LGBTQ Studies

Academy Award Winner for Best Documentary Short Subject. For 20 years, Lt. Laurel Hester protected the residents of Ocean County, NJ. As she dies from cancer, her request for her pension to be transferred to her domestic partner is denied by local officials. Adapted into a major motion picture starring Ellen Page and Julianne Moore, Cynthia Wade's (Grit) landmark work, which chronicled Laurel's final fight for justice, is as urgent today as it was ten years ago.

Akosua Adoma Owusu is a Ghanaian-American filmmaker, producer and cinematographer whose award-winning work addresses the collision of identities, and themes such as feminism, queerness and African immigrants interacting in African, white American, and black American culture. This edition presents thirteen of her short films.

In recent years, the town of El Remolino in Chiapas, Mexico has suffered from some of the country's worst flooding. This lyrical documentary surveys the social and ecological impact, from schools that can't open to farms that can no longer operate.

A bracingly original debut, filmmaker Benjamin Crotty uses the tragicomic plight of a frail young man stranded at a military outpost amid a lascivious band of army wives to craft a queer soap opera for the ages.

An exceptional, inspirational documentary about three gay Palestinian friends in Tel Aviv who form a non-violent group to fight for gender and national equality.

A courageous, essential portrait of what its like to be gay in Russia today, from Alina Rudnitskaya, one of the country's most important filmmakers.