager of a Saint-Tropez nightclub featuring drag entertainment, and his star attraction, are a gay couple. Madness ensues when his straight son brings home a fiancée and her ultra-conservative parents to meet them.
- DirectorBennett MillerStarsPhilip Seymour HoffmanClifton Collins Jr.Catherine KeenerIn 1959, Truman Capote learns of the murder of a Kansas family and decides to write a book about the case. While researching for his novel In Cold Blood, Capote forms a relationship with one of the killers, Perry Smith, who is on death row.
- DirectorMichael WinterbottomStarsSteve CooganJeremy NorthamRob BrydonDirector Michael Winterbottom (Northam) attempts to shoot the adaptation of Laurence Sterne's essentially unfilmable novel, "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman."
- DirectorSébastien LifshitzStarsJérémie ElkaïmStéphane RideauMarie MatheronMathieu, 18, spends the summer at his mother's summer house, in Brittany. On the beach, he meets Cédric, a boy his age. A love-story begins between the two boys.
- DirectorGregory C. HaynesStarsAdam TreseMia KirshnerRadha MitchellA lawyer in his 30s named Danny still dreams about becoming a cowboy when his fiancée leaves him on the eve of their wedding ceremony. Fortunately, for him, not one, but two contrasting girls appear on his life to take her place: the bubbly Jo Jo and the more traditional Candice. But who will win out?
- DirectorThomas R. SmythStarsJoe DainKris BlackJulian CocaClayton has a problem with his roommate Brian... he's secretly in love with him! Blinded by passion, he can't tell the difference between his daydream fantasies and reality. Can he control his desire or will he cross the line?
- DirectorTennyson BardwellStarsMichael McMillianLea CocoSteve FletcherHigh school senior Dorian begins a gay man's odyssey when he determines that he's gay and decides to come out. Chief among concerns is the reaction of his father, who has never liked him.
- DirectorMr. PamStarsJake AndrewsDave AngeloBruce BaldersonA behind the scenes look at the making of the porno Buckleroos
- DirectorK. Ryan JonesStarsBill BuntenWarren CarterKelly FranzThe shocking story of Rev. Fred Phelps, the Westboro Baptist Church, those who oppose it, and those who chose to leave it all behind.
- DirectorDaniel G. KarslakeStarsImogene RobinsonVictor RobinsonGene RobinsonAn exploration of the intersection between religion and homosexuality in the U.S. and how the religious right has used its interpretation of the Bible to stigmatize the gay community.
- DirectorWash WestmorelandStarsMaurice BonamigoCarla HalbrookTerry William HamiltonIn 2004, Log Cabin -- the Gay Republican Club -- was put to the test. President Bush's unequivocal opposition to gay marriage presented them with a stark choice, whether to be good Republicans and support the President, or stand up for their civil rights as gay Americans. This decision afforded them a historic opportunity to affect the election but it also opened schisms that threatened the unity of the Log Cabin itself. In GAY REPUBLICANS politics get personal as the Log Cabin wrestle with an issue that goes to the core of their identity.
- DirectorMonika TreutStarsSusan StrykerTexas TomboyAnnie SprinkleMonika Treut explores the worlds and thoughts of several transgender individuals. As with Treuts first film, Jungfrauenmaschine, Gendernauts, enters a minority sector of San Fransisco culture. The individuals in this film are people whose assigned gender at birth does not match their social gender identity. The subject is pinpointed in the film independent of sexual orientation. Leave your conservative hats at the door, this is going to need your special attention.
- DirectorRose TrocheStarsV.S. BrodieGuinevere TurnerT. Wendy McMillanA romantic tale about finding a soulmate. The only difference here is that both partners are women...in Chicago's lesbian community.
- DirectorYen TanStarsBenjamin PatrickMichelle E. MichaelJohn K. FrazierAs a common birthday approaches, five very different people are faced with very similar problems. Jim, a gay, overweight telemarketer (for a weight loss program) faces his self esteem issues. Ron, is a minister who preaches about conversion but practices watching gay porn whenever he can. Javed living in the US with a gay porn actor faces deportation as a Pakistani and condemnation from his Islamic family. Javed living in the US with a gay porn actor faces deportation as a Pakistani and damnation from his Islamic family. Kelly, a young lesbian weathers a breakup with her lover and considers an earlier unrequited love. Tracy, an asian lesbian, goes back in the closet when her mother visits.
- DirectorTsai Ming-liangStarsKang-sheng LeeShiang-chyi ChenNorman AtunA day laborer is badly beaten, and a young man nurses him back to health.
