Gilbert Baker

A short documentary about the Disco legend Sylvester. Sylvester James began as a child gospel singer and sashayed past barriers of race and sexual identity to become the definitive anthemist of disco and dance soul. With a vibrant falsetto and genderbending persona, he redefined what it means - on stage and in life - to be "mighty real." This documentary will restore to the spotlight a pivotal performer whose music defined an era and whose influence is still felt by dozens of current vocalists.

Over the course of a year, film follows Vancouver Pride Society president Ken Coolen to various international Pride events, including Poland, Hungary, Russia, Sri Lanka and others where there is great opposition to pride parades. In North America, Pride is complicated by commercialization and a sense that the festivals are turning away from their political roots toward tourism, party promotion and entertainment. Christie documents the ways larger, more mainstream Pride events have supported the global Pride movement and how human rights components are being added to more established events. In the New York sequence, leaders organize an alternative Pride parade, the Drag March, set up to protest the corporatization of New York Pride. A parade in São Paulo, the world's largest Pride festival, itself includes a completely empty float, meant to symbolize all those lost to HIV and to anti-gay violence.