Documentary movies

A powerful documentary that follows gay Namibian activist Friedel Dausab as he challenges his country’s criminalisation of same-sex love. In June 2022, Friedel files a landmark lawsuit against the government, becoming a beacon of hope for LGBTQIA+ Namibians seeking safety and equality. Facing death threats, public hostility, and immense personal risk, he takes his fight to court while awaiting judgment. The film also traces the colonial roots of queer criminalisation—from Tudor England to its export across the Global South through empire and later reinforced by Christian evangelism. Alongside fellow activists from Sri Lanka and Barbados, Friedel travels to London, where history, protest, and Pride converge. Blending legal battle with historical insight, the documentary is both an urgent exposé of injustice and a stirring celebration of queer resilience, courage, and resistance.

Featurette on the legacy of Cutter’s Way with contributions from writers Megan Abbott, Jordan Harper, and George Pelecanos

"In the Making: An Australia–Taiwan Indigenous Art Exchange" is a 43-minute bilingual documentary co-produced by Australia and Taiwan. It explores a five-year exchange program between Indigenous artists from both regions. Filmed mainly in Taiwan in late 2024, the artists' first in-person meeting reveals the depth and transformative potential of cross-cultural collaboration through interviews, shared creative processes, and the creation of new collaborative artworks.

Braised Delicacies is more than a flavor—it is a legacy shaped by three generations. Master Lin Shun-Cheng upholds traditional craftsmanship passed down from his father, while his apprentice Lai Yun-Chun brings innovation, and Lin's son works to meet his father's high standards. Though different in outlook, all three of them share deep respect for cooking. The film captures how craftsmanship and love quietly endure in this 80-year-old Chiayi establishment of food flavors.

Chiayi's City Center Fountain is deeply embedded in everyday life, layering a rich cultural foundation. In the "post-roundabout era," youth creativity injects new energy to reimagine the old town. From a traffic circle to multidimensional revitalization, how does this new generation bring fresh trends to the century-old landmark and traditional trades? The film captures this dialogue across time, exploring the fusion of old and new. More than a landmark, the fountain symbolizes the heart of Chiayi, where collective memories come full circle.

Stones in Chiayi's streams bear the marks of time and the land's memory. Seventy years ago, Zhan Long began carving tombstones, turning cold stone into living art and founding Chiayi's stone monkey tradition. The second-generation sculptor infused family memory and cultural sentiment, making the stone monkey a city symbol. Today, new self-taught artists reinterpret the craft, letting tradition endure and be reborn, bearing witness to the warmth and vitality of culture.

Clayton Nonhof, a high schooler, learns how to process pressure.

Between Us follows the multilayered stories of LGBTQIA+ Khmer and Vietnamese cultural workers in southern California as they contemplate the in-betweenness of belonging, healing, and carving out spaces of their own.

A highlight film of the cultural and community based significance that Bonfire Event Co brings to the table.

Embark on a story of survival with JANM’s film screening of The Misadventures of a Nisei Week Queen. Told with poise, humor, and strength, this documentary chronicles the Forrest Gump life of spirited 92-year-old June Aochi Berk. Growing up in prewar Little Tokyo, she goes from surviving in a horse stall at the Santa Anita temporary detention center and in a barrack at the Rohwer concentration camp during World War II to being crowned Nisei Week Queen in Los Angeles.