Justin Vivian Bond

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.

When a bestselling celebrity biographer is no longer able to get published because she has fallen out of step with current tastes, she turns her art form to deception.

Matt Travis is good-looking, popular, and his school's best competitive swimmer, so everyone is shocked when he inexplicably commits suicide. As the following year unfolds, each member of his family struggles to recover from the tragedy with mixed results.

A transgender woman with Alzheimer's moves into a retirement home. As her lucidity wanes, she must confront the challenges of her condition and fight for her identity once more.

100 Boyfriends Mixtape 3: Fuck Boy Anthem/How I Spent My Summer Vacation is a choreofilm/video zine mixtape that was made in intervals in the summer of 2020; it’s one of three mixtapes in a series Purnell conceptualized as video zine versions of his 20-year running print zine Fag School. The videos also give his recently published book of short stories, flash fiction, and stories told-in-verse, 100 Boyfriends, its name and inspiration.

For decades, performance artist and writer Kate Bornstein has been exploding binaries and deconstructing gender. And, her own identity. Trans-dyke. Reluctant polyamorist. Sadomasochist. Recovering Scientologist. Pioneering Gender Outlaw. Kate Bornstein Is a Queer and Pleasant Danger, joins her on her latest tour capturing rollicking public performances and painful personal revelations as it bears witness to Kate as a trailblazing artist theorist activist who inhabits a space between male and female with wit, style, and astonishing candor. By turns meditative and playful, the film invites us on a thought provoking journey through Kate's world to seek answers to some of life's biggest questions.

As an AIDS activist and member of ACT UP in the 1980s and 90s, Sam witnessed the deaths of too many friends and lovers. Battlewounded and struggling with survivor's guilt, Sam now resents the complacency of his former comrades and derides what he sees as the younger generation's indifference to the politics of sex, and of death. An unexpected intimacy with a much younger man challenges Sam's understanding of contemporary gay life. Through this unconventional romance, he is forced to deal with the trauma that so informs his past, their present, and an unknown future.

A dark comedy about two people's chase around Los Angeles to find a missing cooler.

Faith, love and civil rights collide on voting day in a small Southern town that hosts a famous performance of the last days of Christ and an infamous gospel drag show.

Fanci and Loretta are getting married tomorrow, and a series of crises hits. Fanci's not sure her parents will come, and that upsets her; this focus on her parents, in turn, upsets Loretta. Sam, Fanci's ex-boyfriend and now the boyfriend of Fanci's house-mate, Sophia, has accidentally torn Fanci's wedding dress. Plus, all over San Francisco are mysterious power outages. That night, strange adventures befall the principals: Fanci has a terrifying vision that sends her running naked into the streets; her father visits a cross-dressing dominant; her mother follows him into the night and has her own misadventures; Sam, looking for a tailor, calls on Loretta. Can all be set right?

A mock documentary exploring the purported existence of 'Claywoman', a 500 million year old enigma who, legend has it, can cure anyone of their deepest pain. Presented as a found, severely damaged and restored film, the short features performances by Amy Poehler, Debbie Harry and Alan Cumming among others.

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.

A documentary on Queercore, the cultural and social movement that began as an offshoot of punk and was distinguished by its discontent with society's disapproval of the gay, bisexual, lesbian and transgender communities.

"The Golden Age of Hustlers" captures the 1970's gay hustler scenes of pre-HIV/AIDS era on Polk St in San Francisco from an insider's experience.

The outrageous drag-cabaret duo Kiki and Herb share their past, present and future as they tour the UK. A mixture of live performance and celebrity interviews (featuring Rufus Wainwright and the Scissor Sisters) that reflect on Kiki and Herb's musical influences, fans, politics and family.

Teenage London is trying to find meaning in the world, or a leather jacket of her own. Unaccepted by neither the Mods or the Asian biker gang, she tries to find her own path. Meanwhile, the two gangs maintain a mutual vendetta sure to erupt in a smorgasbord of violence.

The movie captures the responses of 31 authors, musicians, filmmakers and dancers to Olivier Messiaen's monumental organ work "Apparition of the Eternal Church." Listening to the 10-minute piece through headphones, the documentary subjects-most of whom are outsiders to the church and do not know what they're hearing-put Messiaen's project to the test: Is it possible to portray, through time-bound, invisible sound, the spiritual, the architectural, the eternal? The result is a collective interpretation improvising its way through an aesthetic landscape defined by violent contradictions. Resolution abuts eternity, eroticism asceticism, spiritual ecstasy physical torture. Together, the music and its interpreters conjure something like what William Blake famously called the marriage of heaven and hell.

The incomparable Mx. Justin Vivian Bond and comedian Mark Davis star in this faux homo promo by the late Jon Bush, one of the 99¢ Queer Video Fest’s earliest and most prolific filmmakers. Produced by Shan Carr, B-Girls from Planet Q was commissioned for the original Out for Laughs queer TV sketch comedy show.

"Behind the scenes" account of a trip to London by audacious America cabaret act Kiki & Herb (Justin Vivian Bond and Kenny Mellman).

For the past 25 years, Mario Diaz has crafted his own iconic image as the premier LGBT nightlife king, throwing some of the sexiest and wildest parties from New York to LA, including the insanely appealing Hot Dog, BFD and Full Frontal Disco. CLUB KING combines Diaz's personal reflections with candid interviews and archival footage from the East and West Coast's hottest queens (including Jackie Beat), go-go boys, and artists like Scooter La Forge and Justin Vivian Bond, resulting in a dizzyingly wild ride. As Diaz himself says, "It's a tough job but somebody's gotta do it."

With vintage footage, interviews, and Marc Huestis' own energy and humor at the center, Impresario is an homage to a San Francisco icon and one of the founders of Frameline.

A Documentary feature film directed by Lian Lunson celebrating the late Kate McGarrigle.

After major successes at Carnegie Hall, on Broadway, and on the International Concert Circuit, cabaret legends Kiki and Herb took a break from the live performance grind to explore other opportunities. Kiki’s sabbatical included a stint as a Middle East correspondent for Al Jazeera, while Herb found himself in hot water—both literal and proverbial—in Southeast Asia. After their dramatic escapes, from undisclosed locations in Syria and Thailand, Kiki and Herb immediately returned to Joe's Pub with a brand new show, KIKI & HERB: SEEKING ASYLUM! — an instant cabaret classic that crashed the Joe’s Pub website the moment it was announced.

Olga Neuwirth, for a long time one of the great composers of the present, succeeds with this opera in creating a captivating arc across many musical genres. It’s an exciting, socially critical production by Polly Graham who puts a fantastically singing and playing Kate Lindsey in the center of the action.

After major successes at Carnegie Hall, on Broadway, and on the International Concert Circuit, cabaret legends Kiki and Herb took a break from the live performance grind to explore other opportunities. Kiki’s sabbatical included a stint as a Middle East correspondent for Al Jazeera, while Herb found himself in hot water—both literal and proverbial—in Southeast Asia. After their dramatic escapes, from undisclosed locations in Syria and Thailand, Kiki and Herb immediately returned to Joe's Pub with a brand new show, KIKI & HERB: SEEKING ASYLUM! — an instant cabaret classic that crashed the Joe’s Pub website the moment it was announced.