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Roland Emmerich is cinema's finest chaos goblin working today. His loudest detractors have accused him of being all spectacle and no substance, but I don't see anyone complaining on the Fourth of July when their fireworks displays don't have enough character development. Subtlety isn't Emmerich's strong suit, and I absolutely love him for it. Give me a spaceship with "F— the Moon" graffitied onto it in a movie called "Moonfall." Use the panic of the "2012" Mayan conspiracy theory to make a movie where a guy literally throws his annoying child to safety in a sacrificial effort. And yes, give me President Bill Pullman delivering an "Independence Day" speech so invigorating, so powerful, it brings about world peace. Emmerich is as much a filmmaker as he is the host of a cinematic demolition derby with a multi-million dollar VFX budget. That is to say, he is an artist of the highest order,...

Lines between reality and fantasy blur through a series of erotic, sensual, provocative images crafted by Ben Galster in his visceral celebration of homosexuality and intimacy Ecstasy Homosexuality for British musician The Irrepressibles. Galster, previously featured on Dn with his immersive one-shot music video Kugelsicher, wanted to celebrate the hard fought for freedoms within the gay community and punctuates the visually arresting reverie accompanying Jamie McDermott’s lyrics with vintage footage from the foundational LGBT flashpoint of the Stonewall Riots. Ecstasy Homosexuality is a feast for the senses, between the carefully selected exquisite actors, art pieces, photographs from queer artists, and a majestic setting where everyone was allowed the freedom and space to feel comfortable enough with each other to capture the delicate and elegant eroticism. Galster urges audiences to consider the film as a mouthpiece for the shared universal desire for love and acceptance and encourages us to embrace...

For the first time in nearly a decade, Anohni will embark on a North American tour, this time backed by her group, the Johnsons. Last year, Anohni and the Johnsons released one of the most arresting albums of the year, My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross, which contained the single “Why Am I Alive Now?” — whose music video was directed by Hunter Schafer. Rolling Stone dubbed the LP one of the 20 best albums of 2023. The tour dates mark Anohni’s first tour with the Johnsons since 2010.

“I...

In a new documentary, two trans film-makers aim to shed light on a community often stereotyped and undervalued

For trans film-maker Kristen Lovell, her new documentary The Stroll – co-directed with another trans film-maker, Zackary Drucker, and premiering on HBO this week – was about including an ignored chapter of trans history, one that she herself lived. Young, Black and trans in 90s New York, Lovell was fired from her job when she began to live her truth and was forced to sustain herself via sex work. The Stroll is a testament to what she went through just to be herself and the stories of so many other women like her that she met along the way.

“It was just time to tell this story,” Lovell told me. “There was a void, a generational void, where we went from the likes of Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P Johnson to this new generation...

Necropolitics and trans poetics never quite become one in Zackary Drucker and Kristen Lovell’s The Stroll, which recounts the history of the titular area of New York’s Meatpacking District where trans women went to make a living as sex workers between the 1970s and ‘90s. The documentary’s activist ethos takes up all of its space, and while Drucker and Lovell attest to the resilience of trans women in the face of relentless violence, they unfortunately opt for the most formulaic kind of visual storytelling. Which makes it difficult for ambiguity, the very stuff that desire is made of, to ever creep into the mix.

Apart from a few animated sequences dramatizing a predictable pattern of trans living that begins with a sex worker’s police arrest and ends with her returning to the streets, the film’s stylistic commitment is rooted in an apparent will to pass for routine streaming fare.

Egyptt, Lady P, Ceyenne, Cashmere: they’re all on intimate terms with The Stroll, a strip of 14th Street in the Meatpacking District once popular with Black trans sex workers in pre-yuppified Manhattan. It was a dangerous life; the streetwalkers often didn’t know if they’d be beaten up by the johns or the cops. But at the end of the day they knew they had each other, and it’s this sense of community and camaraderie that stands out in The Stroll, the new HBO documentary from stroller-turned-filmmaker Kristen Lovell.

You’d never know it from the sleek glass Apple store and velvet rope hotel clubs that stand there now, but New York’s Meatpacking District was once a hub for Black and brown trans women to earn an honest living. Even if you know your history, it can be hard to conjure an image of fabulous heeled goddesses walking the cobblestone streets now littered with luxury retail stores. For the ones who lived it, the experience is even more disorienting. That’s one of the bittersweet revelations present in “The Stroll,” a hauntingly poignant documentary that attempts to excavate and preserve that fractured history — while those who lived it are still here.

