Gay Films Based on a True Story

SHORT FILM

Drawings of My BF

2021 Documentary

An artist and his muse discuss their relationship and how they became lovers.

Swoon

1992 Drama

The true story of gay lovers Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold Jr., who kidnapped and murdered a child in the early 1920s. The plot covers the crime, investigation, trial, and their final fate.

SHORT FILM

David

2022 Drama

David Shannon navigates the horrors of the HIV/AIDS pandemic of the 1980s. He strives to embrace his empathy and compassion for those who are openly despised by society for being part of the LGBTQ+ community.

SHORT FILM

All About My Son

2025 Drama

A conservative Taiwanese mother and a British gay man meet to discuss his involvement in her son’s life and the finer details of her son’s death.

SHORT FILM

Lasting Marks

2018 Documentary

In 1987, police in England acquired a video of a group of men participating in consensual sadomasochistic sex acts. The tape launched one of the largest vice investigations in British history, code-named Operation Spanner.

Wild Side

2004 Drama, Romance

A transgender woman who survives prostituting herself in Paris, returns - with her two male lovers in tow - to her family home in the countryside to look after her dying mother.

SHORT FILM

Happy Birthday, Marsha!

2017 Drama

The story of extraordinary transgender rights activists, pioneers, and friends, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, in the hours before the Stonewall riots.

SHORT FILM

Shape Up: Gay in the Black Barbershop

2017 Documentary

Sheds light on the vital role barbershops play within the black community while examining the often complicated relationship that black gay men have with these spaces.

SHORT FILM

Bedding Andrew

2014 Documentary

On the eve of his 30th birthday, Andrew, a man with Cerebral Palsy, reflects on his first sexual encounter and how the event shaped his identity as a gay man.

SHORT FILM

The Black Cop

2022 Documentary

A former police officer reflects on his complicated past, confronting the moments when he suffered from racism within the force and the times when he contributed to it himself.

Drive Back Home

2024 Drama

In 1970, a gruff New Brunswick plumber travels to Toronto to bail out his estranged gay brother jailed for public indecency. Reluctantly driving home together per their mother's wish, their tense reunion tests their sibling bond.

Westler

1985 Drama

Felix from West-Berlin falls in love with Thomas in East-Berlin. At first they keep their relationship going by regular visits from Felix, but the curfew forces him to return every evening. When the East-German authorities become suspicious, Thomas decides to try and flee to the West.

SHORT FILM

Kings America Made

2020 Documentary

This film traces a young Black boy’s search for peace in America as he confronts mental trauma, emerging sexuality, and haunting visions of death. His inner journey is reflected through the real life testimonies of four gay Black men living in New York City.

100 Years of Men in Love: The Accidental Collection

2022 Documentary

A unique, moving, and joy-filled collection of vintage photographs of men in love from the 1850s to the 1950s. Taken when male partnerships were often illegal, the photos were found at flea markets, in shoe boxes, family archives, estate sales, and old suitcases.

Leave It to Levi

2019 Documentary

About the life and rise of gay adult star Levi Karter. It presents his origins as a young Ohio boy named Luke, the only son and adopted child of a single mother, he later left college to pursue his dream of becoming an adult film star.

Ruminations

2018 Comedy, Documentary

A profile on Rumi Missabu, the iconoclast cofounder of San Francisco's infamous Cockettes. Through archive footage, animation and new interviews with stars from SF's queer art past, his lurid tales in and out of the spotlight are revealed as he reinvents himself at the end of his life.

Pride & Protest

2020 Documentary

In the wake of the Birmingham protests against LGBTQ+ relationship education in primary schools, a team of queer community reporters of colour challenge homophobia and call out racism in LGBTQ+ spaces.

SHORT FILM

The Way Out

2018 Drama

A real estate developer faces a life-altering choice during a family vacation in Mexico, where his hidden life intersects with the path he ultimately chooses to follow.

The Einstein of Sex

1999 Drama

The life story of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, a German Jew and pioneer in sexology, focuses on his fight against anti-sodomy laws and establishment of the First Institute of Sexual Sciences in 1920s Berlin, amid rising Nazi threats.

COMING SOON

The Captive

2025 Drama

In 1575, the young Miguel de Cervantes is taken prisoner and sold to the fearsome Hassan, Bajá of Alger. While awaiting a ransom, he devises a daring escape plan.

Uncle Roy

2026 Documentary

As 93-year-old Roy Blakey faces life-threatening dementia, his niece races to preserve his legacy - a figure skater, ice show archivist, and gay photographer whose male nudes etched into history - before his curtain call.

SHORT FILM

Frag

2024 Drama

Its a regular night at a local gay bar until a disgruntled war vet sets a grenade on the bar counter, turning his bad day into everyone else's problem.

SHORT FILM

All Boys Aren’t Blue

2021 Drama

A firsthand account of trials, tribulations, and triumphs that have made George M. Johnson into the person they are today.

SHORT FILM

Mass

2020 Drama

Trey feels small. He is gay, HIV-positive and lonely in NYC. All around him are hulking, powerful men, intimidating and challenging him everywhere he looks.

SHORT FILM

The Duck and The Donkey

2020 Drama

David and Randall, two school rivals, find themselves in the principal’s office. As they wait to explain what happened, tension gives way to an unexpected understanding that blurs the line between enemies and something more.

SHORT FILM

Nowhere To Be Found

2015 Documentary

Matt Smith, an openly gay young man in rural South Carolina, reflects on his first relationship with a man and its tragic end. Examines the difficulties of being gay in rural America.

SHORT FILM

Cold Hands

2017 Drama

In an effort to make friends in high school, Lucas finds himself in a position that compromises his safety. In the aftermath, he realizes that the support he seeks is not guaranteed.