By The Collectress

I’m feeling a little discouraged that LGBTQ American history is ignored in the mainstream educational setting, so if you’ve stumbled across this post because you want to learn more about the LGBTQ community and its culture and history, here are a few good documentaries to begin with. 

Before Stonewall

This is pretty much the introductory textbook. Stonewall was important for so many reasons, but this 1985 Emmy winning documentary talks about the decades leading up to and shaping the queer community in 1969. You can watch this documentary on Amazon Video.

Paris is Burning

This is the other quintessential, and extremely famous, documentary about the queer community. This film, also award winning, covers the drag and ball culture of New York City, and predominately features transgender and drag culture in minority groups. I don’t think I can stress enough how important this film is, and how utterly unfair it was that it was not considered for an Academy Award.

This is available on Netflix.

L Word Mississippi: Hate the Sin

Shows like The L Word have become a staple in the queer woman community, but too often it’s easy to forget the women who can’t be as open and expressive as the scripted drama series makes the lesbian lifestyle appear to be. So these filmmakers took it upon themselves to follow the lives of lesbian women who live in the Deep South, and to show how incredibly different it is from the jaded lifestyles of the lesbian women who are depicted in and by Hollywood. Yes, I know this film is about more current events than the other two I’ve chosen, but it’s important to see where we still need to promote change.

This film is available on Hulu.

Have a recommendation of a documentary for me to watch? Tell me in the comments!