Best movies like My New Friends

A reflective look at the arrival and impact of AIDS in San Francisco and how individuals rose to the occasion during the first years of the crisis.

The Other Side of AIDS takes us behind the hype and headlines and into the heart of a brewing controversy over the cause and treatment of AIDS. Through candid interviews with doctors and scientists representing both sides of the issue and HIV positives on and off the drugs, the film opens minds and much-needed dialogue. Informative without being instructive, it raises fundamental questions about what we think we know. Its surprising and sometimes shocking revelations inspire us to take a closer look at HIV and AIDS and the systems that support our current views.

Canadian director Catherine Annau's debut work is a documentary about the legacy of Pierre Trudeau, the long-running Prime Minister of Canada, who governed during the 1970s. The film focuses particularly on Trudeau's goal of creating a thoroughly bilingual nation. Annau interviews eight people in their mid-30s on both sides of the linguistic divide. One tells of her life growing up in a community of hard-core Quebec separatists, while another, a yuppie from Toronto, recalls believing as a child that people in Montreal got drunk and had sex all day long. Annau has all of the interviewees discuss how Trudeau's policies affected their lives and their perceptions of the other side, in this issue that strikes to the heart of Canada's national identity.

Coming-of-age film about Caleb, a South Florida teen. On the eve of his high school graduation, everything changes when he's exposed to HIV. While he waits three months for his results, he finds love in the most unlikely of places.

Erik, a loner, finds a friend in Dexter, an eleven-year-old boy with AIDS. They vow to find a cure for AIDS together and save Dexter's life in an eventful summer.

Controversial documentary about gay men purposely contracting the AIDS virus.

A story of two coalitions – ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group) – whose activism and innovation turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition. Despite having no scientific training, these self-made activists infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry and helped identify promising new drugs, moving them from experimental trials to patients in record time.

When hordes of gays and lesbians come out "of the closet" in the fictional town of Azalea Springs, Texas, intolerant residents go into a panic about the water supply.

Six gay friends discuss love, friendship and infidelity over the course of three significant evenings

Bryan meets a man called Bill in a bar. They go back to Bryan's home and have unprotected sex. Later, they wake up and talk. Bryan discovers that Bill's real name is Brian, and that he is bisexual. They spend hours talking, covering topics including AIDS, sexuality, feminism, role-play and Emily Dickinson.

A young man develops severe neck pain after swimming in a polluted river for a movie shoot, but nobody can provide him any relief.

A gay jewish man speaks out about living with and dying from AIDS. He also discusses how being gay has affected his identity as a jew and his relationship with his parents.

When 25 year-old gay yuppie David volunteers to be a "buddy" to an AIDS patient, the gay community center assigns him to Robert, a 32 year-old politically impassioned gay gardener abandoned by his friends and lovers. Throughout his visits to Robert's hospital room, the two men become friends.

Seventeen-year-old Anne just fell in love with Sasha, the most popular girl at her L.A. public high school. But when Anne tells her best friend, Clifton—who has always harbored a secret crush on her—he does his best to get in the way.

After finally breaking up with his drug-addicted lover, Trevor begins a new romance that unexpectedly complicates his other relationships.

After attending his 23rd funeral for a friend with AIDS, Troy and his friends hatch a plan to steal the HIV drugs that they need. One sucessful heist leads to another and another until they have so much inventory they decide to begin their own community distribution program.

Three poetic tales of seeking the true identity. In the first story, Jing, a blind singer, falls in love with her band's tomboy accordionist Diego. In another time and place, Lily, an elderly lesbian and Yen, her gay friend, create an unexpected bond and support each other in a time of crisis. Finally, we see Diego before she joined the band, when as a teenager she came to grips with her gender identity.

When the 26-year-old Civics teacher, Kevin, openly voices his stance on marriage equality at school, he stirs up a storm. His being madly in love with an HIV positive man doesn't sit well with all the people around him. When a rumour breaks out about his HIV status, he is forced to make choices no one should have to.

Sex Positive explores the life of Richard Berkowitz, a revolutionary gay S&M hustler turned AIDS activist in the 1980s, whose incomparable contribution to the invention of safe sex has never been aptly credited. Mr. Berkowitz emerged from the epicenter of the epidemic demanding a solution to the problem before the outside world would take heed. Now destitute and alone, Mr. Berkowitz tells his story to a world who never wanted to listen.

The story of the extraordinary final chapter of Freddie Mercury’s life and how, after his death from AIDS, Queen staged one of the biggest concerts in history, the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium, to celebrate his life and challenge the prejudices around HIV/AIDS. For the first time, Freddie's story is told alongside the experiences of those who tested positive for HIV and lost loved ones during the same period. Medical practitioners, survivors, and human rights campaigners recount the intensity of living through the AIDS pandemic and the moral panic it brought about.

