From a BDSM dominatrix to a closeted Hollywood star: LGBT flick picks at DOXA

There are enough queer-related offerings at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival (running from April 30 to May 10) to constitute a mini-festival in itself.

So, while you're figuring out what to see at the fest, here's a quick overview of LGBT highlights from the festival.

If the life of closeted Hollywood stars intrigues you, Tab Hunter Confidential (May 2) by director Jeffrey Schwarz (whose previous films Vito and I Am Divine screened at DOXA as well) is a must-see.

The film delves into the life of the 1950s heartthrob, whose public image including photo-ops with Natalie Wood while he was secretly dating Anthony Perkins.

Interviews with the likes of Clint Eastwood, George Takei, Debbie Reynolds, John Waters, and more help to illuminate Hunter's life behind the scenes.

Meanwhile, another look back at history brings women's rights into focus. 

In She's Beautiful When She's Angry (May 5), filmmaker Mary Dore explores the development and struggles of the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s, including how queer women played a role that laid the groundwork for the multifaceted feminism that we know today.

As the heterosexual Fifty Shades of Grey became an international box office sensation, The Duke of Burgundy, which focused on the intimate BDSM relationship between two women, won praise from art-house critics.

The Ceremony (May 7 and 8) continues to explore the world of BDSM by profiling French dominatrix Catherine Robbe-Grillet, who conducts ritualistic encounters with men and women delving into the extremities of pleasure and pain.

Elsewhere in the program, films take a look at how LGBT people struggle to live where little or no LGBT rights exist.

Over the past few years, we've seen numerous troubling headlines about antigay movements have gained momentum and even political success in several African countries, including Uganda and Nigeria.

Jim Chuchu's gorgeously made Stories of Our Lives relates the true stories of Kenyan gay and lesbian citizens living with daily oppression. Five retellings of short tales, shot in black-and-white film, range from a female high-school couple whose friendship comes under scrutiny and suspicion to a black scholar who has his first sexual experience with a white male when he hires a British male sex-worker.

For more explorations of being queer in other countries, Madame Phung's Last Journey (May 10) follows a circus troupe, consisting of gay and transgender performers traveling throughout rural Vietnam. While the performers are accepted as entertainers, they face both conflicts with and sexual propositions from locals once they step outside the insulated bubble of the fairgrounds.

Back here in Canada, among the short documentaries features in the Canadian Hobbies: Shorts Program, Trevor Anderson's Edmonton-based biographical tale of his relationship to his father in "The Little Deputy" puts a gender-blending spin on family portraits.

While those are all the films with LGBT subject matter, a film that doesn't have LGBT content but may be of LGBT–interest is the festival closing film, Iris (May 10).

Acclaimed documentarian Albert Maysles focuses the spotlight on legendary 94-year-old fashionista Iris Apfel, who founded Old World Weavers and gained international recognition from a Museum of Modern Art exhibition about her flamboyant, idiosyncratic style. Now that's what you call fabulous.

For full screening details and information about the festival, visit the DOXA website.

Further coverage of the festival, along with reviews of most of these films, are forthcoming from the Georgia Straight. Stay tuned!