DC/DOX Returns With Powerful LGBTQ Documentaries
The third edition of D.C.’s premier doc film fest features 'State of Firsts,' "I Was Born This Way,' and 12 world premieres from 25 countries.
Back for its third edition as the premier documentary film festival in the nation’s capital, DC/DOX is set to unreel 59 features and 35 shorts from 25 countries over four days in June.
“This year’s DC/DOX lineup is a powerful reminder of documentary film’s unique ability to illuminate the world around us — its beauty, its heartbreak, and its complexity,” said DC/DOX co-founder and festival director Sky Sitney in a statement.
Indeed, the beauty, heartbreak, and complexity of real life are brilliantly captured in films like Kim A. Snyder’s The Librarians, about courageous librarians and educators standing up and fighting back against the ultra-conservative book bans sweeping states and school districts nationwide.
Taking up what one librarian describes in the film as “the civil rights fight of our time,” these women — and they are all women — act as a vital firewall, protecting communities from ill-informed, unjust efforts to censor and control. Often they do so at great personal cost to their careers, reputations, and well-being, but, to them, preserving the public’s access to information and knowledge is paramount.
Documentaries serve a similar, essential purpose, “bringing truth into the light,” as Sitney puts it. And, with a program boasting 12 world premieres — including The Last Class, a deeply personal portrait of liberal intellectual Robert Reich, and sex trafficking exposé The Right Track — along with a host of U.S. and D.C. premieres, DC/DOX casts that light on everything from global conflicts and women’s rights, to making art, theater, and music.
In Move Ya Body, filmmaker Elegance Bratton (The Inspection) explores the birth and continuing influence of house music, while, in Monk in Pieces, Billy Shebar and David C. Roberts chronicle the life and career of avant-garde composer Meredith Monk. The world-premiere short La Orquesta, co-directed by Monica Villavicencio and Stephanie Liu follows a year in the life of immigrant activist music teacher Juana Alzaga and her student orchestra.
In their entertaining, enlightening feature I Was Born This Way, co-directors Daniel Junge and Sam Pollard uncover the history of perhaps the first gay pop anthem, “I Was Born This Way,” released by singer-songwriter Carl Bean in 1977 on Motown Records. “I’m happy, I’m carefree, and I’m gay/I was born this way,” he sang on the barrier-breaking hit, forever changing music.
Featuring interviews with Bean, who passed away in 2021, along with Billy Porter, Dionne Warwick, Questlove, and Lady Gaga explaining how Bean’s anthem inspired her own “Born This Way,” the film offers not only a compelling history of dance music and disco, but a moving biography of Baltimore native Bean, who went on to found the United Fellowship Church.
As Archbishop Carl Bean, the singer continued for decades to share his message of love and acceptance, that God is for everyone, battling homophobia and hate with positivity.
Making its D.C. premiere at the festival, the film marks a highlight in DC/DOX’s formidable slate of LGBTQ-focused docs — including State of Firsts, Chase Joynt’s portrait of trans congresswoman Sarah McBride — and a testament to why, as Sitney stated, all these films “exemplify the urgency and artistry of the form.”
The DC/DOX Film Festival runs June 12 to 15 at various venues, including Regal Gallery Place (701 7th St. NW), and Burke Theater at the U.S. Navy Memorial (701 Pennsylvania Ave. NW). Tickets for individual screenings are $15, and all-access passes are $200 to $500. For more info, visit www.dcdoxfest.com.
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