Note: This film contains transphobia and transphobic violence.
A transgender woman reflects on her life experiences, including her various relationships with cisgender straight men, the dangers that can occur when being transgender, and finding joy in a simple life.]]>Director: Marko Dješka Year: 2020 Country: Croatia, Portugal Gender and Sexuality: Transgender Animation Style: Digital Genre: Documentary Type: Explicit, short
A touching tribute to the director’s friend Shannon Cara Jamieson, whose struggle with balancing her religious faith and sexuality contributed to her eventual suicide. The short contains a multitude of examples of Shannon’s work, including her music, art, photography, and video recordings.
In an article about the film on NFB's blog, Shannon also viewed herself as queer, and I have included that tag for this work.]]>Director: Chris Dainty Year: 2019 Country: Canada Gender and Sexuality: Lesbian, queer Animation Style: Digital, live-action blending, stop motion, traditional Genre: Documentary Type: Explicit, implicit, short
]]>Director: Adam Butcher Year: 2011 Country: United Kingdom Gender and Sexuality: Transgender Animation Style: Digital Genre: Documentary Type: Explicit, short
]]>Note: This film contains homophobia, sexual violence, and violence.
A gay man shares the internal conflict he feels about his home country, Egypt, due to the homophobia he has witnessed firsthand. This trauma motivated him to become involved in activism and protests, advocating against the lack of rights homosexuals have in the country.]]>Director: Tamara Shogaolu Year: 2017 Country: Egypt, Indonesia, Netherlands, United States Gender and Sexuality: Gay, gender creative Animation Style: Digital, live-action blending Genre: Documentary Type: Explicit, short
In this documentary, Amin, a refugee, reveals to one of his close friends - and the director of the film - that he has lied to him for years about his past. The film delves into the trauma and hardships he and his family experienced in Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan War and later when they fled to Russia and lived as illegal immigrants.
While the majority of the film focuses on the struggles Amin and his family endured, Amin’s sexuality is shown throughout, from his relationship with his partner, Kasper, to coming out to his family.]]>Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen Year: 2021 Country: Denmark, France, Norway, Sweden* Gender and Sexuality: Androgyny, gay, gender creative, lesbian, queer Animation Style: Digital Genre: Documentary Type: Explicit, feature
*For simpliticy, I shall only be categorizing the top four countries that were listed in the credits involved in the co-production and included on the Annecy Festival website. The countries supporting the film included: Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States
]]>This short documentary focuses on the musical duo Tegan & Sara and how their various identities—as identical twins, Calgarians, queer women, and artists—intersect and impact their music and activism.]]>Director: Ann Marie Fleming Year: 2018 Country: Canada Gender and Sexuality: Androgyny, intersex, lesbian, nonbinary, queer, transgender Animation Style: Digital Genre: Documentary, music(al) Type: Explicit, short
]]>A Russian director depicts her experiences of coming out as bisexual to her family, as she is in a serious relationship with her girlfriend and intends to move in with her.]]>Director: Katya Mikheeva Year: 2020 Country: Russia Gender and Sexuality: Androgyny, bisexual, lesbian, queer Animation Style: Digital, live-action blending Genre: Documentary Type: Explicit, short
]]>This feature-length fully animated documentary features interviews with people of various backgrounds and experiences, discussing their opinions about monogamy, sex, fear, and technology. The film is accompanied by animation that is as unique as the participants themselves.]]>Director: Jeff M. Giordano Year: 2021 Country: United States Gender and Sexuality: Androgyny, bisexual, gay, gender creative, lesbian, nonbinary, queer, transgender Animation Style: Digital, live-action blending, stop motion, traditional Genre: Documentary Type: Explicit, feature
]]>When Elisha Lim's roommate comes out as nonbinary, this leads Lim into a self-reflection and realization about their own identity.
This animation showcases an excerpt from Lim's graphic novel 100 Crushes (2014). For more information about the graphic novel, I recommend visiting Queer Comics Database.]]>Director: Elisha Lim Year: 2014 Country: Canada Gender and Sexuality: Nonbinary, queer Animation Style: Stop motion Genre: Documentary Type: Explicit, short