After decades of erasure, the stories of seminal queer artists are being brought to the fore; lives once relegated to the shadows finally being given the respect they deserve. There’s a number of reasons for this: for those in the early 20th century, the documentation of their existence was mostly told through winking nods to their sexuality rather than outright declarations of who they loved, owing to laws at the time. Later, as homosexuality was legalised but the AIDS crisis ravaged the lives of LGBTQ+ folks — either directly or by association — their work was considered dangerous. It’s only now, really, that documentaries are telling us the whole story.
Nan Goldin, the legendary photographer who upended the fine art world with discomfiting pictures of her own life, was one of the few breakthroughs: a bisexual woman who famously used her heightened notoriety to stage 1989’s Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing, a show that centred queer artists living through the AIDS crisis. A new documentary, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, passes on that legacy to a new generation.
Currently sweeping up awards season before it hits UK cinemas on 27 January, here it is, along with six other documentaries about queer art you should watch.
1. Wojnarowicz: F*ck You F*ggot F*cker (Chris McKim, 2020)
Chris McKim’s colourful, angry and important depiction of the life of David Wojnarowicz went under the radar, mostly due to a pandemic-scuppered release. But the fierily-titled Wojnarowicz: F*ck You F*ggot F*cker is a comprehensive study of one of the lesser-discussed artists of his time: a man who staunchly detested the Republican figures responsible for art censorship and, through apathy, the annihilation of queer lives during the AIDS crisis, which he too succumbed to. “I’ll never shake the hand of someone I might be fighting against in wartime,” he once said. This documentary captures his dry and pointed sense of humour and thirst for justice.
2. Paris Was a Woman (Greta Schiller, 1996)
In the 1920s and 30s, Paris became a unique haven for queer women and the art they created. Living openly on the city’s left bank, these women — artists, photographers, designers and writers — honed their craft, with many of them laying the foundations of their practise there. The list of names is long and legendary: novelist and illustrator Djuna Barnes, photographer Gisèle Freund, writer Colette, photographer Berenice Abbott to name a few. Greta Schiller’s documentary utilises voice acting to bring the scant footage and photographs of these women to life.
3. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras, 2022)
First framed as a documentary about Nan Goldin and the advocacy group PAIN taking on the Sackler family for their role in the oxycontin crisis, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed instead wound up being a well-rounded chronicling of Nan’s life. From her childhood, through her early New York heyday and living through the AIDS crisis, into her present day position as one of the most respected photographers of her time, the searing documentary is a frontrunner for the Best Documentary Oscar in 2023.
4. Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures (Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey, 2016)
A key figure in New York’s 20th century gay art scene, Robert Mapplethorpe’s astounding work — capturing everything from celebrities to flowers to male genitalia — is immortalised in this moving study of his life and work. It features contributions from old friends and subjects, like Fran Lebowitz and Brooke Shields.
5. Queer as Art (James House, 2017)
Produced to mark 50 years since the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK, this TV documentary charts the influential figures in the art world who’ve thrived in Great Britain since then, including David Hockney, and writers like Jeanette Winterson and Alan Hollinghurst.
6. Finding Vivian Maier (John Maloof and Charlie Siskel, 2016)
The story of Vivian Maier went untold for decades, but upon her death in 2009, the depth of her photographic archive was uncovered. Over 100,000 images, depicting the people and places around Chicago and New York, captured her keen eye for quiet and unassuming profundity. This documentary follows that journey she took, as a nanny who — as far as those who knew her recall — remained single her whole life, in love with the family she cared for and the world around her. While her sexuality remains a mystery, many have since hypothesised that, owing to the era she lived through, she may have been gay. But for anyone who knows what it’s like to live life on society’s fringes, as an observer rather than a participant, there’s something in Finding Vivian Maier for you.
7. Beautiful Darling (2010, James Rasin)
An artist is nothing without his muse. In James Rasin’s Beautiful Darling, he paints a portrait of Candy Darling, the trans woman who featured heavily in Andy Warhol’s work. Using archival footage and interviews with her friends, the movie lifts from her diaries for its narration, delivered gorgeously by Chloë Sevigny.