Directed by Sérgio Toledo • 1986 • Brazil
Starring Ana Beatriz Nogueira, Raul Cortez, Aida Leiner
Based on the tragically short life of Brazilian poet Anderson Bigode Herzer, this intense drama tells the story of Bauer, a trans man who navigates a difficult upbringing in an orphanage before finding love with a young librarian. He has the sympathy of his mentor, a professor who sees his talent as a poet, but struggles to be understood by others: “I’m not what everyone thinks I am. You hear me? I’m different. I’m something else. Something else.” One of the earliest portrayals in cinema of a transmasculine character, VERA features a remarkable lead performance by Ana Beatriz Nogueira, who received the Best Actress prize at the 1987 Berlin Film Festival.
Up Next in LGBTQ+
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Lan Yu
Directed by Stanley Kwan • 2001 • Hong Kong, China
Starring Liu Ye, Hu Jun, Huatong LiFilmed in secret in Beijing, this tender gay romance by Stanley Kwan combines the timeless conventions of classic melodrama with a radically frank depiction of queer intimacy as it traces, over the course of y...
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Greetings from Washington, D.C.
Directed by Lucy Winer • 1981 • United States
Starring Rob Epstein, Jan Oxenberg, Terry LawlerOn October 14, 1979, LGBTQ+ history was made when tens of thousands of people converged on America’s capital for the first ever National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. This empowering ...
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Ifé
Directed by H. Lenn Keller • 1993 • United States
This stylized short, both sex-positive and slick, follows a day in the life of a Black French lesbian in San Francisco. Ifé loves women but vows never to fall in love. As she extols the beauty of women in San Francisco, she slowly cruises the cit...
