LGBTQ+ History Month is a perfect time to spotlight documentaries that preserve community memory, celebrate culture, and illuminate the long fight for dignity and rights. The ten films below are classroom- and library-ready: they pair compelling storytelling with rich archival material and invite thoughtful discussion across history, civics, media studies, and gender/queer studies.
Docutainment Films
Dawn: A Charleston Legend LGBTQ Documentary
Dawn, a Charleston Legend (2023)
This portrait of Dawn Langley Simmons—writer, socialite, and one of the first widely publicized trans women in the American South—recasts Charleston’s genteel image through a story of audacity and reinvention. Through interviews, archives, and local lore, the film traces Dawn’s gender affirmation, interracial marriage, and fearless refusal to live small in a hostile era.
For libraries and museums, it’s a rare regional history that connects LGBTQ+ visibility to Southern social change. Use it to spark conversations about media portrayals of trans lives, the intersections of race and gender, and how local archives shape public memory. Ideal for community screenings followed by oral-history projects or author talks.
Read the full Video Librarian review here.
Altered Innocence
Gay USA: Snapshots of 1970s LGBT Resistance Documentary
Gay USA: Snapshots of 1970s LGBT Resistance (1978/Restorations)
Shot across Pride marches nationwide in 1977, this kinetic time capsule captures the exuberance, anger, and organizing savvy of a movement in bloom. Handmade signs, on-the-street interviews, and post-Stonewall urgency create a panoramic view of everyday activists pushing back against Anita Bryant–era backlash.
A superb primary-source document, it’s tailor-made for courses on social movements and media history. Pair with zines, local Pride ephemera, or newspaper databases to compare frames of resistance then and now. Great for intergenerational programs where elders and youth share organizing strategies.
Read the full Video Librarian review here.
Get your copy of Gay USA on DVD here.
No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon (2003)
Trailblazing cofounders of the Daughters of Bilitis, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon devoted decades to lesbian rights, health advocacy, and marriage equality. This warm, intimate documentary follows their partnership and political labor, culminating in their historic 2004 San Francisco marriage.
It’s an essential addition for women’s history and LGBTQ+ collections, highlighting how personal relationships fuel public change. Perfect for book clubs (pair with Lesbian/Woman), civic engagement programs, and lessons on coalition-building from the homophile era through the 21st century.
Stream No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon on Prime Video.
The Life and Death of Marsha P. Johnson (2017)
David France weaves activism, investigation, and remembrance into a study of Marsha P. Johnson—Stonewall veteran, trans icon, and cofounder of STAR—while following Victoria Cruz’s efforts to revisit the circumstances of Marsha’s 1992 death. The film braids archival gems with contemporary organizing, centering Black and Latinx trans leadership.
For programming around Trans Day of Remembrance or Stonewall history, it foregrounds those too often footnoted. Use alongside local LGBTQ+ archives to discuss who gets remembered, how cases are reported, and why community documentation matters. A strong catalyst for talks on safety, housing, and health access.
Stream The Life and Death of Marsha P. Johnson on Netflix.
Collective Eye Films
In Her Words: 20th Century Lesbian Fiction LGBTQ Documentary Poster
In Her Words: 20th Century Lesbian Fiction (2020)
A literary journey through the authors, presses, and readers who built modern lesbian literature—often in the face of censorship. Through author interviews and book history, the documentary charts how pulp gave way to feminist presses and mainstream breakthroughs.
Libraries will love its direct tie to collection development and readers’ advisory. Build a display from the film’s bibliography; host a read-aloud or writing workshop; connect the dots between publishing history, access, and identity formation.
Read the full Video Librarian review here.
Get In Her Words: 20th Century Lesbian Fiction from Collective Eye Films here.
Paris Is Burning (1990)
Jennie Livingston’s landmark film enters New York’s late-1980s ballroom scene—houses, categories, “realness”—and the artistry of Black and Latinx queer and trans communities. It’s joyous and devastating, a testament to chosen family, survival, and style-as-strategy.
Still indispensable for discussions of voguing, language, and cultural appropriation, it pairs well with contemporary ballroom media and scholarship. Ideal for dance, fashion, and cultural studies programs—and for highlighting how subcultures shape mainstream aesthetics while rarely reaping the benefits.
Get Paris is Burning on DVD here.
Coded: The Hidden Love of J.C. Leyendecker (2021)
This short documentary decodes the early-20th-century illustrator’s magazine covers and ads—slick imagery that smuggled queer desire into mass culture. It also explores Leyendecker’s partnership with Charles Beach and the coded visual language that reached those who knew how to look.
Perfect for art and design programs, it opens dialogue about representation under censorship, advertising ethics, and how visual rhetoric communicates identity. Pair with a poster exhibit or a workshop on semiotics in commercial art.
Read the Video Librarian review here.
Steam Coded on Amazon Prime with a Paramount+ subscription here.
The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
An Oscar-winning masterwork, Rob Epstein’s film chronicles Harvey Milk’s rise as San Francisco supervisor and his 1978 assassination, situating the story within city politics and grassroots mobilization. Testimony from friends and colleagues keeps the narrative intimate and urgent.
Use it as a cornerstone for civic education: local elections, coalition politics, and the mechanics of change. Pair with Milk (2008) for fiction–nonfiction comparison, or host a panel with local officials and activists to discuss representation and policy.
Get your copy of The Times of Harvey Milk on DVD here.
We Were Here (2011)
A profoundly humane chronicle of San Francisco’s early AIDS years, told by five witnesses who recount caregiving, loss, anger, and unimaginable love. It’s a community portrait that neither sensationalizes nor sanitizes, honoring those who fought for each other and for systemic change.
An essential screening for public health, ethics, and modern U.S. history. Pair with service organizations for on-site testing resources or remembrance events. The film powerfully links mutual aid to policy advocacy—history with palpable contemporary relevance.
Stream We Were Here on Prime Video here.
Ahead of the Curve (2020)
This spirited doc traces the birth of Curve magazine (founded by Franco Stevens) and its role in shaping lesbian visibility in the 1990s and beyond. As the team weighs the publication’s future in a digital world, the film asks how media evolves while serving a community’s changing needs.
A great springboard for discussions about independent media, sustainability, and representation. Libraries can couple it with zine-making workshops, LGBTQ+ press exhibits, or panels with local publishers and journalists about keeping queer platforms thriving.
Stream Ahead of the Curve on Prime Video here.
From Pride parades in the 1970s to ballroom runways, Southern salons, newsrooms, and hospital wards, these documentaries map the breadth of queer experience and the movements that changed law, culture, and language. Program them as a series, pair them with book displays and archives, and invite local organizations to co-host conversations—each film is a door into deeper community engagement.
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