Directed by Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker, “The Stroll” is The film takes its title from the block of 14th street between Ninth Avenue and the Hudson River where many once found their trade, which the gals called The Stroll.

Finding LGBTQ actors to cast in the new history docuseries “The Book of Queer” wasn’t that difficult.

No, producers didn’t ask the actors about their sexuality.

“If you’re casting for a show called ‘Book of Queer,’ and you’re saying in the audition process, ‘Is there any particular reason you want to be on this show?,’ they’re going to tell us,” series creator Eric Cervini tells me. “Of course, we weren’t discriminating, but it was kind of self-selecting.’”

The five-episode “Book of Queer,” which premieres Thursday on Discovery+, features multiple stories about queer history and queer individuals, including Greek poet Sappho, Alexander the Great, King James, Joan of Arc, Akhenaten, Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Alan Turning, Josephine Baker, Stormé DeLarverie, Sylvia Rivera, Eleanor Roosevelt, Gilbert Baker, Harvey Milk, Marsha P. Johnson, Ma Rainey and Bayard Rustin.

The list of guest stars includes Dominique Jackson, Alex Newell,...

Dominque Jackson, Alex Newell, Leslie Jordan and Ross Mathews will be celebrating Pride Month with Discovery+ this year. The four have been announced as guest narrators for the upcoming docuseries “The Book of Queer,” set to launch on the streaming service June 2.

The upcoming special event series — which has its first-look featurette above —will feature five episodes, each of which tells the story of multiple historic and groundbreaking queer individuals throughout history. The subjects of the episodes span people that have lived across thousands of years, and include politicians, artists, activists, scientists and world leaders. Some of the names include: ancient Greek poet Sappho, Alexander the Great, King James, Joan of Arc, Akhenaten, Lenardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Alan Turning, Josephine Baker, Stormé DeLarverie, Sylvia Rivera, Eleanor Roosevelt, Gilbert Baker, Harvey Milk, Marsha P. Johnson, Ma Rainey and Bayard Rustin.

Each episode features reenactments and recreations of several subjects’ lives, featuring...

Steven Canals revealed what his acceptance speech would’ve sounded like at the Emmy Awards if his groundbreaking series Pose had been celebrated for its final season Sunday night.

“Well, @poseonfx didn’t take home any Emmys last night but that doesn’t change how proud I am of our final season. Here’s what I would have said had I made it up on that stage. All of this will always hold true,” he captioned the photo of his prepared speech.

“The reason I get to stand up here as an openly queer Afro-Latin person is because of my ancestors,” his speech opens. “In 1969, the fight for the Trans and Queer liberation reached a fever pitch, built on the backs of the women, who happened to be Trans and Lesbian. Who happened to be Black and Latina. And so I want to honor Marsha P Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Miss Major,...

Exclusive: PBS’ documentary series Pov has acquired U.S. broadcast rights to Pier Kids, Elegance Bratton’s LGBTQ documentary that premiered at Doc NYC and won awards for its director Elegance Bratton at Outfest and the Spirit Awards among its film festival accolades. With the deal, the pic will be part of Pov‘s upcoming season that launches in June.

Pier Kids explores the lives of the Black, homeless queer and trans youth who call the Christopher Street Pier in New York City their home, forging friendships and chosen families. The doc focuses the kids as they navigate their lives, withstanding homophobia and discrimination while working to carve out autonomy and security. It is a subject close to Bratton: he lived in the Christopher Street Pier for a decade after leaving home at age 16.

The film is the first from Bratton and Chester Algernal Gordon’s production company Freedom Principle...

March 31st is International Transgender Day of Visibility, a day meant to celebrate trans people in a world that frequently marginalizes and mistreats them. This year, as states like Arkansas pass cruel laws aimed at denying trans people healthcare and dignity, observing this day feels especially important — and the history of trans resistance offered by Boston-based artist/activist Evan Greer’s new music video for “The Tyranny of Either/Or” couldn’t be more timely.

The song is a pop-punk anthem that could fit in with Green Day’s Nineties hits,...

Few places on Earth have been mythologized as much as New York City. The very mention of its name can instantly summon images (King Kong atop the Empire State Building; Audrey Hepburn having coffee with diamonds), sounds (Gershwin!; the Sex and the City theme; Frank singing a song Liza sings better), even smells (that boiled cabbage and piss scent of the summer; winters where the air smells like the color blue).

