Research Guides: LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender/Transsexual, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, Asexual/Allies, Nonbinary/Genderqueer +) Resources and Research: LGBTQIA+ Film: Streaming and DVDs at Rider

Browse Movies and Documentary Films in the RU Libraries

LGBTQIA+ Films (DVD & Streaming) @ Rider

This link searches the library catalog for titles

we own on DVD
have purchased and stream locally
included in the streaming database Kanopy (link below), which you can search directly.

Don't see a particular title? Let librarian Melissa Hofmann know, and I'll see if the Libraries can purchase it! (Some titles are only available on streaming platforms for individuals to purchase, not libraries.)

Kanopy Base This link opens in a new window
Kanopy Base, a collection of over 10,000 educational and feature films. Including unlimited, simultaneous access to multidisciplinary videos in all subject areas including Film Studies, Education, Ethnic Studies, and Sciences. Suppliers include PBS, Kino Lorber, and New Day Films.

Kanopy: Category LGBTQ
Browse films tagged LGBTQ and its subcategories, including LGBTQ Cinema, LGBT Families and Youth, Transgender Studies, and more.

Featured Purchased Streaming Films

Watch these streaming films via the Rider University Libraries!

We have purchased a digital site license for these titles, so please log in with your Rider Key at the top left of MediaSpace when the catalog link takes you to the page for the film. Then you will be able to watch.

The Archivettes [Documentary, PPR included]
Call Number: Streaming media. Log in to view.
The Archivettes is a feature-length documentary film about the Lesbian Herstory Archives and the personal lives of the women involved in it. The film provides a comprehensive look at the history of the group, the materials it protects and the challenges arising as the founders face their final years. The Lesbian Herstory Archives began in 1974, when a group of women involved in the Gay Academic Union realized that lesbian history was disappearing as quickly as it was being made. It is now home to the world's largest collection of materials by and about lesbians and their communities.
Portrait de la jeune fille en feu = Portrait of a Lady on Fire [Fiction Film, PPR included]
Call Number: Streaming Media; Log in to View
France, 1760. Marianne is commissioned to paint the wedding portrait of Héloïse, a young woman who has just left the convent. Because she is a reluctant bride-to-be, Marianne arrives under the guise of companionship, observing Héloïse by day and secretly painting her by firelight at night. As the two women orbit one another, intimacy and attraction grow as they share Héloïse's first moments of freedom. Héloïse's portrait soon becomes a collaborative act of and a testament to their love.
Little Girl (Petite Fille) [Documentary, PPR included]
Call Number: Streaming Media; Log in to view
LITTLE GIRL is the moving portrait of 7-year-old Sasha, who has always known that she is a girl. Sasha’s family has recently accepted her gender identity, embracing their daughter for who she truly is while working to confront outdated norms and find affirmation in a small community of rural France. Realized with delicacy and intimacy, Sébastien Lifshitz’s documentary poetically explores the emotional challenges, everyday feats, and small moments in Sasha’s life.
Gabi, Between Ages 8 and 13 [Documentary, no PPR]
Call Number: Streaming Media; Log in to view
Gabi just wants to be Gabi. A simple wish one would think, but as it turns out, it is not. Showing the perspective of a child that refuses to be put in a box, we follow Gabi from age eight to thirteen. For Gabi, her way of being is perfectly natural. She is not afraid to speak her mind when it comes to what she thinks is wrong with the world, and in particular, how there should be no differences between boys and girls.

Featured LGBTQIA+ History DVDs

These may be available on your favorite streaming service, but if not, we have the DVDs available for check out.

Stonewall Uprising
Call Number: Moore Video: HQ76.8.U6 S76 2011
When police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City on June 28, 1969, the street erupted into violent protests that lasted for the next six days. The Stonewall riots, as they came to be known, marked a major turning point in the modern gay civil rights movement in the United States and around the world.
Paris Is Burning
Call Number: Moore Video: HQ76.2.U52 N535 2020
"Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Made over seven years, it offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion 'houses,' from fierce contests for trophies to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia, transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women--including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza--Paris is Burning brings it, celebrating the joy of movement, the force of eloquence, and the draw of community."
The Secret Diaries of Anne Lister
Call Number: Moore Video: N1997.2 .S43 2012
Before there was the series Gentlemen Jack, there was this film:

Anne Lister is a landowning woman who defied the conventions of her 19th century life to great scandal, for Anne was a lesbian. Her affair with 'soul mate' Marianna Belcombe keeps society guessing but when it is announced that Marianna is to be married to the older, corpulent and wealthy Charles Lawton, Anne is distraught. And so she begins a string of relationships.