Movies like A History of Sex (2003)
The best movies like A History of Sex (2003) are Peter de Rome: Grandfather of Gay Porn (2014), Nico Icon (1995) and Public Sex, Private Lives (2013). If A History of Sex hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCrumb (1995)7.6/10 from 300 votes
- NewestLady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story (2021)Released 2021
Peter de Rome: Grandfather of Gay Porn (2014)
Pioneer erotic film maker Peter de Rome talks about his life and work.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Nico Icon (1995)
A look into the many lives of Christa Päffgen, otherwise known as Nico; from cutie German mädchen to the first of the supermodels, to glamorous diva of the Velvet Underground, to cult item, junkie and hag. Many faces for the same woman, whom, you realize, just couldn't bring herself to care enough to live.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Public Sex, Private Lives (2013)
Public Sex, Private Lives is an intimate look at the professional and private lives of porn performers Lorelei Lee, Princess Donna, and Isis Love. Capturing moments of joy and struggle, this film follows the characters as they navigate their lives as artists, daughters, mothers, writers, and women who have made careers in the adult industry. Asked to defend their choices to their families, communities, and even the United States Government, these women share their unique motivations and shifting visions for the future.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Thinking XXX (2004)
For a book project, photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders took photographs of 30 stars of adult movies, each pair of photographs in the same pose, clothed and nude. This film records the photo shoots and includes interviews with the performers and commentary from eight writers (and John Waters). The actors and writers discuss economics, nudity and exhibitionism, careers, and private lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
SnoozefestMovies like thisIn Their Room: San Francisco (2009)
An intimate and erotic film about 8 gay men alone in their San Francisco bedrooms
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Nitrate Kisses (1992)
Essay documentary explores eroded emulsions and images for lost vestiges of lesbian and gay culture. First feature by a pioneer of lesbian cinema, Hammer weaves gay and lesbian couples with footage that unearths the forbidden and invisible history of a marginalized people.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
X-Rated: The Greatest Adult Movies of All Time (2015)
The evolution of adult cinema through the most influential films in history, a journey that begins in the 1970s and ends nowadays. An in-depth analysis of the success of the most prestigious erotic films, their impact on industry and society, and their influence on cinema and contemporary culture.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNot a Love Story: A Film About Pornography (1981)
Filmmaker Bonnie Sherr Klein and former stripper Lindalee Tracy explore the pornography industry by visiting strip clubs, peep shows, and adult film sets while interviewing performers, sex workers, critics, and feminist writers. Through these encounters, the documentary examines the production, economics, and cultural debates surrounding pornography.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Language of Love (1969)
A panel of real-life doctors discuss sexual hangups, misconceptions, personal prejudices and the ignorance of individuals when it comes to matters sexual. Using on-screen recreations, topics such as petting, contraceptives and sexual anxiety are addressed.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Graphic Sexual Horror (2009)
Graphic Sexual Horror takes a peek behind the terrifying facade behind the most notorious of bondage websites, exploring the dark mind of its artistic creator and asking hard questions about personal responsibility. Interviews reveal deep fascinations with bondage and sadomasochism that run parallel, and in fact become irreversibly entwined with the lure of money.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Mr. Angel (2013)
Buck Angel: trans man, porn star, pioneer. Here we see his life through a documentary lens that evidences the power and personality of an amazing human being.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Erotic Man (2010)
The film has been ten years in the making, and over time it has grown to become what the director himself has called an artistic testament. It is simultaneously his most personal and most provocative film. A film about growing older, about losing, about the special moments one remembers, and about the director's own circling around the essence of eroticism.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Lovers' Guide: Igniting Desire (2011)
The Lover’s Guide 3D is the latest in the best selling series of sex education DVDs that help to educate consenting adults in the pleasures of love making. By imparting knowledge of how the body works along with how to stimulate your partners desires by being attentive to their needs, showing you specific techniques and maintaining a clear open approach to the subject matter, the documentary manages to inform and express without the need to be graphic. By advocating safe sex within a loving relationship and an emphasis on increasing desire and sustaining sex, this educational tool should appeal to those starting out or those already in a stable relationship.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures (2016)
Nude men in rubber suits, close-ups of erections, objects shoved in the most intimate of places—these are photographs taken by Robert Mapplethorpe, known by many as the most controversial photographer of the twentieth century. Openly gay, Mapplethorpe took images of male sex, nudity, and fetish to extremes that resulted in his work still being labelled by some as pornography masquerading as art. But less talked about are the more serene, yet striking portraits of flowers, sculptures, and perfectly framed human forms that are equally pioneering and powerful.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAntonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco (2018)
Sex Fashion and Disco is a documentary film concerning Antonio Lopez (1943-1987), the most influential fashion illustrator of 1970s Paris and New York, and his colorful and sometimes outrageous milieu.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Naked Ambition: An R Rated Look at an X Rated Industry (2009)
Noted celebrity photographer, Michael Grecco, sets out to capture the essence of the AVN Awards and Convention where the best in American Pornography is displayed, celebrated and honored.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Pervert's Guide to Cinema (2006)
