Movies like Tongues Untied (1990)
The best movies like Tongues Untied (1990) are Black Is… Black Ain’t (1995), No Regret (1993) and Portrait of Jason (1967). If Tongues Untied hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedParis Is Burning (1991)8.0/10 from 579 votes
- NewestBLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (2025)Released 2025
Black Is… Black Ain’t (1995)
African-American documentary filmmaker Marlon Riggs was working on this final film as he died from AIDS-related complications in 1994; he addresses the camera from his hospital bed in several scenes. The film directly addresses sexism and homophobia within the black community, with snippets of misogynistic and anti-gay slurs from popular hip-hop songs juxtaposed with interviews with African-American intellectuals and political theorists, including Cornel West, bell hooks and Angela Davis.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
No Regret (1993)
Five gay Black men who are HIV-positive discuss how they are battling the double stigmas surrounding their infection and homosexuality.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Portrait of Jason (1967)
Interview with Jason Holliday aka Aaron Payne. House-boy, would-be cabaret performer, and self-proclaimed hustler giving one man's gin-soaked, pill-popped view of what it was like to be black and gay in 1960s United States.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParis Is Burning (1991)
Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Made over seven years, PARIS IS BURNING offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion "houses," from fierce contests for trophies to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia, transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women — including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
Harvey Milk was an outspoken human rights activist and one of the first openly gay U.S. politicians elected to public office; even after his assassination in 1978, he continues to inspire disenfranchised people around the world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBrooklyn Boheme (2012)
Brooklyn Boheme is a love letter to a vibrant African American artistic community who resided in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill Brooklyn during the 80's and 90's that included the great Spike Lee, Chris Rock, Branford Marsalis, Rosie Perez, Saul Williams, Lorna Simpson, Talib Kweli just to name a few. Narrated and written by Fort Greene resident Nelson George, this feature length documentary celebrates "Brooklyn's equivalent of the Harlem Renaissance" and follows the rise of a new kind of African American artist, the Brooklyn Boheme.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema (2006)
A chronological look at films by, for, or about gays and lesbians in the United States, from 1947 to 2005, Kenneth Anger's "Fireworks" to "Brokeback Mountain". Talking heads, anchored by critic and scholar B. Ruby Rich, are interspersed with an advancing timeline and with clips from two dozen films. The narrative groups the pictures around various firsts, movements, and triumphs: experimental films, indie films, sex on screen, outlaw culture and bad guys, lesbian lovers, films about AIDS and dying, emergence of romantic comedy, transgender films, films about diversity and various cultures, documentaries and then mainstream Hollywood drama. What might come next?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Ethnic Notions (1986)
This documentary traces the deep-rooted stereotypes which have fueled anti-black prejudice.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives (1977)
More than two dozen men and women of various backgrounds, ages, and races talk to the camera about being gay or lesbian. Their stories are arranged in loose chronology: early years, fitting in (which for some meant marriage), coming out, establishing adult identities, and reflecting on how things have changed and how things should be.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (2014)
The film explores the role of photography, since its rudimentary beginnings in the 1840s, in shaping the identity, aspirations, and social emergence of African Americans from slavery to the present. The dramatic arch is developed as a visual narrative that flows through the past 160 years to reveal black photography as an instrument for social change, an African American point-of-view on American history, and a particularized aesthetic vision.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Affirmations (1990)
A look at what it's like to be gay and black in America.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Out in the Night (2014)
Under the neon lights in a gay-friendly neighborhood of New York City, four young African-American lesbians are violently and sexually threatened by a man on the street. They defend themselves against him and are charged and convicted in the courts and in the media as a 'Gang of Killer Lesbians'.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Before Stonewall (1984)
New York City's Stonewall Inn is regarded by many as the site of gay and lesbian liberation since it was at this bar that drag queens fought back against police June 27-28, 1969. This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips and personal recollections to construct an audiovisual history of the gay community before the Stonewall riots.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017)
Describing herself as a 'street queen,' Johnson was a legendary fixture in New York City’s gay ghetto and a tireless voice for LGBT pride since the days of Stonewall, who along with fellow trans icon Sylvia Rivera, founded Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), a trans activist group based in the heart of NYC’s Greenwich Village. Her death in 1992 was declared a suicide by the NYPD, but friends never accepted that version of events. Structured as a whodunit, with activist Victoria Cruz cast as detective and audience surrogate, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson celebrates the lasting political legacy of Johnson, while seeking to finally solve the mystery of her unexplained death.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Queen (1968)
In 1967, New York City is host to the Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant. This documentary takes a look behind the scenes, transporting the viewer into rehearsals and dressing rooms as the drag queen subculture prepares for this big national beauty contest. Jack/Sabrina is the mistress of ceremonies, and their protégé, Miss Harlow, is in the competition. But, as the pageant approaches, the glamorous contestants veer from camaraderie to tension.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Daddy and the Muscle Academy (1991)
Tom of Finland is one of the gay world's few authentic icons. His drawings have had an enormous influence on gay identity. Tom's ultimate leather men are known and seen everywhere. They are symbols of gay pride and friendship. The documentary includes some titillating 'enactments' inspired by Tom's art work.