In his seminal essay “The Way We Live Now: 11-11-01; Lost and Found,” Colson Whitehead wrote, “You start building your private New York the first time you lay eyes on it,” each new memory becomes a brick in the structure of your personal city. Recently the playwright Jeremy O. Harris penned a piece for Vogue wherein he celebrates the strength of a city that hasn’t been able to sleep even during a pandemic. It just traded its glittery dress for PPE,...

The Stonewall Inn in New York, site of the landmark 1969 riots that paved the way for the modern LGBTQ rights movement, will remain open through the pandemic thanks to a $250,000 donation.

The Washington Blade reports that the Gill Foundation, which provides grants to queer organizations across the U.S., pledged the quarter-million-dollar donation to help cover rent and utility bills while the bar is temporarily shut down due to Covid-19.

“Stonewall is a cornerstone of LGBTQ history and it must be protected. LGBTQ history is American history,” the Gill Foundation said in a statement.

Google has unveiled a new logo illustration (“Google Doodle”) for Marsha P. Johnson, the pioneering LGBTQ rights activist and self-identified drag queen who was a pivotal figure in the original Gay Liberation Front and the Stonewall Riots.

Born Malcolm Michaels, Jr., on August 24th, 1945, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Johnson moved to New York City’s Greenwich Village upon graduating from high school, where she adopted her drag queen persona and legally changed her name to Marsha P. Johnson. (The “P.” stood for “pay it no mind,” a phrase she allegedly used to describe her gender.

The first LGBT Pride parade — officially known as the Christopher Street Liberation Day March — took place 50 years ago to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall Riot, an uprising against police brutality and harassment led by Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera at the Stonewall Inn. This year, amid the social unrest and demand for equality and justice following the deaths of people of color at the hands of the police and the 14 reported murders of trans and non-binary people of color in 2020, Mj Rodriguez and Billy Porter, both activists and stars of the ground-breaking drama Pose,...

Updated, 6:35 Pm: Crews this afternoon removed the “All Black Lives Matter” mural that was painted on Hollywood Boulevard between Highland and Orange avenues. Los Angeles city officials say they are looking for a permanent location for the mural.

Previously, June 14: A solidarity march between the LGBTQ+ and Black Lives Matter communities will be commemorated by a giant mural stating “All Black Lives Matter” painted at the intersection of Hollywood & Highland, the march’s starting point.

The march kicks off at 11 Am today and will end in West Hollywood at Santa Monica and San Vicente boulevards. The large gathering follows last week’s march in Hollywood where a crowd estimated by some at 50,000 people marched.

Today’s march is meant to be a response to racial injustice. It arrives on the day when the annual La Pride march and festival was to take place, an event cancelled because of the pandemic.

Following “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling’s anti-trans tweets earlier this week – and her further defense of her comments in a 3,600 word essay – alums of the incredibly successful film franchise as well as other celebrities have publicly spoken out against the British writer.

Most recently, Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger in the series, tweeted a short statement regarding her views on transgender rights. “Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren’t who they say they are,” Watson wrote.

Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren’t who they say they are.

— Emma Watson (@EmmaWatson) June 10, 2020

Her statement came shortly after she retweeted British Vogue columnist Paris Lees’ reply to Rowling, which included a list of organizations supporting black transgender people that are accepting donations.

June marks Pride Month, a time where the Lgtbq+ community celebrates unity and L.A. Pride usually holds its annual parade and festival but had to cancel it this year because of Covid-19. However, Christopher Street West, the nonprofit that produces the fest, announced that on the weekend the Pride parade was supposed to take place, they are instead holding a solidarity protest march in response to racial injustice, systemic racism, and all forms of oppression. L.A. Pride made the announcement on their social media platforms on Wednesday.

To our La Pride family:

While we had cancelled all in-person events due to Covid-19, we have decided to peacefully assemble a protest in Hollywood, where the first ever permitted Pride Parade took place, in solidarity with the Black community. 50 years ago, Christopher Street West (Csw) took to the streets of Hollywood Boulevard to peacefully protest against police brutality and oppression.

“Stonewall Outloud” is an important documentary from the people who brought you “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” The documentary takes us back to New York 1969 when the NYPD raided the Stonewall Inn, a haven for the Lgbtq community. That fateful night on June 28, 1969, was when the patrons fought back, standing their ground for their right to exist in society without fear of persecution. It was a night that would mark the first Pride demonstration.