- DirectorNonny de la PeñaAt the prompting of his ex-wife and her new live-in boyfriend, a gay man is accused by his five-year-old son of child molestation. The gay man's parents are also indicted. Small-town prejudices are further fueled by the father's admitted homosexuality and the common but erroneous stereotype that all gay men are child molesters. This documentary follows the journey of that family, reliving the horror of the first accusations through an initial guilty verdict, time in prison, the overturning of the first convictions and the eventual dropping of a subsequent case due to lack of evidence.
- DirectorMike SkiffStarsGuy BaldwinBrad BelofCaroThe world's oldest Kink/Fetish contest - International Mr. Leather - isn't just for 'white, gay males' anymore. Now, straights, the disabled and transgender men come together to compete for this honor of masculinity. And it was all started 30 years earlier by a man who took the risk of opening Chicago's first Leather bar in the 1950's. This sexy, smart, surprisingly upbeat doc dares to ask: Is there a bit of Kink Crusader in us all?
- DirectorCharles Herman-WurmfeldStarsJennifer WestfeldtHeather JuergensenTovah FeldshuhA woman searching for the perfect man instead discovers the perfect woman.
- DirectorAlain BerlinerStarsGeorges Du FresneMichèle LaroqueJean-Philippe ÉcoffeyLudovic is an innocent seven-year-old child who provokes horror in his community when he dresses in girls clothes and insists he's a girl.
- DirectorCatherine GundStarsElizabeth BingSami S. DavidDave JohnsonAnn Krsul and Leslie Sullivan want to be mothers - together. They complement one another perfectly.Together, they discover the process of creating a family-from selecting a sperm donor and determining who will carry the baby.
- DirectorÉmile GaudreaultStarsLuke KirbyPeter MillerGinette RenoThe son of Italian immigrants to Canada struggles to find the best way to reveal to his parents that he's gay.
- DirectorLisa AdesLesli KlainbergStarsRandy BarbatoDan BucatinskyJonathan CaouetteA chronological look at films by, for, or about (or 'by, for, and about') gays and lesbians in the United States, from 1947 to 2005, from Kenneth Anger's "Fireworks" to Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain." Talking heads, anchored by critic and scholar B. Ruby Rich, are interspersed with an advancing timeline and with clips from two dozen films. The narrative groups the pictures around various firsts, movements, and triumphs: experimental films, indie films, sex on screen, outlaw culture and bad guys, lesbian lovers, films about AIDS and dying, emergence of romantic comedy, transsexual films, films about diversity and various cultures, and then mainstream Hollywood drama. What might come next?
- DirectorRobert SchrockTroy ChristianStarsAndrew Blake AmesJason CurrieJaymes HodgesMusical Review of gay experiences as told through song, stage choreography and full male nudity.
- DirectorKirby DickStarsBarney FrankJames McGreeveyKevin NaffAn indictment of closeted politicians who lobby for anti-gay legislation in the U.S.
- DirectorRon DavisStewart Halpern-FingerhutStarsCarl GloriosoVictoria ParkerRobert MartinA portrait of five men competing in the Miss Gay America pageant.
- DirectorTomer HeymannA group of transgender and gay Filipinos people emigrate to Israel to take care of elderly religious Jewish men. On their one day off per week, they perform as drag performers in a group called the Paper Dolls. On the political level, it explores the perils of global immigration. In this case, after the second Intifada, the Israeli government unofficially opened its doors to illegal workers to replace the Palestinians who were no longer allowed in the country. As tensions with the Palestinians eased, the government changed its policy and began to forcibly deport these foreign guest workers with dramatic consequences for our characters. On the human level, the film is about people who are rejected by their own families for being gay or transgender and who emigrate and end up with jobs taking care of other people's parents who have been rejected by their own children because they are old, difficult, etc. They work grueling hours to send money back to the Philippines to support the families that have rejected them. As unbelievable as it may seem, these very different people (old religious Jews and transgender people from the Philippines) form very deep, quasi familial bonds.
- DirectorElla LemhagenStarsGustaf SkarsgårdTorkel PeterssonTom LjungmanA Swedish gay couple adopt what they think is an 18-month-old orphan, only to meet their new son, a 15-year-old homophobic delinquent.
- DirectorJames BidgoodStarsDon BrooksBobby KendallCharles LudlamAn erotic poem set in the fantasies of a young male prostitute.
- DirectorJacques NolotStarsVittoria ScognamiglioJacques NolotSébastien VialaIn a Parisian porn theater, a cashier, a 50-year-old man and a young projectionist are drawn into a complex love affair.