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
Nationtime: Gary (1972)
A report on the National Black Political Convention held in Gary, Indiana, in 1972, a historic event that gathered Black voices from across the political spectrum, among them Jesse Jackson, Dick Gregory, Coretta Scott King, Richard Hatcher, Amiri Baraka, Charles Diggs, and H. Carl McCall.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Vito (2011)
In the aftermath of Stonewall, a newly politicized Vito Russo found his voice as a gay activist and critic of LGBTQ+ representation in the media. He went on to write "The Celluloid Closet", the first book to critique Hollywood's portrayals of gays on screen. During the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, Vito became a passionate advocate for justice via the newly formed ACT UP, before his death in 1990.
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 thisWe Were Here (2011)
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.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cockettes (2002)
Documentary about the gender-bending San Francisco performance group who became a pop culture phenomenon in the early 1970s.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Check It (2016)
Fed up with being pushed around, a group of gay and trans teens of color form a gang and fight back on the brutal streets of Washington D.C. They call their gang ‘Check it’ and this group of one-time victims of bullying, rape and abuse have turned the tables on anyone trying to hurt them. The group formed to provide its members safety in numbers and let people know that if they jump a queer kid in D.C., they may get beaten into a coma. This raw and intimate portrait follows three childhood friends as they struggle to survive and claw their way out of gang life through an unlikely avenue: fashion.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Celluloid Closet (1996)
Exuberant, eye-opening movie that serves up a dazzling hundred-year history of the role of gay men and lesbians have had on the silver screen. Film contains fabulous footage from 120 films showing the changing face of cinema sexuality, from cruel stereotypes to covert love to the activist triumphs of the 1990s.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLaerte-se (2017)
In this film, Laerte conjugates the body in the feminine, and scrutinizes concepts and prejudices. Not in search of an identity, but in search of un-identities. Laerte creates and sends creatures to face reality in the fictional world of comic strips as a vanguard of the self. And, on the streets, the one who becomes the fiction of a real character. Laerte, of all the bodies, and of none, complicates all binaries. In following Laerte, this documentary chooses to clothe the nudity beyond the skin we inhabit.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStonewall Uprising (2010)
Stonewall Uprising is a 2010 American documentary film examining the events surrounding the Stonewall riots that began during the early hours of June 28, 1969. Stonewall Uprising made its theatrical debut on June 16, 2010 at the Film Forum in New York City.The movie features interviews with eyewitnesses to the incident, including NYPD deputy inspector Seymour Pine. The film was produced and directed by documentarians Kate Davis and David Heilbroner, and is based on the book by historian David Carter, Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution. The title theme is by Gary Lionelli.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Grey Gardens (1976)
Edie Bouvier Beale and her mother, Edith, two aging, eccentric relatives of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, are the sole inhabitants of a Long Island estate. The women reveal themselves to be misfits with outsized, engaging personalities. Much of the conversation is centered on their pasts, as mother and daughter now rarely leave home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRat Film (2016)
Across walls, fences, and alleys, rats not only expose our boundaries of separation but make homes in them. "Rat Film" is a feature-length documentary that uses the rat—as well as the humans that love them, live with them, and kill them—to explore the history of Baltimore.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (2025)
Adapted from Kahlil Joseph’s renowned video art installation, BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions is a distinctive cinematic experience that mirrors the sonic textures of a record album, weaving fiction and history in an immersive journey where the fictionalized figures of W. E. B Du Bois and Marcus Garvey join artists, musicians, Joseph’s family, and even Twitter chats, in a vision for black consciousness.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Hidden Colors (2011)
This film discusses some of the reasons the contributions of African and aboriginal people have been left out of the pages of history. Topics covered include the original image of Christ; the true story about the Moors; the original people of Asia; the great west African empires; the presence of Africans in America before Columbus; the real reason slavery was ended and much more.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Like Tongues Untied and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Tongues Untied?
The closest matches to Tongues Untied are Black Is… Black Ain’t (1995), No Regret (1993) and Portrait of Jason (1967). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Tongues Untied?
People who watched Tongues Untied most often go on to Black Is… Black Ain’t (1995), No Regret (1993) and Portrait of Jason (1967).
What is the highest-rated movie like Tongues Untied?
Paris Is Burning (1991), rated 8.0/10 by 579 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Tongues Untied?
BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Tongues Untied?
Yes: Black Is… Black Ain’t (1995), No Regret (1993) and Portrait of Jason (1967).
How are movies similar to Tongues Untied chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Tongues Untied, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.