A hilarious introduction, using as examples some of the best films ever made, to some of Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek's most exciting ideas on personal subjectivity, fantasy and reality, desire and sexuality.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story (2021)
In 1968, Jackie Collins published her first novel The World Is Full of Married Men to remarkable success and immediate scandal. Over the next decades, Collins would go on to build an empire writing books where female agency came first. Jackie Collins’ women were unapologetic about their needs and their sexual desire, and to her devoted readers, Collins became a symbol of the effortless power that defined her heroines.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Crumb (1995)
This movie chronicles the life and times of R. Crumb. Robert Crumb is the cartoonist/artist who drew Keep On Truckin', Fritz the Cat, and played a major pioneering role in the genesis of underground comix. Through interviews with his mother, two brothers, wife, ex-wife and ex-girlfriends, as well as selections from his vast quantity of graphic art, we are treated to a darkly comic ride through one man's subconscious mind.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Price of Pleasure: Pornography, Sexuality & Relationships (2008)
Interviewing scholars, industry insiders and consumers, this probing documentary delves into the effects of pornography on one's sexual identity and relationships, as well as its influence on business and American popular culture overall.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Dykes, Camera, Action! (2018)
The film examines the ways that women directors have contributed to this genre and emphasizes the role that the media play in representation of sexuality and gender, underscoring the power that film has to shape our perceptions of one another. Visually, this documentary comes to life on screen through compelling and intimate original interviews, intercut with emotionally-charged archival footage, photographs, ephemera, inspired music, and film clips.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press (2017)
The courtroom and publicity battles between the superstar wrestler and the notorious website explode in a sensational trial all about the limits of the First Amendment and the new no holds barred nature of celebrity life in an internet dominated society.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (2008)
Fueled by a raging libido, Wild Turkey, and superhuman doses of drugs, Thompson was a true "free lance, " goring sacred cows with impunity, hilarity, and a steel-eyed conviction for writing wrongs. Focusing on the good doctor's heyday, 1965 to 1975, the film includes clips of never-before-seen (nor heard) home movies, audiotapes, and passages from unpublished manuscripts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNight Will Fall (2014)
When Allied forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps in 1944-45, their terrible discoveries were recorded by army and newsreel cameramen, revealing for the first time the full horror of what had happened. Making use of British, Soviet and American footage, the Ministry of Information’s Sidney Bernstein (later founder of Granada Television) aimed to create a documentary that would provide lasting, undeniable evidence of the Nazis’ unspeakable crimes. He commissioned a wealth of British talent, including editor Stewart McAllister, writer and future cabinet minister Richard Crossman – and, as treatment advisor, his friend Alfred Hitchcock. Yet, despite initial support from the British and US Governments, the film was shelved, and only now, 70 years on, has it been restored and completed by Imperial War Museums under its original title "German Concentration Camps Factual Survey".
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Kid Stays in the Picture (2002)
Documentary about legendary Paramount producer Robert Evans, based on his famous 1994 autobiography.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHated: GG Allin and The Murder Junkies (1993)
An overview of the life of the most shocking, vile, and notorious of punk rock legends.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMatangi / Maya / M.I.A. (2018)
Drawn from a never before seen cache of personal footage spanning decades, this is an intimate portrait of the Sri Lankan artist and musician who continues to shatter conventions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGeneration Wealth (2018)
Over the past 25 years, Lauren Greenfield's documentary photography and film projects have explored youth culture, gender, body image, and affluence. Underscoring the ever-increasing gap between the haves and the have-nots, portraits reveal a focus on cultivating image over substance, where subjects unable to attain actual wealth instead settle for its trappings, no matter their ability to pay for it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe Live in Public (2009)
In 1999, Internet entrepreneur Josh Harris recruits dozens of young men and women who agree to live in underground apartments for weeks at a time while their every movement is broadcast online. Soon, Harris and his girlfriend embark on their own subterranean adventure, with cameras streaming live footage of their meals, arguments, bedroom activities, and bathroom habits. This documentary explores the role of technology in our lives, as it charts the fragile nature of dot-com economy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisQT8: The First Eight (2019)
A detailed account of the life and artistic career of legendary filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, from his early days as a video club manager to the scandalous fall in disgrace of producer Harvey Weinstein. A story about how to shoot eight great movies and become an icon of modern pop culture.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like A History of Sex?
The closest matches to A History of Sex are Peter de Rome: Grandfather of Gay Porn (2014), Nico Icon (1995) and Public Sex, Private Lives (2013). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after A History of Sex?
People who watched A History of Sex most often go on to Peter de Rome: Grandfather of Gay Porn (2014), Nico Icon (1995) and Public Sex, Private Lives (2013).
What is the highest-rated movie like A History of Sex?
Crumb (1995), rated 7.6/10 by 300 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like A History of Sex?
Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story (2021) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like A History of Sex?
Yes: Peter de Rome: Grandfather of Gay Porn (2014), Nico Icon (1995) and Public Sex, Private Lives (2013).
How are movies similar to A History of Sex chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside A History of Sex, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.