From Don Bachardy and Christopher Isherwood to Willi Ninja and Valentino, our non-exhaustive list of must-see documentaries on LGBT artists and muses.
This 2007 tear-jerker chronicles the lifelong relationship between author Christopher Isherwood (A Single Man, The Berlin Stories) and his much younger lover, artist Don Bachardy. Despite their 30-year age gap, the couple lived together until Isherwood's death, in 1986. The film combines archival footage shot by the couple, and present-day interviews with Bachardy, who sketched all of Hollywood and gives fun insider anecdotes throughout. He once heard Oscar winning actress Anna Magnani fart in front of him -- and also refers to Charlize Theron as a "vacuous" beauty during a meeting with his mentally ill older brother, who was the first to seduce Isherwood.
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The first documentary dedicated to the provocateur artist doesn't hold back. If you're not familiar with Mapplethorpe's work, you're in for an extremely adult-rated ride. But beyond the explicit nature of some of his images, the film dives into the artist's non-conformist personality and sheds light on his close-to-perfection creative process. We're obsessed with the archive images from his bohemian phase, when he shared a tiny room in the art-filled Chelsea Hotel with his BFF, the singer Patti Smith.
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This award-winning documentary on the Harlem Renaissance writer and civil rights activist premiered at Sundance in 1990. It shows Baldwin's ascent to success as an openly-gay novelist, and his meeting with Martin Luther King Jr.
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You might also like: Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin, Dr. King's openly-gay adviser Bayard Rustin, who was the chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.
Inspired by Tom of Finland, Peter Berlin was a self creation who became a muse in the gay San Francisco community of the 1970s. A walking work of art, Berlin would put himself into scenarios in revealing self-portraits, most of the time with a protuberant bulge. This documentary gets a long one-on-one with the artist, who turns out to be quite the chatter box, and reveals for the first time how he became Peter Berlin. For adults only.
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You might also like: Mapplethorpe, Look At The Pictures, which also features an interview with Peter Berlin, an inspiration to the late Mapplethorpe.
More actress than model, Candy Darling lives on through her work in Andy Warhol’s films Flesh and Women in Revolt, and because she gave her name to the world’s first trans style magazine, Candy. She deserves a mention for also inspiring Lou Reed, the Rolling Stones, and Tennessee Williams, and because her legacy in making transgender a part of pop culture makes her a style and fashion icon in her own right.
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Robert De Niro's dad was a prominent artist in the New York scene, and he happened to be gay. De Niro, Sr., never quite got the recognition he deserved. This medium-length documentary, produced by HBO, is an overdue tribute in which De Niro (Junior) gives a candid account of his father's life, and talks about the struggles he faced with his sexuality. The actor also talked about the project in Out; click here to read more.
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The first drag superstar burst into the mainstream with John Waters's Hairspray, but she had done pretty much everything else before that --including (allegedly) eating feces in one of the filmmaker's early classics, 1972's Pink Flamingos. Spitting in the face of the status quos of body image, gender identity, sexuality, and preconceived notions of beauty, Divine was the ultimate outsider-turned-underground-royalty.
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Oscar-nominated director Jerry Aronson accumulated more than 120 hours of footage on gay beat poet Allen Ginsberg, resulting in this comprehensive portrait on the "Howl" author, one of America's greatest minds and activists.
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This new documentary offers the most up-to-date overview of David Hockney's career, including his post-A Bigger Splash body of work. From his Polaroid collages to his more recent iPad paintings, Hockney emerges as an artist who managed to keep up with changing times, and the film offers a fascinating look into his prolific creativity.
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You might also like: Don & Chris, a Love Story -- for more on Hockney's L.A. friends Bachardy and Isherwood.
Hollywood golden boy Tab Hunter represented all-American heartthrob and a star on the rise, yet all the while he harbored a secret that could have derailed his film and televison career. In Tab Hunter: Confidential, the actor talks about concealing his homosexuality from the studios to keep working. Born Arthur Kelm in 1931, he canoodled glamorous co-stars like Rita Hayworth and Sophia Loren on screen, hiding the fact he was gay beneath his film idol facade. Decades after arranged dates with his beard Natalie Wood (and a clandestine affair with Anthony Perkins), Hunter had a second act in cult films like John Waters’s Polyester, and in 2005, he came out in his tell-all memoir, which inspired the film.
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Also known overseas as In Bed With Madonna, this groundbreaking documentary features the pop star at the height of her fame while she travels the world with her Blonde Ambition tour. Although she was dating Warren Beatty at the time, Madonna had a well-documented taste for women, and she talks a lot about sex in the movie. It culminates in Madonna simulating oral sex on a glass bottle. You know, to show all her gay dancers how it's done.
