The MTV documentary Gay Chorus Deep South has been winning prizes at film festivals around the country, and now the tearjerking first trailer about the power of music to heal has dropped.
Director David Charles Rodrigues follows the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus and the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir as they travel through the south engaging with and giving voice to LGBTQ people who have faced hateful (often) faith-based discrimination.
Under the direction of the chorus's conductor Tim Seelig, the chorus makes stops in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and the Carolinas, where local LGBTQ folks tell their harrowing stories of having been shunned by family and the church.
"My grandparents are homophobic. I remember going to my first Pride fest and I brought home a flag and they just burned it on our backyard," says one young person in the film.
"I would have never thought to go back home," Seelig shares about returning to the place that turned its back on him for being queer.
"I was 35 --beautiful wife and children -- when I came out," Seelig says. "The church said, 'You're going to say goodbye to your kids and you're not going to come back.'''
Ultimately, Gay Chorus Deep South celebrates the resilience of LGBTQ people.
The film opens November 1.