Filmmakers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato’s documentary worked with Davy Isay’s StoryCorps to connect the past to the present. By using the archival material, those accounts are brought to life. The voices of Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera and Geane Harwood, among others, recount the events of that fateful night that would pave the way for the gay rights movement.

The StoryCorps archive audio formed the basis for the documentary. “It was the fact that that...

Did the death of Judy Garland trigger the Stonewall Riots and the birth of the gay liberation movement as is suggested in the new biopic “Judy”? The truth is, it depends who you ask.

To this day, the legendary singer’s death less than a week before the 1969 riots continues to be recognized as a considerable factor in the gay uprising that led to 13 arrests and many injuries at the gay bar Stonewall Inn in New York City’s Greenwich Village. Garland’s adoration in the gay community was of mythical proportions decades before her death from an accidental overdose of barbiturates on June 22, 1969. “She is an Elvis for homosexuals,” Barry Walters wrote in a 1998 article in The Advocate. He, like many, many others, believe her tragic end “may have” helped to ignite the five-night Stonewall rebellion.

Not many businesses welcomed openly gay people in the ’50s and ’60s. The...

Granted, the red carpet at the opening night of Outfest in Dtla may not have been the most star-studded but it was without a doubt the most diverse, inclusive and, yes, fabulous.

“I’ve never been here before,” admitted “RuPaul’s Drag Race” vet Trixie Mattel, who stars in the documentary “Moving Parts.” “It’s supposed to be the greatest film festival for Lgbtq+ content, but in my opinion, all the best films feature Lgbtq+ artists, directors, cameramen. I work on ‘Drag Race,’ where everybody behind the camera is a person of color or a queer person and it feels more like that tonight. It feels more like home.”

The opening night film was a documentary about the elderly suburban couple and their three kids who owned and operated the now-shuttered Circus of Books, two gay porn shops in West Hollywood and Silverlake. “We’re both Jewish, so when we grew up,...

Who threw the first brick at Stonewall? Legends abound about the night a group of New York City queers who were tired of being harassed by the cops every night decided they’d had enough. Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Stormé DeLarverie: These are the names that launched the movement as we know it today, first brick or not. Here are 10 films to mark the 50th anniversary of that monumental night in 1969.

Who would have guessed that “Billions,” a cutthroat and hedonistic look at Wall Street hedge fund magnates and the politicians gunning for them, would deliver a groundbreaking representation of gender non-binary identities? Certainly not Asia Kate Dillon, who portrays non-binary investment wunderkind Taylor Mason on the Showtime series and also identifies as non-binary off-screen. The term “non-binary” encompasses a spectrum of gender identities that embraces fluidity, or does not acknowledge any conventions of gender at all. Typically, non-binary people reject traditional male and female pronouns like “he/him” and “she/her” in favor of pronouns like “they/them/theirs.”

They are also almost entirely invisible in mainstream content. “There’s a silver-lining aspect of ‘Billions’ being a teaching tool about gender identity that myself or my character might be a bridge toward understanding,” Dillon says. “I think understanding creates hope.”

What’s most significant about Dillon’s work over four...

“Is it appropriate for me to attend the Pride parade?” my mom asked me last June.

My mother isn’t gay, transgender or bisexual, but she does have a queer son — one that she’s incredibly proud of and unconditionally accepts. She wants to show her support for the Lgbtq community, but isn’t sure if celebrating Pride is the best avenue to do so. And it’s not just her — many well-intended allies are asking themselves similar questions, especially in 2018.

The past couple of years for the Lgbtq community hasn’t been easy.

At Wednesday night’s Paley Honors, which paid tribute to Lgbtq achievements in television, attendees never lost sight of those who first paved the way – both on screen and off. CNN’s Don Lemon opened the ceremony by thanking legendary transgender activist Sylvia Rivera, who helped lead the charge at Stonewall fifty years ago. After recounting the story of the riots, he gestured around the Ziegfeld Ballroom. “Because she was there, we’re here tonight in this room, and at this point in history.”

On the eve of that landmark anniversary, stars ranging from Laverne Cox to Billy Crystal reflected on the progress that’s been made in the decades since — and how far things still have to go.

Our Lady J, a writer on “Transparent” and “Pose,” first learned about Stonewall as a teenager in New York. She immediately wanted to know more, so she turned to someone with...

