With features like Female Misbehavior, Virgin Machine and My Father is Coming under her belt, filmmaker Monika Treut has become notorious for chronicling queer culture on the big screen. Her 1999 documentary, Gendernauts: A Journey Through Shifting Identities, arrives on DVD this month from First Run Features.

Here, Treut examines the lives of a number of gender outlaws, people who live beyond the bounds of what is considered mainstream sex-role normalcy. They’re a varied bunch, but they have one thing in common: all have landed in San Francisco. There’s a history professor, a performance artist, drag kings, a gay doctor who helps transsexuals cross over officially and an obligatory appearance by Annie Sprinkle. Gendernauts is fascinating to watch, whether it’s a cabaret-style show where female-to-male transgendered he-women get to strut their stuff, or a bit of performance art that involves two transsexuals jumping out of an airplane and humping each other in mid-air before pulling the parachute. By the final credits, Treut has succeeded in making her subjects seem less exotic and more like the gender subversives next door. — Matthew Hays