Image not loading

Cruel and Unusual

2006-10-24

en

Released

Documentary

Five transgender women share their prison experiences. Interviews with attorneys, doctors, and other experts are also included.

Similar Movies

heroes

Displaying the faces and voices of transgender youth, the documentary short shows the authenticity of queer and trans people living in Toronto, while simultaneously discussing the struggles for self-acceptance that people who do not conform to cisgender and heteronormative ideals of gender face. Andy Nguyen, trans director and film student, captures his trans friends in their natural state on 16mm film shot on a Bolex h16 camera. Accompanied by narration written and recited by Salem Rao, this film represents that trans people exist and this is what we look like. Regardless of the obvious everyday transphobia, trans people find community and uniqueness within each other and themselves.

Feed Them to the Cannibals!

Originally broadcast on ABC's True Stories in 1993, Feed Them to the Cannibals tells the story of Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. It was the first time cameras were allowed at Sleaze Ball and the Mardi Gras Party.

Warriors of the Discotheque

The place is the notorious Starck Club (so called because it was the first major project designed by Philippe Starck in the US.) The Starck Club opened in Dallas in 1984 and not long after hosted the 1984 national Republican Convention. Ironically, it was actually legal to buy MDMA aka ecstasy there, people would put it on their credit cards. The DEA stepped in and made it a category 1 drug on July 1, 1985... In a time when ecstasy was legal & guyliner was cool.

Don't You Worry, It Will Probably Pass

Three Swedish teenagers express their thoughts about bi- and homosexuality while navigating questions of identity, self-acceptance, and societal expectations. Through personal stories and reflections, the film explores their struggles, hopes, and the challenges of growing up as LGBTQ+ youth in Sweden.

Morgana

Morgana is a filmmaker who has found in experimental cinema a powerful voice capable of encapsulating the most abstract notions of her identity, unfolding in an amalgam of textures, colored lights, and wildly extravagant music. An intimate portrait of a filmmaker, but above all, a dear friend.

A Boy Named Sue

A Boy Named Sue chronicles the transformation of a transsexual named Theo from a woman to a man over the course of six years. Following Theo's physiological and psychological changes during the process, as well as their effects on his lesbian lover and community of close friends, A Boy Named Sue tells a story about gender identity, relationships, and how even things that seem permanent can change.

The LA Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

The LA Sisters are outrageous, controversial, always fabulously dressed men and women who feel they are called to minster to the community as 21st century nuns.

Transgender Kids: Who Knows Best?

Around the world there has been a huge increase in the number of children being referred to gender clinics. Increasingly, parents are encouraged to adopt a 'gender affirmative' approach - fully supporting their children's change of identity. But is this approach right?

Trade Center

The voices of five gay men who cruised for sex at the World Trade Center in the 1980s and 1990s haunt the sanitized, commerce-driven landscape that is the newly rebuilt Freedom Tower campus.

I Am

This beautiful and poignant film was commissioned by TENI (Transgender Equality Network Ireland) and is a conversational piece which explores gender identity and transgender experiences in Ireland.

The Codes of Gender

Arguing that advertising not only sells things, but also ideas about the world, media scholar Sut Jhally offers a blistering analysis of commercial culture's inability to let go of reactionary gender representations. Jhally's starting point is the breakthrough work of the late sociologist Erving Goffman, whose 1959 book The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life prefigured the growing field of performance studies. Jhally applies Goffman's analysis of the body in print advertising to hundreds of print ads today, uncovering an astonishing pattern of regressive and destructive gender codes. By looking beyond advertising as a medium that simply sells products, and beyond analyses of gender that tend to focus on either biology or objectification, The Codes of Gender offers important insights into the social construction of masculinity and femininity, the relationship between gender and power, and the everyday performance of cultural norms.

El Almafuerte

The youngsters housed in the "Almafuerte" Maximum Security Juvenile Institute have their first approach to audiovisual recording. A film and documentary video workshop serves as an excuse for them to make a short film inside the prison. The camera is a rabid toy that generates fascination in them and rescues a sheltered, innocent smile that seemed forgotten under the shadows. While inside libertarian cries bounce against the walls, outside sounds fanfares of an iron fist.

Two Spirits

Fred Martinez was a Navajo youth slain at the age of 16 by a man who bragged to his friends that he 'bug-smashed a fag'. But Fred was part of an honored Navajo tradition - the 'nadleeh', or 'two-spirit', who possesses a balance of masculine and feminine traits.

Mariela Castro's March: Cuba's LGBT Revolution

A rare look inside Cuba’s LGBT community, this compelling film follows the efforts of Mariela Castro, daughter of President Raúl Castro, as she champions LGBT social reforms and acceptance of diversity.

Late to the Party: Coming Out Later in Life

A group of individuals who came out as LGBTQ+ later in life reflect on the emotional and often complicated paths that led them to finally embrace their true identities. After years of living in secrecy—some as long as decades—they share personal stories of internal conflict, family tension, and the courage it took to step into the light. From a nonagenarian to a former priest and a military veteran, each narrative reveals the unique challenges of coming out in midlife, while celebrating the profound freedom and self-acceptance that can emerge at any age.

Out Laws

A powerful documentary that follows gay Namibian activist Friedel Dausab as he challenges his country’s criminalisation of same-sex love. In June 2022, Friedel files a landmark lawsuit against the government, becoming a beacon of hope for LGBTQIA+ Namibians seeking safety and equality. Facing death threats, public hostility, and immense personal risk, he takes his fight to court while awaiting judgment. The film also traces the colonial roots of queer criminalisation—from Tudor England to its export across the Global South through empire and later reinforced by Christian evangelism. Alongside fellow activists from Sri Lanka and Barbados, Friedel travels to London, where history, protest, and Pride converge. Blending legal battle with historical insight, the documentary is both an urgent exposé of injustice and a stirring celebration of queer resilience, courage, and resistance.

The Circle

A young teacher in Zurich in the 1950s falls in love with a transvestite star but is torn between his bourgeois existence and his commitment to homosexuality. He joins a gay organization that is eventually seen as the pioneer of gay emancipation in Europe.

The Work

Set entirely inside Folsom Prison, The Work follows three men during four days of intensive group therapy with convicts, revealing an intimate and powerful portrait of authentic human transformation that transcends what we think of as rehabilitation.

The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin

The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin celebrates one of the world’s most beloved storytellers, following his evolution from a conservative son of the Old South into a gay rights pioneer whose novels inspired millions to reclaim their lives.

The World's Most Luxurious Prison

Former conservative Justice Secretary Ann Widdecombe visits a Norwegian prison that has been described as the most luxurious of its kind.

;