LGBTQIA+ documentaries from Asia
A list of films featuring interviews with queer and trans people across the continent
Trans Kashmir (India)
Trans-feminine non-binary people in Kashmir share their present-day struggles to find employment while talking about their traditional role as matchmakers, providing a glimpse into a unique culture which is distinct from that of other transgender communities in South Asia.
Content note: transphobia, violence.
Tales of the Waria (Indonesia)
Indonesia is home to the world's largest Muslim population. It is also home to transgender people known as "waria", assigned-male-at-birth people who live openly as women. This documentary interviews four warias of varying ages as they negotiate work, life and romance.
Shinjuku Boys (Japan)
This documentary follows the lives of three onnabes who work as hosts in a Tokyo club where cis women customers socialize with charming transmasculine hosts. The onnabes are AFAB individuals who present as masculine and have girlfriends. Their individual identities are diverse as are their relationships to their partners and families or origin.
Content note: discussions of sex
Finding Phong (Vietnam)
Phong, a transgender woman in Vietnam, prepares to go to Thailand for gender affirmation surgery. Despite receiving moral support from her father, Phong continues to long for understanding and acceptance from her mother.
Content note: transphobia, misgendering, discussion of surgery
Call Her Ganda (Philippines)
When Jennifer Laude, a Filipina trans woman, is brutally murdered by a U.S. Marine in 2014, three women invested in the case—an activist attorney (Virgie Suarez), a transgender journalist (Meredith Talusan) and Jennifer’s mother (Julita “Nanay” Laude)—galvanize a political uprising to pursue justice.
Content note: transphobia, murder, imperialism
Many People, Many Desires (India)
This 2007 documentary interviews LGBTQ+ people in Bangalore across a range of class, gender, language and caste backgrounds. The filmmaker T. Jayashree mentions Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a law introduced by the British in the 1860s to criminalize homosexuality. India repealed Section 377 in 2018.
This Kind of Love: A Burmese LGBT Activist Returns Home
This 2015 documentary follows the life of gay Burmese human rights activist, Aung Myo Min. in 2021, Aug Myo Min became the first openly LGBT minister in Myanmar’s history.
Content note: mention of torture, death, state violence
Visible Silence (Thailand)
This 2015 documentary centers the experience of masculine women (toms) in Thailand who visibly transgress gender norms. Thai lesbians, toms, dees of different ages share their experiences of negotiating employment, romance and social acceptance.
Mr Gay Syria
This 2017 documentary by Ayşe Toprak follows members of Syria’s LGBT community living in displacement in Turkey. The LGBT Syrian refugees living in Istanbul dream of competing in the annual Mr Gay World contest.
Of Love & Law (Japan)
This 2018 documentary introduces the life of a gay couple who runs a law firm in Osaka, Japan. As openly gay lawyers, Fumi and Kazu attract a range of socially non-conforming clients.
Not an exhaustive list. Possible future updates.