Thank you for making this event such a huge success! Want to watch more canonical LGBTQ+ films? Check out the 300+ films in the Frameline Distribution catalog.

Frameline is thrilled to partner with Invisible Histories and Appalshop to produce The World Is Watching: Queer History, a free-to-access streaming showcase that aims to connect global audiences with films about LGBTQ+ history and works made by contemporary artists about our current moment. Streaming October 11–31, 2025, the showcase is available to viewers worldwide.

Invisible Histories locates, collects, researches, and creates community-based, educational programming around LGBTQ history in the Deep South. Invisible Histories believes archiving is resistance to oppression and history leads to liberation. In our work, we center joy and community while never erasing the painful and complicated experiences of our folks. We will save our stories, one box at a time. For more information, visit invisiblehistory.org.

A multi-media arts and cultural organization located in Letcher County, Kentucky, Appalshop’s mission is to develop effective ways of using media to address the complex issues facing central Appalachia. Since 1988, the Appalachian Media Institute (AMI) — a project of Appalshop — has provided opportunities for young people from across Central Appalachia to explore their home communities, address local issues, and become thoughtful, engaged citizens through the process of place-based media making. For more information, visit appalshop.org and amiappalshop.org.

Watched together or separately, these suggested pairings exemplify key moments in on-screen representation as well as films that discuss the evolution and necessity of seeing such images reflected back at us. From a 1930s-era depiction of sapphic love to Marlon Riggs’ seminal discussion of Blackness and gayness to examinations of race and queerness on screen, this mix of documentary and narrative films underscores the importance of preserving, and critiquing, onscreen representations of LGBTQ+ people.

Dykes, Camera, Action!
Caroline Berler 2018 USA 61 min

Lesbians didn’t always get to see themselves on screen. But between Stonewall, the feminist movement, and the experimental cinema of the 1970s, they built visibility and transformed the social imagination about queerness. Filmmakers Barbara Hammer, Su Friedrich, Rose Troche, Cheryl Dunye, Yoruba Richen, Desiree Akhavan, Vicky Du, Jenni Olson, film critic B. Ruby Rich, and others share moving — and often hilarious — stories from their lives and discuss how they’ve expressed queer identity through film in this beloved documentary from the Frameline42 lineup.

Tongues Untied
Marlon T. Riggs 1989 USA 55 min

Filmmaker, poet, and activist Marlon Riggs made his radical, experimental essay film to “shatter the nation’s brutalizing silence on matters of sexual and racial difference.” By blending documentary filmmaking, music, dance, personal testimony, and performance art, the Teddy Award-winning Tongues Untied (Frameline14) calls out the homophobia and racism facing Black gay men. Featuring words from fellow revolutionaries like Essex Hemphill and Joseph Beam, Riggs’ work continues to resonate — and point the way toward liberation — decades later.

Color Adjustment
Marlon T. Riggs 1992 USA 86 mins

Helmed by Marlon Riggs, this Peabody Award-winning documentary traces 40 years of race relations through the lens of primetime entertainment, scrutinizing television’s racial myths, stereotypes, and treatment of Black characters. Narrated by Ruby Dee, Color Adjustment revisits some of television’s most popular stars and shows — Amos and Andy, The Nat King Cole Show, I Spy, Julia, Good Times, Roots, Frank’s Place, and The Cosby Show — but, this time around, Riggs asks us to look at these familiar favorites in a new way. The result is a stunning examination of the interplay between America’s racial consciousness and network primetime programming.

50 Years of Fabulous
Jethro Patalinghug 2018 USA 82 mins

This Frameline42 official selection recounts the rich history of the Imperial Council, the oldest LGBT charity organization in the world. Founded in San Francisco by renowned activist, drag queen, and performer Jose Sarria — the first openly gay man to run for political office — the Council has helped shape LGBTQ+ life and social history in San Francisco and beyond throughout the last five decades.

Intersexion
Grant LaHood 2012 New Zealand 68 mins

For every two thousand births easily defined, one intersex baby is born. In this binary-gendered world, having ambiguous genitalia or something other than XX-female or XY-male chromosomes can bring immense social pressure and stigma. Intersex activist Mani Bruce Mitchell seeks out peers in order to find community, healing, and a wider view of intersex life.