If you walk down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on the last Sunday of June, you’d be confronted by a barrage of rainbow floats. Likely, you’d think to yourself, “Wow, this truly is a celebration of the Lgbtq community.” But upon further scrutiny, you may notice that several of these floats read Td Bank, T-Mobile and Hyatt. If, on a whim, you wanted to join the festivities, hopping on a float or marching in the parade, one of the many police officers would escort you off the street.

That...

Greg Berlanti has produced a host of superhero TV shows for the CW, many of which feature Lgbtq characters. But he says it’s time for audiences to see an Lgbtq superhero on the big screen.

“I grew up a huge James Bond fan and I really think it’d be nice to have a Lgbtq character in one of the mainstream superhero movies or action films, that happens to be Lgbt,” Berlanti said on Thursday during a panel at UTA for GLAAD’s Where We Are On TV report.

Joining Berlanti on the panel — moderated by Variety‘s Marc Malkin — were”Pose” co-creator Steven Canals, UTA TV agent Lucinda Moorhead, actress Lyrica Okano (“Marvel’s Runaways”), and GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis.

Berlanti also said that as a gay parent, he’s realized there’s a lack of Lgbtq representation in children’s books.

“Reading bedtime stories,...

Netflix debuted “The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson” on Oct. 6, but filmmaker Reina Gossett claims that the documentary’s director, David France, appropriated her idea and research for the project.

“David got inspired to make this film from a grant application video that Sasha [Wortzel] and I made and sent to Kalamazoo/Arcus Foundation social justice center while he was visiting,” Gossett wrote in a statement, shared today on Twitter by author and activist Janet Mock. “He told the people who worked there — I shit you not — that he should be the one to do this film.”

She then alleged that to make his film and secure a grant from the Sundance Institute and the Arcus Foundation, France pilfered her contacts as well as her work on advocacy group Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. Additionally, Gossett wrote that France convinced Vimeo to take down a video she’d uploaded of...

"If you were in New York -- in gay New York, in queer New York -- during her lifetime, you knew Marsha," documentarian David France says of his latest film's subject, Marsha P. Johnson. "She would call out your name or she would call out, "Hi, doll" and she was dispensing this kind of joy. Her joy was her form of resistance…When '69 happened and the mindset changed within the community and there was an agreement across the board to advocate for liberty, for freedom, nobody really knew what that looked like and Marsha modeled it. She just put it on. She said, 'This is what it's going to be like.' She threw off all convention and she said, 'Freedom is going to be truly free.'"

Marsha "Pay 'Em No Mind" Johnson has been called "the Rosa Parks of the Lgbtq movement," because of the pivotal role she played in the Stonewall riots of 1969. (Some...

David France, an experienced and distinguished investigative reporter with a specific interest in issues relating to the Lgbt community, turned to documentary filmmaking in 2012 with his first feature How To Survive a Plague. Welding together vast amounts of archive and research sources in a style France describes as “archival verité” to compile a visual history of the AIDS activism he’d been writing about since the earliest days of the crisis, his film provided a comprehensive, compelling document of the epidemic and those fighting for recognition and a response to it. A similar style is used in France’s latest film, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, another intensely researched and deeply felt portrait that tells a similarly fraught and complex story. Marsha, a prominent personality in New York’s emergent late 60s transgender community and a key figure in the Stonewall Rebellion, died in 1992 in mysterious circumstances.

Despite the years of adversity faced by self-described drag queen and activist Marsha P. Johnson — a participant in the Stonewall riots and an icon of New York City’s Lgbtq community — she is mostly remembered for her joy.

“She threw off all convention and re-invented life, really, around unhindered self-expression,” says filmmaker David France, who met Johnson soon after he moved from the Midwest to N.Y.C., where she was a “fixture” of the gay scene.

A familiar face along Manhattan’s Christopher Street, where she was often wreathed with flowers, Johnson is regarded as a key figure in...

Twenty-five years ago — and some 23 years after the start of the modern Lgbt rights movement she championed — Marsha P. Johnson was found floating, dead, in the Hudson River in New York City.

Authorities ruled her death a suicide, despite the objections and incredulity of those who knew her. But Johnson’s case was not forgotten, and the story of her life and death and the search for answers that came after are the subjects of an upcoming Netflix documentary about the transgender activist remembered as the “mayor of Christopher Street.”

Co-written and directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker David France, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson...

Film will screen at Outfest Los Angeles this summer.

