Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman • 1989 • United States
A tremendous, handmade monument to lives lost to AIDS, the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt demonstrated that grief and activism together could forge a powerful symbol of resilience. Winner of the Academy Award for best documentary feature, this moving film—buoyed by an original all-vocal score by Bobby McFerrin—explores the human stories obscured by statistics, examining the cross section of identities affected by HIV/AIDS, as well as efforts to combat the stigma, misinformation, and political obstruction that deepened the crisis.
Directed by Jennie Livingston • 1990 • United States
Starring Dorian Corey, Pepper LaBeija, Angie Xtravaganza
Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City’s African America...
Directed by John Greyson • 1993 • Canada, United Kingdom
Starring John Robinson, Norman Fauteux, Dianne Heatherington
Inspired by the story of Gaëtan Dugas—the gay French Canadian flight attendant wrongly blamed for being “patient zero” in the North American AIDS epidemic—John Greyson’s daring a...
Directed by Shu Lea Cheang • 1994 • United States
Starring Sarita Choudhury, Erin McMurtry, Abraham Lim
Taiwanese-born new-media visionary Shu Lea Cheang directs this avant-anarcho ecosatire, in which a lesbian couple living on Staten Island find themselves ensnared in a vast conspiracy involvin...
