Howard Gertler

A look at the unusual process used in the making of the film Shortbus (2006) featuring interviews, behind the scenes footage and clips from the feature film. Director John Cameron Mitchell starts with the concept of using real sex in a film with a positive message. The cast of unknowns is selected from homemade audition tapes and then a callback audition workshop. More acting workshops are used to develop the characters and script. The project overcomes a number of obstacles and the rest of the film's development is followed up until its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

In post-9/11 New York City, an eclectic group of citizens find their lives entangled, personally, romantically, and sexually, at Shortbus, an underground Brooklyn salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality.

In 1970s London, a teenage outsider named Enn falls in love with a rebellious alien girl named Zan, who has come to Earth for a party. Together, they navigate the complexities of intergalactic culture and the trials of first love.

In the wake of a freak accident, Lance suffers the worst tragedy and the greatest opportunity of his life. He is suddenly faced with the possibility of fame, fortune and popularity, if he can only live with the knowledge of how he got there.

The life of internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin is told through her slideshows, intimate interviews, ground-breaking photography, and rare footage of her personal fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the overdose crisis.

A pizza deliveryman develops a bond with a girl nearly half his age.

Adam, an awkward teen, spends a summer with his older sister, who is part of New York City's lesbian and trans activist scene. He meets the girl of his dreams but can't figure out how to tell her he's not the trans man she thinks he is.

A boy's childhood scars his life.

What makes a voice “gay”? A breakup with his boyfriend sets journalist David Thorpe on a quest to unravel a linguistic mystery.

Tony has been dead for only about two or three years. Maybe seven. It's hard to follow the flow of time without a heartbeat. The days pile up and are meaningless when you are dead, but that isn't Tony's biggest beef with the afterlife. The city is the same as when Tony was alive but everyone is a stranger. The denizens pass their time maintaining an arbitrary set of rules passed down from a time they cannot remember. The dead live in an endless autumn where change is not only rare but considered gauche. Can a soul find love and meaning in a joint like this?

A story of two coalitions – ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group) – whose activism and innovation turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition. Despite having no scientific training, these self-made activists infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry and helped identify promising new drugs, moving them from experimental trials to patients in record time.

Gun in hand, a homeless man requests a dollar.

Explores the life and career of Olivia Newton-John.

This short documentary as part of the New York Times' Op-Doc Series explores the reasons some men sound stereotypically gay, whether they are or not.

A feature documentary about the life and music of singer-songwriter Diane Luckey, also known as Q Lazzarus. Q sang the hit song 'Goodbye Horses', which appeared in the Jonathan Demme films Married to the Mob and Silence of the Lambs, and had a brief moment of fame in the late 1980s/early 1990s before mysteriously disappearing for 25 years.