This year, we are presenting eight documentary films, a record for the festival! With the accessibility to and affordability of new, smaller digital video cameras, more and more people are able to tell their stories. In fact, of the eight documentaries featured in this year’s festival, seven were shot using digital video technology.

Documentary filmmaking is on the rise as evidenced by the spate of critically and publicly well-received documentaries released in theatres this year: Spellbound, Winged Migration, Capturing the Friedmans, etc. The LGBT community is also seeing more of their stories told in documentary form.

Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin is about the little known Civil Rights Movement giant, Bayard Rustin. Rustin was a key figure in the March on Washington, but was relgated to obscurity because he was also openly gay. Another political documentary in the festival, Dangerous Living: Coming Out in the Developing World, features interviews with brave pioneers of gay rights movements in third world countries. The Gift is a controversial documentary about gay men who deliberately seek HIV infection. Laughing Matters profiles four, out lesbian comediennes. Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House tells the story of two Jewish women who’ve achieved a hard-won happiness. In Venus Boyz, Drag Kings are interviewed. For Don’t Worry, It’ll Probably Pass director Neant-Falk gave three young lesbian women cameras to document their feelings and concerns as they discover their sexuality. And in Radical Harmonies, the womens’ music movement is explored.