Long before Oprah and Arsenio hit the airwaves, Ellis Haizlip hosted Soul!, a pioneering New York variety show that showcased musicians, activists and actors at the height of the Black Power and Civil Rights moment.

Notable documentaries at the two independent film festivals include films about historic civil rights activists, trans chorus members, Joe Sarria, and Big Freedia.

James Sweeney's queer rom-com 'Straight Up,' now available on DVD, has more in common with Woody Allen's 'Annie Hall' than you might expect.

Narrated by the iconic actor Harvey Fierstein, 'Disarm Hate' seeks to create awareness about gun violence against the LGBTQ+ community following the 2016 Pulse Nightclub massacre in Orlando that took 49 lives.

Kicking off with a high-flying drag satire, Frameline44, the SF International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, will screen 77 films from 24 countries in a wide array of genres, from features and documentaries to short subjects and animated films.

Howard, the new documentary on the life and career of gay lyricist Howard Ashman, encompasses the joy of creating now-classic musical animated features, and his tragic decline and death from AIDS.

'Monstrous,' the new chiller available on DVD and on-demand August 11, is a film which claims to be a Bigfoot movie. Actually, the legendary monster makes but a few brief cameos in the film.

Dark drama, enlightening documentary and a psychedelic romp: 'The Prince/El Principe,' 'For They Know Not What They Do' and 'Holy Trinity' are reviewed.

Seeing as how 'Jack & Yaya' is first-time co-directors Jen Bagley and Mary Hewey's full-length documentary debut, Bagley and Hewey get more right than wrong in their rendering of this touching true story.

The new documentary by Dawn Porter, 'John Lewis: Good Trouble,' makes no pretense of being anything but a paean to Lewis's life and activist work.

For her feature-length directorial debut, Karen Maine doesn't shy away from subject matter that hasn't gotten the attention it deserves. In the case of 'Yes, God, Yes,' the hot button topic (so to speak) is female masturbation.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire, just released on Blu-ray DVD, is one of the best lesbian films ever made, nominated for nine Cesar Awards. A sensual dreamy romance about forbidden love and the healing potentiality of art, it also analyzes how desire works.

David France's searing new, brutal chilling exposé documentary, 'Welcome to Chechnya' is the harrowing saga of the purging war, via torture, beatings, and executions of LGBTQ people in Chechnya spearheaded by its Putin puppet leader, Ramzan Kadyrov.

Lesbian filmmaker Wendy Jo Carlton seems to have a thing for intimate, almost stagey movies. Her latest, 'Good Kisser,' also fits into that mold. Abner Pastoll's thriller 'A Good Woman is Hard to Find' is also reviewed.