Documentary

This page links to the reviews of documentary style films that are focused on people, issues, and activities of interest to the LGBT community.

Chely Wright: Wish Me Away a 2012 Amazon Instant Video release (DVD available in October 2012) starring Chely Wright. Also included Rosie O’Donnell and support from Meredith Viera. Directed by Bobbie Birleffi and Beverly Kopf. Please see my September 14th, 2012 post for my review.

Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride, a 2009 release, written and directed by Ken Coolen, the Parade Director for the Vancouver (British Columbia) Pride Society. Please see my June 15th, 2012 post for my review.

Paragraph 175 Please see my May 18th, 2012 post for a review of this film about gay persecution and imprisonment during the Holocaust. This is directed by Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein with Rupert Everett narrating and interviews with survivors conducted by Klaus Müller.

William S. Burroughs: A Man Within Please see my April 13th, 2012 post for a review of this 2011 documentary film about the life of beat poet William S. Burroughs, a man who defined the beat generation. This is directed by devotee Yony Leyser and features old film footage and new interviews with Patti Smith, John Waters and others.

Pedro Please see my February 18th, 2012 post for a review of this movie and the book by Judd Winick, Pedro and Me: Friendship, Loss, and What I Learned both about the life of Pedro Zamora. The movie stars Alex Loynaz as Zamora, a gay man and AIDS educator, himself infected with AIDS. He would become a household name after appearing in the television series The Real World in its 3rd season, The Real World 3 – San Francisco. That’s when he met Judd Winick. The movie looks at his life. Winick’s book centers around the 8-9 months from the time they met in the Real World house until Pedros death 8-9 months later, just after the final episode of their season aired.

Making the Boys A documentary film about the making of the movie, The Boys in the Band which I reviewed previously. See the Drama page for that film. Please see my January 20th, 2012 post for my review of this documentary which stars Edward Albee, Mart Crowley (the original director of The Boys in the Band) and many others as the talk about the film.

Becoming Chaz featuring the female to male transition story of Chastity Bono to Chaz Bono. Jennifer Elia, Chaz’s girlfriend during filming, now fiance is prominently followed in the movie as well. Chaz’s mother Cher is interviewed for the film. Please see my December 9th, 2011 post for my review.

The Celluloid Closet 2001 starring Lily Tomlin (narrator) and Tony Curtis with interviews with many other screenwriters, filmmakers and actors. Please see my October 7th, 2011 post for my review.

 I reviewed the book, The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk in my June 14th 2011 post. Along with the book, I touched on the excellent 1984 documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk.

I reviewed the documentary, Out in the Silence directed by and starring Joe Wilson as himself. You can read my review in my June 5th, 2011 post.

I’m still adding reviews to this site. In the meantime, here is a link to some of the highest rated LGBT documentary films that are available at Amazon.com:

Highly Rated GLBT Documentaries