On Thursday, Nov. 7, 1991, Earvin "Magic" Johnson made people stop and watch at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif. But this time it wasn't his basketball brilliance as a perennial NBA All-Star and three-time MVP that was captivating audiences worldwide. Instead, the 32-year-old groundbreaking point guard was holding a press conference to make the stunning announcement that he was HIV-positive and would be retiring from basketball immediately.

This fascinating hour-long documentary film takes the viewer to the heart of the creative process, focusing on 1989's acclaimed album, Flowers In The Dirt. Mixing studio footage with interviews, Put It There features Paul talking candidly about the process behind some of the album's most beloved songs, especially a detailed exploration of the single ‘My Brave Face’, co-written by Elvis Costello. Candid, anecdotal and honest, the documentary is a must for any Paul fan and was expanded for its DVD release to include a gallery section and previously unseen performance footage.

Alternately candid, funny, poignant and heartbreaking, this documentary focuses on a cross-section of men and women of all ages who invoke the exact moment in their lives--whether as toddlers, grade-schoolers, teens or young adults--when they knew, once and for all, that they were gay. Inspired by the work of writer Robert Trachtenberg, award-winning filmmakers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato set out across the country to interview these men and woman of all ages and walks of life and ask them a single, simple question: When did you know?

Bill Moyers and filmmaker David Grubin give viewers a rare glimpse into dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones’s highly acclaimed dance Still/Here. At workshops around the country, people facing life-threatening illnesses are asked to remember the highs and lows of their lives, and even imagine their own deaths. They then transform their feelings into expressive movement, which Jones incorporates into the dance performed later in the program. For this documentary, Jones demonstrates the movements of his own life story: his first encounter with white people, confusion over his sexuality, his partner Arnie Zane’s untimely death from AIDS, and Jones’s own HIV-positive status.

An adaptation of an 18th century Chinese classic remixed for an honest depiction of gay life in Taipei in the 21st century.

A man in the final stages of AIDS is cared for by his sister and mother and grandmother.

Cindy and Joanne are a married lesbian couple expecting their first child. Their relationship is challenged when Cindy discovers that Joanne has agreed to sell their unborn child to another gay couple, their friends Charles and Tim.

Police officer Chou is about to propose to his girlfriend Chen. He then receives a homicide case report and follows it to the mountain area. Sadly, the deceased is his girlfriend Chen. Devastated as he is, he tries his best and arrests the murderer Li. However, from Li's confession, Chou learns that Chen has voluntarily let Li kill her. Why do Li and Chen go on a murderous journey together? Or is it Chen who kills herself?

Tsai Ming-Liang, the artisan of cinematography approaches virtual reality, pushing the boundaries of VR film. The Deserted stripped away traditional film techniques and is presented in 360 degrees, like a theatre. The viewer is placed in the scene and is allowed to look freely at the construction of the environment. And immersed in the handcraft of the scenes.

Inspired by an ancient Chinese ghost story, the tale that goes beyond what viewers usually expect in the ghost movies and further to challenge the traditional story-telling pattern.

With unprecedented access to Taiwan’s sitting head of state, director Vanessa Hope investigates the election and tenure of Tsai Ing-wen, the first female president of Taiwan. Thorough, incisive and bristling with tension, Invisible Nation is a living account of Tsai’s tightrope walk as she balances the hopes and dreams of her nation between the colossal geopolitical forces of the U.S. and China. Hope’s restrained observational style captures Tsai at work in her country’s vibrant democracy at home, while seeking full international recognition of Taiwan’s right to exist. At a time when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has demonstrated the ever-present threat of authoritarian aggression, Invisible Nation brings punctual focus to the struggle of Taiwan as it fights for autonomy and freedom from fear.

In a candid, first-time interview with Rachel Lee, the so-called teenage mastermind behind a string of high-profile celebrity robberies in 2008 and 2009, the film examines the motivations of Lee and a group of her friends who broke into celebrity homes in Hollywood to ransack and steal, exploring the possible reasons behind her actions including mental health issues and addictions, as well as the climate of celebrity excess that fueled the teens, recontextualizing the events behind the sensational headlines.

This timely exploration of Hollywood and LGBTQ+ identity examines the life of legendary actor Rock Hudson, from his public "ladies' man" persona to his private life as a gay man.

Supersonic charts the meteoric rise of Oasis from the council estates of Manchester to some of the biggest concerts of all time in just three short years. This palpable, raw and moving film shines a light on one of the most genre and generation-defining British bands that has ever existed and features candid new interviews with Noel and Liam Gallagher, their mother, and members of the band and road crew.

On the eve of 1987's Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, surviving families and friends of people who have died of AIDS prepare panels to be added to a large-scale memorial quilt project. Drawing from the sea of names memorialized, director Robert Epstein focuses on the lives of six people. Alongside the intimate profiles offered, through news footage and interviews, Epstein puts the AIDS crisis in the larger context of social and government response to the disease.