The story of how police repeatedly allowed a serial murderer to slip through their fingers. Stephen Port date-raped and murdered four young gay men in East London within fifteen months and dumped all four bodies within a few hundred metres of each other. The film tells the story through eyes of the families of Port's victims, unpicking how the police failed to properly investigate each of the deaths in turn. The police's assumptions that these young gay men had died from self-inflicted overdoses of chem-sex drugs allowed Port to continue raping and killing innocent young men.
Robert Mapplethorpe (1988)
The Robert Mapplethorpe documentary, from 1988--one year before he died--is an excellent examination of one of the most controversial of American photographers. British documentarian Nigel Finch does an outstanding job fusing interviews with Mr. Mapplethorpe himself, with critic and author Edmund White, and with several of Mapplethorpe's subjects as well, with numerous shots of the man's work. Mapplethorpe, gay, did not hesitate to photograph what he wanted to without fear of reprisal or censorship. Indeed, a good number of his pieces were not shown in the documentary at its original airing on PBS with the comment, "Considered Unsuitable for Viewing On This Transmission." His openly sexual work can at times be more than shocking, but it is always powerful and direct; as critic Lynn Davies says in the documentary, he did not pose people but photographed them doing what they would normally do in the course of their lives.
Inside A.M.G. (1970)
Rick "Jim" Cassidy and Bob Mizer, one of the founders, and head, of the Athletic Model Guild, profile the A.M.G., its history, and how it operates. The purpose of the A.M.G. is to prepare (mostly gay) young men who meet its specifications for careers in modeling and showing themselves off as "gay-boy beefcake" (the male gay equivalent of young female models as "cheesecake"). Questions arise as to where these young men come from, how they are recruited, what it is like to work for A.M.G., and if all the young men who apply and are accepted are, indeed, gay.
Harold Shipman (2014)
Harold Shipman: Driven to Kill, a British documentary currently on Netflix in the US, has two episodes, and chooses to go with an old-fashioned documentary style. The story is told in a straightforward, chronological order and provides us with clear timeline. This way you can get a good understanding of Dr. Shipman; one of the most prolific serial killers in history, from the very beginning. Who was he? How did nobody ever notice that something was off until after he had committed the murders of countless patients?
Dream Boat (2017)
A cruise ship and 3,000 men – it is a universe without heteros and women that usually remains a mystery to the outside world. Once a year the Dream Boat sets sail for a cruise exclusively for gay men where most passengers are united by the wish to live life authentically as themselves in a protected place.
The Tickle King (2017)
Featuring new, previously unseen footage documenting the bizarre and unsettling things that happened to filmmakers David Farrier and Dylan Reeve as Tickled premiered at film festivals and theaters in 2016. Lawsuits, private investigators, disrupted screenings and surprise appearances are just part of what they encounter along the way. Amidst new threats, the duo begins to answer questions that remained once the credits rolled on Tickled, including whether the disturbing behavior they uncovered will ever come to an end.
Hunting the Zodiac (2003)
A film by John Mikulenka documenting various people's investigation into the mystery of the Zodiac.
Deadly Legacy (2018)
In 2011, Detective Sergeant Jason Moran from the Sheriff’s Department of Cook County Illinois, reopened the case of one of America’s most notorious serial killers, ‘The Killer Clown’ John Wayne Gacy. Although Gacy was convicted of 33 murders and killed by lethal injection in 1994, unbelievably, EIGHT of his victims remain unidentified. Today, 40 years after the discovery of the crawlspace under Gacy’s Chicago home, where he buried most of his victims, Detective Moran knows time is running out to identify the remaining unnamed victims of this sadistic killer.
The Weird World of LSD (1967)
The 60s equivalent of Reefer Madness and all those other 30s drug exploitation flicks. Apparently, dropping acid leads to stripteases, cat fights, promiscuous sex, playing with kittens, and being convinced your dinner is much larger than it actually is. This is all illustrated in a series of silent sketches accompanied by a droll narrator who seems positively doped out of his mind.
Uncut (1997)
Circumcision and artistic freedom concern three homosexuals, denied communication during a surreal jail stay.
Mr. Untouchable (2007)
The true-life story of a Harlem's notorious Nicky Barnes, a junkie turned multimillionaire drug-lord. Follow his life story from his rough childhood to the last days of his life.
The Third Way (2014)
Documentary film about Catholic Church teachings about homosexuality. Describes the "third way", the lifestyle lead by orthodox gay Catholics practicing celibacy out of personal choice, an often overlooked demographic in the debates about homosexuality in the Church.
The Murder of Meredith Kercher (2023)
Examining the brutal murder of 21-year-old student Meredith Kercher in 2007.
Murder in Mayfair (2023)
In 2008, 23-year-old Norwegian student Martine Vik Magnussen was killed after a night out in Mayfair. Hours after her death, the only suspect in the case, Farouk Abdulhak, the son of one of Yemen’s richest and most powerful men, fled the UK to Yemen.
Strip and War (2019)
The film tells the story of a small family, consisting of a grandfather retired from the army, and his stripper grandson. It is not just a story of a relationship, but rather a reflection of entire Belarus and the post-Soviet, pro-Russian world. Moreover, it's a universally-recognized reflection of a generation gap.
Running for His Life: The Lawrence Phillips Story (2016)
Feature length documentary examining the troubled life and tragic death of college football standout and talented NFL running back Lawrence Phillips, whose scars of childhood abuse and abandonment haunted him throughout his career.
What Jennifer Did (2024)
When Jennifer Pan calls 911 to report that her parents have been shot, she becomes the primary focus of a captivating criminal case.
Stolen Kisses: Homosexual Love in Fascist Italy (2021)
Through letters, diaries and personal testimonies, an account of the complexity and variety of experiences of LGBT Italians during the Fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini (1922-43); intimate words that contrast with the lyrics of popular songs and the propaganda of the time, obsessed with extolling the myths of virility, femininity and motherhood and constrained by sexual repression.