Bright Lights

PRIDE is inspired by an extraordinary true story. It’s the summer of 1984, Margaret Thatcher is in power and the National Union of Mineworkers is on strike, prompting a London-based group of gay and lesbian activists to raise money to support the strikers’ families. Initially rebuffed by the Union, the group identifies a tiny mining village in Wales and sets off to make their donation in person. As the strike drags on, the two groups discover that standing together makes for the strongest union of all.

The Playland Café, Boston’s oldest gay bar, was established in 1937 and was a vital queer hub in the city until 1998, when rampant ‘urban renewal’ projects led to its closure. Demolished but never forgotten, it acted as a meeting ground for an exceptionally diverse crowd — throughout its lifespan, it featured acts from drag performances to DJ sets and was connected to Pride rallies and underground gay newspapers. As a gathering place for outsiders, it was also a target for police raids and zoning. Artist-filmmaker Georden West’s debut feature is an expressionist and very queer bricolage, focusing on an atemporal night in the renowned Playland Café. Following its employees and others who have haunted the space, weaving together a tapestry of personal and community anecdotes across the bar’s existence.

Follows the life of artist Nan Goldin and the downfall of the Sackler family, the pharmaceutical dynasty who was greatly responsible for the opioid epidemic's unfathomable death toll.

In 1958, a young trans woman named Agnes entered a study about sex disorders at UCLA to get the gender-affirming care she needed, by any means necessary. Her story was long considered to be exceptional until never-before-seen case files of other patients were found in 2017. Directed by Chase Joynt (NO ORDINARY MAN) and featuring an all-star cast of transgender artists and performers, FRAMING AGNES uses re-enactment and genre-blurring storytelling techniques to breathe new life into previously unknown people who redefined gender in the midcentury. Featuring Angelica Ross, Jen Richards, Zackary Drucker, Silas Howard, Max Wolf Valerio (Gendernauts, Max), and Stephen Ira.

An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save what’s important to her by connecting with the lives she could have led in other universes.

Worlds collide when Enn, a shy teenager in 1970s London, meets the beautiful and rebellious Zan at a party. They set in motion the ultimate showdown between their rivaling worlds and test the limits of how far they will go for true love.

When filmmaker Will Lautzenheiser’s limbs are amputated, his life is derailed and he turns to stand-up comedy as therapy. Meanwhile, a world-famous medical team is performing transplants that restore bodies to unprecedented levels. Despite grave risks, Will agrees to undergo an experimental double-arm transplant in the hope of reclaiming his independence.

A documentary look at the life of Marsha P. Johnson, a notable activist for trans rights in New York City who was found dead in 1992. France enlists Johnson's former friends and activists to reconstruct her life of political advocacy and try to piece together the events that led to her death.

Working from the text of James Baldwin’s unfinished final novel, director Raoul Peck creates a meditation on what it means to be Black in the United States.

Through its lyrical structure, Chavela will take viewers on an evocative, thought-provoking journey through the iconoclastic life of game-changing artist Chavela Vargas. Centered around never before-seen interview footage of Chavela shot 20 years before her death in 2012, and guided by the stories in Chavela's songs, and the myths and tales others have told about her - as well as those she spread about herself - the film weaves an arresting portrait of a woman who dared to dress, speak, sing, and dream her unique life into being.