Netflix has acquired worldwide rights to The Death And Life Of Marsha P. Johnson, David France’s follow-up to How To Survive A Plague.

The film premiered at Tribeca and explores the murder of the transgender legend and ‘street queen’ of NYC’s gay ghetto, who played a pivotal role in the Stonewall Riots of 1969 and established with fellow icon Sylvia Rivera the world’s first trans-rights organization, Star, in 1970.

When Johnson’s body was found floating in the Hudson River in 1992, police refused to investigate the case and presumed Johnson committed suicide. Twenty-five years after her death, activist Victoria Cruz picks up the case.

Netflix plans a global launch later this year on The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, which is presented by Public Square Films. L.A. Teodosio produced and Joy A. Tomchin and Sara Ramirez served as executive producers.

“Almost single-handedly...

LGBTQ icon and Stonewall Riot symbol Marsha P. Johnson is getting a documentary about her life. Netflix announced Friday that it has picked up the worldwide rights to “The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson,” which examines her life and untimely death.

Johnson was a drag queen, transgender woman and vocal activist known as one of the first people to fight back in the Greenwich Village Stonewall Riots of 1969. In later years she, along with friend Sylvia Rivera, went on to found the world’s first trans-rights organization: Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (Star).

Netflix has acquired worldwide rights to David France’s The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, a documentary about the transgender activist from the director of the Oscar-nominated How to Survive a Plague.

Johnson took part in the historic 1969 Stonewall Riots and went on with fellow activist Sylvia Rivera to form the trans-rights organization Star, an acronym for Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries, in 1970. When she was found floating in the Hudson River in 1992, her death was attributed to suicide, although the circumstances surrounding it remained a mystery.

"Almost single-handedly, Marsha P. Johnson and her best friend Sylvia...

David France’s Oscar-nominated “How to Survive a Plague” was a mesmerizing look at AIDS activism in the eighties and nineties, reconstructed with bountiful archival footage; France’s followup, “The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson,” is a kind of thematic sequel, this time focusing on trans activism during the same time period. Both movies grapple with the reverberations of these dramatic efforts in the present moment, but “The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson” is particularly suspenseful for the way it recollects the past through the prism of a murder mystery, brilliantly fusing an archival history with the elements of a detective story.

Whereas “Plague” explored the efforts of Act Up and other institutions to combat the AIDS epidemic, “The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson” focuses on Greenwich Village “street queen” Johnson, a Stonewall riots hero who died under mysterious circumstances in 1992 when she was...

New York is a mecca for queer culture of all stripes. Set in the heart of downtown Manhattan, just a short walk from the cruising piers of Christopher street and the cocktail lounges of Chelsea, the Tribeca Film Festival is a natural home for Lgbtq creators and projects. From lesser known indie films to highly anticipated studio television shows, experimental Vr and new online work from queer up and comers pushing the conversation into new territory, the festival’s 16th edition offers plenty for the queer-minded.

Read More: Why ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Is the Most Anticipated Screening of the Tribeca Film Festival

Here is a guide to the five best Lgbtq projects playing the festival this year.

“Tom of Finland”

Now, here is a biopic we can get behind (or underneath, whatever your preference).

The cult icon Tom of Finland is renowned for his homoerotic drawings of beefcakes in...

The mysterious death of a trans icon is front and center in The Hollywood Reporter's exclusive clip of The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson.

The documentary focuses on the late legendary fixture in New York City’s gay ghetto who, along with fellow trans icon Sylvia Rivera, founded Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries, a trans activist group based in the heart of Greenwich Village. Johnson was found floating in the Hudson River in 1992, and though the police pegged her death as a suicide, her comrades have always firmly rejected that claim. In the clip, activist Victoria Cruz seeks to finally solve...

Now in its sixteenth year, New York City’s own Tribeca Film Festival kicks off every spring with a wide variety of programming on offer, from an ever-expanding Vr installation to an enviable television lineup, but the bread and butter of the annual festival is still in its film slate. This year’s festival offers up plenty of returning favorites with new projects, alongside fresh faces itching to break out. From insightful documentaries to fanciful features, with a heavy dose of Gotham-centric films (hey, it is Tribeca after all), there’s plenty to dive into here, so we’ve culled the schedule for a few surefire hits.

This year’s Tribeca Film Festival takes place April 20 – 30. Check out some of our must-see picks below.

Read More: Why ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Is the Most Anticipated Screening of the Tribeca Film Festival

“A Gray State”

It might be the craziest story...