Come & Take It

ACT Up's closing down of the FDA in October 1988 is dramatically recorded by Ellen Spiro.

Women who are HIV-positive discuss how they "came out" about their infection and became politically active.

With her dog Sam and her 1964 Airstream trailer, Spiro joins an adventurous community of roamers and loners on wheels who live on the road full time--by economic neccessity, pleasure, or both. Behind the camera and behind the wheel, Spiro documents a unique world of vintage trailers, vintage dogs and vintage people, where the spirit of the moment collides with stories from the past.

Over twists, presses, and wash-and-goes, filmmaker Cheryl Dunye joins other clients and hairstylist DiAna DiAna in her South Carolina salon to discuss the current impact of AIDS on Blacks in the south, and what has changed and stayed the same since DiAna was featured in a seminal short video by Ellen Spiro thirty years ago.

Thirty years after Ellen Spiro made DiAna’s Hair Ego: AIDS Info Up Front, the AIDS crisis is still raging in the deep South where the film was shot. Director Cheryl Dunye, after reading about the ongoing AIDS crisis in the South, visits DiAna DiAna and Dr. Bambi Gaddist in the hair salon in Columbia, South Carolina where they first began their innovative safe sex education work. DiAna’s Hair Ego REMIX is the beginning of a new story and new hope in the face of an ongoing tragedy. Commissioned in 2017 as part of ALTERNATE ENDINGS, RADICAL BEGINNINGS, a program of seven videos prioritizing Black narratives within the ongoing AIDS epidemic curated by Erin Christovale and Vivian Crockett for Visual AID

Interview with southern gays and lesbians highlight the issues surrounding being "Out" in the south as well as the impact of AIDS on the rural south.

With highlights from the Vancouver 1990 Gay Games, this film recreates an event that empowered participants to strive for their personal best.

A documentary film about AIDS and one unconventional woman's efforts to educate her small, Southern community. DiAna DiAna is a local hairdresser who transformed her beauty parlor into a center for AIDS and safe sex information.

Documentary about Tomas Young, a 25 year old veteran who got paralyzed in Iraq and became an peace activist.

A male couple questions love and light bulbs over laundry.

A film director holds auditions for the role of “The Dad” when his real-life father appears to read the part. Past and present intertwine seamlessly and roles reverse, until the secret their estrangement is revealed.

Fascinating documentary examination of a small Colorado town’s transformation from Wild West outpost to “sex-change capital of the world” which follows three transgender women who may steer the rural ranching town toward becoming the “transsexual mecca.”

Three gay seniors navigate the adventures, challenges and surprises of life and love in their golden years.

Grassroots activists in the Philippines are spurred into action when a local transgender woman is found dead in a motel room with a 19-year-old U.S. marine as the leading suspect. As they demand answers and a just trial, hidden histories of U.S. colonization come bubbling to the surface.