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You might also like: Strike a Pose, a new documentary on Madonna's Blonde Ambition backup dancers.
This award-winning documentary interviews Cuban refugees to explore the government's persecutions of homosexuals and political dissidents under Castro's regime. Poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas, who became the subject of the biopic Before Night Falls (starring Javier Bardem as the writer), talks about his forced incarceration in a Cuban jail, and later his exile to the United States in the '80s.
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Considered "the smartest woman in America," Susan Sontag had relationships with men and women. This HBO doc attempts to solve the mystery that still surrounds the life of this outspoken writer and activist.
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Jean Michel Basquiat was straight, and quite the ladies' man, but this documentary is worth seeing for the ambiguous relationship he maintained with Andy Warhol near the end of his life. Depressed by his commercial success and the discrimination he faced as a black artist, Basquiat grew wary of his entourage and found solace in Warhol. The artist was a mentor to Basquiat, and Warhol had a platonic love-slash-obsession for him. His death in 1987 precipitated Basquiat's downfall into heroin, and he died of a drug overdose a year later, at just 27.
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Consider it the Woodstock of drag. Wigstock, an annual drag performance festival in New York, was the subject of a 1995 documentary which put a spotlight on two legendary drag mamas: Lady Bunny and RuPaul.
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What is it like to be one of the most recognizable faces in the galaxy? Star Trek legend George Takei tells us, as he lets us into his daily life, spent between fan conventions, TV sets, and quality time with his partner of 20 years, Brad Altman.
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A close friend of Warhol and a regular at Studio 54, Halston was one of the most emblematic figures of American fashion at the turn of the '70s. This documentary does justice to his impeccable eye, his unbelievable "Box in the Sky" office, and his tumultuous relationship with Victor Hugo Rojas, a promiscuous artist who ultimately infected the designer with AIDS.
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The first full-length documentary to ever focus on a fashion designer found a goldmine in New York's Isaac Mizrahi, whose eccentric, colorful creations defined '90s fashion. Mizrahi is a riot in this black-and-white affair, which follows his "comeback" in the aftermath of his poorly-reviewed Spring 1994 show. Guided by his good humor and wit, we witness how Mizrahi puts together his most eye-popping collection ever. Also features cameos by supermodel friends Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, and gay icons André Leon Talley, John Galliano, and Mark Morris. A must-see for fashionistas, even 20 years on.
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You might also like: Catwalk, a documentary focusing on supermodel Christy Turlington and her acolytes as they travel to Paris, Milan, and New York for Fashion Week.
This documentary explores the relationship between the visionary designer and his longtime partner, Pierre Bergé, an influential businessman and art collector who supported Saint Laurent until his death. L'Amour Fou doesn't shy away from tackling YSL's issues with drugs and alcohol, and the challenges they presented for Bergé.
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The iconic couturier lets cameras in for three years as he prepares collections for Chanel, Fendi, and various artistic collaborations. In his own words, Lagerfeld recounts his turbulent upbringing in Germany, and talks about realizing he was gay at 13 in this personal documentary.
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The petulant designer is synonymous with Italian flair, and his ego matches his reputation. In this fly-on-the-wall documentary, we follow a 70-something Valentino Garavani as he prepares for a large career retrospective in Rome, in the months leading to the sale of his multi-million fashion brand. Behind the scenes, his business and life partner Giancarlo Giammetti looks over lovingly, making sure that the well-dressed "emperor" (who's always accompanied by his five pet pugs) fulfills his Valentino-red vision.
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The New York Times' veteran fashion photographer isn't openly gay, but this must-see documentary gets the media-shy Cunnigham close to a heartfelt confession. Raised in a religious household, Cunnigham faced opposition from his parents, who didn't see his passion for couture dresses in a good way. Nevertheless, after launching his own line of hats, Cunnigham pursued his calling in photography, and became the ubiquitous style historian we've come to love.
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So you call yourself gay (or gay-friendly) but you haven't seen Paris is Burning yet? Stop immediately what you're doing and get to work. This 1990 classic chronicles the rise of the voguing movement in New York City before Madonna & Co. got their dirty hipster hands all over it. It features some of the most quotable dialogue in gay history (basically, RuPaul's entire vocabulary) and spotlights unforgettable characters, such as trans models Octavia St Laurent and Venus Xtravaganza, and the ultra-gifted voguer Willi Ninja (pictured, right).
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