53 LGBTQ+ Movies Spanning Centuries and Genres

Filmed mostly through the latter half of the 1980s, this iconic documentary traces the drag ball culture of New York City and the Black, Latino, and LGBTQ+ communities involved in the scene. The movie provides a primer on how ball competitions work, as well as in-depth interviews with many of the people closely involved in developing, maintaining, and evolving the culture. Alongside the apparent glamour of the scene, the movie also documents the very real concerns that their communities faced, from poverty and homelessness to bigotry, violence, and the AIDS epidemic. It’s a chronicle of a very specific place and time, as well as a broader commentary on marginalized and often overlooked communities and their contributions to popular culture.