From archival footage of queer pioneers to everyday artifacts from LGBTQ+ peoples’ lives, the objects, places, and people that have shaped us — as individuals and as a community — hold a singular resonance. Collecting these relics and stories, and preserving them for future generations, is essential work that provides queer and trans people with the rich history many of us would otherwise feel disconnected from. With this in mind, this shorts package brings together both the historic and the mundane, illustrating the power of seeing and archiving queer images of all kinds. (TRT 104 min)

575 Castro St. | Jenni Olson 2008 USA 7 min

• In this Frameline33 selection, filmmaker and historian Jenni Olson (The Joy of Life, Blue Diary) reveals the play of light and shadow upon the walls of the Castro Camera Store set for Gus Van Sant‘s Oscar-winning feature film Milk. These mundane shots are almost bereft of movement and sound. So quiet, so still. All the better to showcase the range of emotions evoked by Harvey Milk‘s words, which are taken from an audio cassette marked “In-Case” — a recording Milk made in his camera shop a few weeks after his landmark election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

A Great Ride | Deborah Craig & Véronica Duport Déliz 2018 USA 33 min

• A standout at Frameline42, Deborah Craig and Véronica Duport Déliz’s documentary is a beautiful portrait of several trailblazing queer folks from the Bay Area who become courageous role models for aging. From Sally Gearhart, a retired professor and activist who fought alongside Harvey Milk, to Brenda Crawford, a Black political activist who’s priced out of Oakland, to Octogenarian Shirley Liberman, who’s making a home in an LGBTQ+-friendly retirement community in Santa Rosa, the determination of these everyday queer heroes continues to inspire.

AutoErotica: We Buy Gay Stuff | Jeremy von Stilb 2025 USA 17 min

• Behind an unassuming “We Buy Gay Stuff” sign in San Francisco’s Castro district — complete with a striking leather daddy illustration — lies an unexpected treasure trove of queer history. This official Frameline49 selection received an Honorable Mention in the festival’s juried Outstanding Documentary Short award category.

Don’t Cry for Me All You Drag Queens | Kristal Sotomayor 2024 USA 9 min

• Winner of the Best LGBTQ Documentary at the 2025 Poppy Jasper International Film Festival, Kristal Sotomayor’s Don’t Cry for Me All You Drag Queens is an homage to the legendary Mother Cavallucci that weaves together the present and past to provide a striking portrait of belonging and memory. Poetically merging archival photographs and present day footage from a community drag show, the film sparks conversation about the modern day issues Mother Cavallucci revolutionized.

Lesbian Custody | Samuael Topiary & Molly Skonieczny 2025 USA 18 min

• Lesbian Custody (Frameline49) is a follow-up video essay about the personal and political context of In the Best Interests of the Children (1977), a landmark lesbian feminist documentary about lesbian mothers fighting to regain custody of their children in the ‘70s. Topiary and Skonieczny’s documentary short ensures we remember this period of LGBTQ+ history by introducing viewers to retired filmmaker Frances Reid and her “step-daughter,” Julie Stevens, as they look through the film’s archives, discuss the making of the film, and explore their personal relationship. Ultimately, this short brings awareness to this history — putting it in dialogue with the present political situation today.

The Roaming Center for Magnetic Alternatives | Brydie O’Connor 2025 USA 20 min

• A Frameline Completion Fund-supported film, The Roaming Center for Magnetic Alternatives (Frameline49) follows a mobile archiving center in a cargo trailer as it crosses the Midwest to digitize the VHS tapes of LGBTQ+ folks living in Middle America. In real-time digitizing sessions, people watch their own histories as they are being preserved, revealing a glimpse into queer life in the Bible Belt, from the 1980s to the present. A road trip into the past, Brydie O’Connor’s short suggests what an ever-expanding queer archive looks like in the future.

Composed of selections from the Frameline Distribution catalog, the Invisible Histories archive, and works produced by Appalshop, these shorts offer uninhibited, honest glimpses into the everyday lives of LBGTQ+ people living in the US, from the heartland and Appalachia to the Deep South. (TRT 65 min)

Out in the Heartland | Gretchen Hildebran 2005 USA 18 mins

• Part of the Frameline Distribution catalog, Out in the Heartland (Frameline29) explores how Kentucky’s 2004 constitutional amendment to ban LGBTQ+ marriage impacted three families and their communities. As momentum pushed the issue from the mega-churches to the ballot box, LGBTQ+ parents began to fear for their families’ safety and future. The 2005 documentary Out in the Heartland gave a face to those at the center of these amendments, illuminating their long-term consequences for all.

