If there’s one thing short queer documentaries have mastered, it’s the art of saying everything without saying too much. No slow burns. No extra scenes. Just raw, irreverent truth in under 30 minutes. Whether they’re filmed in a graffiti-covered stairwell or inside someone’s glitter-filled bathroom, these films cut through social niceties and plunge into the pulsing heart of identity, performance, and survival.
That’s where Gazes In Short: Ten Short Queer Documentaries by Gonella Productions – Part Two enters the chat. Now streaming on Guidedoc, this curated collection is proof that short doesn’t mean small. From tales of makeup and mourning to drag personas and protest graffiti, these docu-gems show us queer life in its most condensed and unfiltered form.
And they don’t follow the rules. Many of these films don’t even like the idea of rules. Experimental, performative, or brutally observational, these ten short documentaries ignore neat conclusions and lean hard into ambiguity, emotion, and the wild beauty of queer presence on screen.
There’s a reason queer stories thrive in the short doc format. The urgency of lived experience. The intimacy of a handheld camera. The need to resist erasure by filming what the world tries to ignore. These documentaries don’t wait for approval. They document, archive, scream, laugh, and exist—on their own terms.
This program is a follow-up to the first Gazes In Short anthology, and it pushes further. The textures are grittier. The confessions are louder. The laughter is more defiant. These films aren’t just short—they’re dense. They collapse time and identity into something cinematic and profoundly present.
Looking for more queer reflections? Be sure to check out our Guidedoc article on Pride Month and LGBTQ+ Documentaries: Celebrating Stories of Resilience and Love, redefining cinema across borders.
Shot during the pandemic, this doc explores five distinct locations tied to the personal memories of five LGBTIQ+ individuals. With political urgency and intimate footage, it’s less about where we are and more about where we've been—and what queer memory leaves behind.
Siblings Alexandre and Jeanne revisit a haunting past through fragmented images and elliptical narration. This experimental documentary is a ghost story told through the nervous system of family, trauma, and queer silence.
After years of living as a husband and father, she embraces her true self. But this isn’t just a docu-portrait of transition—it’s about liberation, regret, and finally facing the mirror with something other than fear.
A sun-drenched lesbian utopia, or a short film about fleeting freedom? Maybe both. A group of friends escape to a beach where labels don’t matter and belonging is in every shared laugh, sunburn, and glance. Pure queer joy.
In grainy black and white, a group of gay men talk, joke, confess, and process their lives. It’s simple, direct, and all the more powerful for it. Think of it as therapy in 4x3 format, shot straight from the soul of New York City.
Fifteen-year-old Leticia from rural Portugal brandishes a rifle and a radical confidence. Whether she's a tomboy, rebel, or just herself, this doc dances on the blurry line between gender play and rural resistance.
Inside a crumbling building in Old Havana, two roommates—Fernando and Teresa—confront their stale relationship and tangled desires. A stunning Cuban doc about domestic claustrophobia and queer longing.
Berlin-based artist Golden Tuna travels to Portugal, dragging their performance alter ego and camera gear along for the ride. What begins as a creative pilgrimage becomes a study in queer labor, self-reinvention, and the glittered weight of expectation.
Vanilla is not a flavor—it’s a portal. Through slow-motion, close-ups, and whispered voiceovers, this film explores sensuality, texture, and identity through a lens that feels almost tactile. Queer aesthetics redefined.
In this hybrid documentary, photographer Beto Pêgo faces the tension between personal identity and public image. Through his drag alter ego, the film becomes a meditation on the power of performance and the digital ghosts we try to erase.
What do these documentaries have in common? They're all about claiming space—physical, emotional, cinematic—for identities that have long been pushed to the margins. They prove that a documentary isn’t just a neutral tool for capturing reality. It’s a political act. A mirror. A weapon. A poem.
Short queer docs, like the ones in this second volume of Gazes In Short, remind us that representation isn’t enough. What we need are new forms, new stories, and new frames. These are not films that beg for inclusion in the mainstream—they make their own way.
And while these documentaries may not feature the glossy budgets of a Netflix docuseries or the massive promo of a YouTube algorithm darling, they carry the one thing that always matters: truth, in all its messy, complicated glory.
Still curious about queer storytelling through short-form docs? Read our deep dive on: Never Too Late: Unveiling the Top Documentaries on the LGBTQ+ Experience in Old Age.
Gazes In Short: Ten Short Queer Documentaries by Gonella Productions – Part Two is available to stream exclusively on Guidedoc. If you're looking for docufilms that challenge, surprise, and linger long after the credits roll, this program is the place to start.
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