- DirectorXeth FeinbergStarsJim J. BullockJackie HoffmanKevin Michael RichardsonAdam Seymour "Queer Duck" Duckstein (Jim J. Bullock) leaves his lover, Stephen Arlo "Openly" Gator (Kevin Michael Richardson), when he becomes enamored of and marries the Nora-Desmondesque Lola Buzzard (Jackie Hoffman).
- DirectorJonathan NossiterStarsQuentin CrispPeter WalkerGilbert StaffordAt age 73, writer and melancholy master of the bon mot, Quentin Crisp (1908-1999), became an Englishman in New York. Rossiter's camera follows Crisp about the streets of Manhattan, where Crisp seems very much at home, wearing eye shadow, appearing on a makeshift stage, making and repeating wry observations, talking to John Hurt (who played Crisp in the autobiographical TV movie, "The Naked Civil Servant"), and dining with friends. Others who know Crisp comment on him, on his life as an openly gay man with an effeminate manner, and on his place in the history of gays' social struggle. The portrait that emerges is of one wit and of suffering.
- DirectorJulio MedemStarsElena AnayaNatasha YarovenkoEnrico Lo VersoA hotel room in the center of Rome serves as the setting for two young and recently acquainted women to have a physical adventure that touches their very souls.
- DirectorKate DavisStarsRobert EadsLola ColaMaxwell Scott AndersonSouthern Comfort documents the final year in the life of Robert Eads, a transgender man. Eads, diagnosed with ovarian cancer, was turned down for treatment by two dozen doctors out of fear that treating such a patient would hurt their reputations. By the time Eads received treatment, the cancer was too advanced to save his life. Filmmaker Kate Davis follows Robert and a group of transgender Southerners in this captivating and truly touching documentary.
- DirectorFerzan ÖzpetekStarsAlessandro GassmannFrancesca d'AlojaCarlo CecchiFrancesco inherits an old palace from a Turkish aunt and moves to Istanbul to renovate it.
- DirectorTom KalinStarsDaniel SchlachetCraig ChesterRon VawterThe true story of gay lovers, Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold Jr. Who kidnapped and murdered a child in the early 1920s for kicks. The plot covers the months before the crime, the investigation, trial and final fate of the two men.
- DirectorSusan KaplanStarsSam CagninaSteven MargolinSamantha SinghIn his early twenties, Sam Cagnina, oldest son of a Mafia hit man, meets Steven, a handsome 19-year old college student and they fall in love. Then, after a few years Sam offers Steven a "visionary" idea. What if they could find a woman who would fall in love with both of them and agree to live in a "trio" relationship? They spend the next 7 years dating and looking for that special woman. Finally, they meet Samantha, a young, struggling actress. THREE OF HEARTS explores this very unique trio union as they negotiate their living arangements, fall in love and open one of the hottest wellness centres in New York City. Everyone who comes in contact with them is never quite sure how the relationship works. But the one thing which seems certain is their love for each other.
- DirectorJoão Pedro RodriguesStarsChandra MalatitchJohn Jesus RomãoIvo BarrosoA transgender woman tries to erase any past history of herself as a male. Struggling with a young male lover and a problematic son.
- DirectorDuncan TuckerStarsFelicity HuffmanKevin ZegersFionnula FlanaganA transgender woman takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she had a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.
- StarsAndrea Gabrielle GibsonStaci IgnacioLucas CheadleA look at the lives of four college students undergoing gender transition.
- DirectorSandi Simcha DubowskiStarsShlomo AshkinazySteve GreenbergNathan Lopes CardozoA cinematic portrait of various gay Orthodox Jews who struggle to reconcile their faith and their sexual orientation.
- DirectorJavier Fuentes-LeónStarsCristian MercadoTatiana AstengoManolo CardonaAn unusual ghost story set on the Peruvian seaside; a married fisherman struggles to reconcile his devotion to his male lover within his town's rigid traditions.
- DirectorCéline SciammaStarsPauline AcquartLouise BlachèreAdèle HaenelAfter meeting at a local pool over their summer break, a love triangle forms between three adolescent girls, which proves difficult to sustain as they each desire the love of another.
- DirectorDavid OliverasStarsTye OlsonKyle ClareEllie AraizaA story about two classmates - one smart and openly gay and the other school swimming star. They grow as friends and discover their attraction to each other.
- DirectorTom GustafsonStarsTanner CohenWendy RobieJudy McLaneA bullied and demoralized gay student at an all-boys school uses a magical flower derived from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream' to turn many in his community gay, including a comely rugby player for himself.
- DirectorNancy AdairAndrew BrownRob EpsteinStarsPat BondJohn BurnsideSally M. Gearhart26 diverse lesbian and gay people are interviewed about their lives and the challenges they experience in a homophobic culture. A groundbreaking documentary is now an artefact of a different time.