Airbnb’s Original Feature Documentary: Gay Chorus Deep South

While Airbnb began as an accommodation platform, the company has been branching out into other businesses and is now looking to create original travel entertainment content. Their first production, Gay Chorus Deep South, is a feature documentary that follows the 300-person San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus as they tour through the southeastern United States. After premiering at the Tribeca film festival on April 29th, the Airbnb-produced film won the audience award for best documentary and has received a variety of positive reviews from critics.

Directed by David Charles Rodrigues, Gay Chorus Deep South focusses on the personal stories and struggles of a few selected members of the chorus group. Throughout their journey in the south, the group looks to bring unity and understanding through their singing, whether it be in churches, concert halls, or people’s homes. For their road trip, the group travelled through the states of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Many of the individual stories the film features are ones of a return home and confrontation with the south, where various members of the choir previously suffered prejudice due to their sexual orientation.

Conductor of the chorus Tim Seelig returns to the church from which he had been fired from after coming out as gay. Another member of the choir seeks to reconnect with his father whom he hasn’t spoken with in six years due to their differences about his sexual orientation. The variety of emotionally touching stories provide a glimpse into the faith, politics, and sexual identity issues that have divided people for years, and attempts to put these aside with music and a human connection.

The film seems to be a perfect fit with Airbnb’s company ethos of belonging, and the company’s head of creative, James Goode, explained that the film deeply aligns with Airbnb’s values of dignity and respect towards all. The collaboration between Airbnb and the film’s director Rodrigues is Airbnb’s first attempt at producing large-scale entertainment content, and could possibly be the very first step towards a variety of other documentaries and series about travel, belonging, and acceptance. Reuters reported on Airbnb’s construction of a TV studio, and the possibility of an exclusive docuseries focusing on unique homes called Home for Apple Inc’s video streaming service.

While we’ll have to wait to hear more about Airbnb’s plans for other films and series, aside from its Tribeca film festival debut, Gay Chorus Deep South has had screenings at Reel Out Charlotte in North Carolina, QDoc Queer Documentary Film Festival in Portland, and New Jersey’s Montclair Film Festival. While nothing more is planned yet for the film, Goode mentioned Airbnb wants as many people as possible to see the movie, in hopes of bringing a bit more acceptance and a sense of belonging for anyone, wherever they travel.