Out in the South | Invisible Histories 2025 USA 10 min

• Assembled by the archivists at Invisible Histories, Out in the South provides glimpses into the lives of LGBTQ+ people living in the Deep South of the United States. These clips, which feel akin to home-video footage, offer intimate-yet-everyday illustrations of the queer folks who live — and have always lived — in the so-called “Bible Belt.”

Through Their Eyes | Appalshop 1999 USA 14 min

• Produced as part of the Appalachian Media Institute (AMI) by Danielle Burke, April Caudill, Charles Cupp, and Brittany Rowlette, this short brings together first-hand accounts of what it is like to live in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, by gay and lesbian residents.

Welcome to Dragalachia | Appalshop 2013 USA 6 min

• Produced by Oakley Fugate, Joey Salyer and Robbie Thacker, this Appalachian Media Institute (AMI) project centers on drag performer Shelita Buffet, who shares experiences, breaks down stereotypes, and gives viewers an intimate look at drag queen culture in rural Appalachia.

As Long As You Can | Appalshop 2021 USA 17 min

• Produced by Nik Lee and Ellie Mullins, this official selection of the 2022 Boone Docs Film Festival offers expansive interviews covering the lives of six LGBTQ+ folks — all Appalachian and all “successful” in their own ways. As Long As You Can hopes to answer young LGBTQ+ Appalachians who are faced — every day — with the decision to leave or stay.

Curated from recent Frameline festival selections and the Frameline Distribution catalog, this shorts block reiterates just how vital it is to see trans stories on screen. At a time when misinformation and bigotry shape prevailing media narratives — and, in turn, public policy — it is crucial to watch films made by, and for, trans folks. From joyful and comedic narratives to incisive documentaries, this collection of films is an introduction to the vibrant, diverse stories being told by trans filmmakers. (TRT 68 min)

Budget Paradise | LaTajh Simmons-Weaver 2025 USA 14 min

• Filmed and set in Oakland, Budget Paradise follows Chester, a Black, nonbinary painter as they search for space and permission to exist within their hometown. Before having its Queer Premiere at Frameline49, this Frameline Completion Fund title had its World Premiere at the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival) in 2025.

Euphoric | Cam Killion 2024 USA 16 min

• In this Frameline Completion Fund-supported film and official Frameline48 selection, Sam brings Olivia back to their place during the heated extension of a first date gone very well. After a few stumbling blocks getting into the rhythm, the two find their way back after confronting something that could make or break a burgeoning queer romance: comfort in your own body.

Happy Birthday, Marsha! | Tourmaline & Sasha Wortzel 2017 USA 14 min

• Called “a lush and speculative portrait” of Marsha P. Johnson by The New Yorker, Tourmaline and Sasha Wortzel’s film about the titular transgender artist and activist imagines Marsha (Mya Taylor, Tangerine) and Sylvia Rivera’s lives in the hours that led up to the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City. An official Frameline42 selection, Happy Birthday, Marsha! also received an Honorable Mention in OutFest’s Outstanding US Narrative Short category. 

Kapaemahu | Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer & Joe Wilson 2020 USA 8 min

• Long ago, four extraordinary individuals of dual male and female spirit brought the healing arts from Tahiti to Hawaii. Beloved by the people for their gentle ways and miraculous cures, they imbued four giant boulders with their powers. The stones still stand on what is now Waikiki Beach, but the true story behind them has been hidden — until now. Narrated in an ancient Hawaiian dialect, this official Frameline44 selection and winner of 2020 OutFestAudience Award brings this powerful legend back to life in vivid animation.

Rainbow Girls | Nana Duffuor 2025 USA 16 min

• As San Francisco’s tech boom gentrifies their city, three young Black trans women decide to take matters into their own hands, staging an audacious heist targeting the city’s most exclusive luxury brands. A Frameline Completion Fund-supported film and official Frameline49 selection, Nana Duffuor’s Rainbow Girls was executive produced by Cheryl Dunye (The Watermelon Woman) and Nava Mau (Baby Reindeer).