Sundance Institute Highlights 16 LGBTQ+ Nonfiction Films
- For LGBTQ+ History Month, the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program highlighted 16 nonfiction films exploring love, resilience, and self-discovery within the community, sundance.org reported.
- Since 2002, the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program has supported nonfiction filmmakers capturing both historic milestones and intimate turning points for the LGBTQ+ community.
- Jenkins's Adam’s Apple, which spans nearly two decades to chronicle a family in transition from the perspectives of the artist and her transgender son, Adam.
For LGBTQ+ History Month, the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program highlighted 16 nonfiction films exploring love, resilience, and self-discovery within the community, sundance.org reported. These projects span decades of storytelling, documenting political victories, personal transitions, and artistic defiance.
Honoring Decades of Documentary Filmmaking
Since 2002, the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program has supported nonfiction filmmakers capturing both historic milestones and intimate turning points for the LGBTQ+ community. The curated list features titles backed by the Institute’s various funds and labs, offering audiences a range of viewing options across festivals and streaming platforms.
Family Transitions and Personal Journeys on Screen
Among the featured works is Amy K. Jenkins’s Adam’s Apple,
which spans nearly two decades to chronicle a family in transition from the perspectives of the artist and her transgender son, Adam. Supported by the 2023 Documentary Fund and Producers Intensive, the film premiered at SXSW in 2026. Paola Mottura, Director of the Documentary Film Fund, described the project as a tender, honest portrait of familial love and transformation.
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A remarkable result of two decades of creative collaboration between visual artist and filmmaker Amy K. Jenkins and her transgender teenage son, Adam’s Apple is an intimate longitudinal documentary following a family in transition.Paola Mottura, Director, Documentary Film Fund
Another recent entry is Jaripeo,
directed by Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig.
Supported by the 2024 Documentary Fund and 2025 Filmmakers Fund, it premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
Exploring Digital Culture, Faith, and Nature
Other selected titles highlight intersectional identities and historical resistance, including Sandi DuBowski’s Sabbath Queen,
which follows Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie over 20 years, and Drew Denny’s Second Nature: Gender and Sexuality in the Animal World,
narrated by Elliot Page and supported by the Sandbox Fund Development Grant before premiering at NewFest in 2025.
- Before You Know It (2013)
- Call Her Ganda (2018)
- The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017)
- Hummingbirds (2023)
- I Am Not Your Negro (2016)
- I Am Samuel (2020)
- Out Run (2016)
- Pray Away (2021)
- Queendom (2023)
- Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four (2016)
- XY Chelsea (2019)
Many of these films are currently screening at festivals or available through various viewing platforms as selected by Sundance staff.