If hearing the title I Was Born This Way immediately brings to mind the Lady Gaga song “Born This Way”, the coincidence is intentional. Gaga, one of the few interviewees featured in Daniel Junge and Sam Pollard‘s beautiful, insightful documentary, talks about how Carl Bean‘s legacy influenced her songwriting, as he did for the likes of Billy Porter, Questlove and Dionne Warwick, all who celebrate the late figure across the film’s uplifting 100 minutes.
I was personally unfamiliar with Bean, and following Junge and Pollard’s film I feel all the more grateful for being told his story; even more so as a gay man who has people like Bean to thank for blazing such a trail at a time when it wasn’t socially acceptable. A musician, an activist, and founder of the Unity Fellowship Church of Los Angeles, Bean overcame a tumultuous childhood (to say the least) to find his voice – literally – as a Motown and disco singer who, in the 1970s, found instant fame with his recording of “I Was Born This Way”, an anthem that openly celebrated homosexuality.
As an openly gay black man, the homophobia and racism Bean experienced from, respectively, the church and the LGBTQ community unfortunately speaks to how selectively inclusive those supposed collectives can be, but it only fueled his efforts more in how he could best serve his community. And when the AIDS epidemic worsened, he made his own sense of faith accessible for those that had been turned away by those that should have loved them regardless.
Bean’s is an inspiring story, and whilst his legacy would have no doubt extended beyond the interviewed figures featured here, there’s something far more organic in I Was Born This Way not parading an endless roster and only focusing on a select crew who clearly have a deep connection to his work; the open excitement in which Porter expresses being able to listen to a B-side track that hasn’t been heard in over 40 years speaking to such a temperament.
Aided by a series of animated interludes that help elevate Bean’s story, I Was Born This Way paints a clear understanding of his life, both the struggles and the celebrations. It lives in the lyrics he expressed – “You laugh at me and you criticize ′cause I’m happy, carefree and gay. Yes, I’m gay. It ain′t a fault it′s a fact. I was born this way, Now I won’t judge you, don′t you judge me. We’re all the way nature meant us to be” – and can’t help but inspire its viewers to do the same.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
I Was Born This Way is screening as part of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, running between June 4th and 15th, 2025. For more information, head to the official site here.
