Comedian Louis C.K. is helping a documentary that made a strong impression on him become more widely available by releasing it on his website for just five dollars last Friday.
The documentary, "Check It," and centers around a group of black LGBT teens and adults who formed a street gang in Washington D.C. in order to protect themselves from vicious homophobic assaults and provide support for each other.
"The film knocked me out, it's so good," the comedian said. "And it's about these kids that are protecting each other in a very dangerous world and they're funny, and they're interesting, and their stories are very moving and engaging — watching people try to survive and be there for each other."
The 2016 documentary is executive produced by actor Steve Buscemi, who showed Louis C.K. the film at the Tribeca Film Festival, according to Variety. Directors Toby Oppenheimer and Dana Flor spent four years with some of the gang members filming them "as they dealt with harassment, poverty, and violence."
"If you don’t stand up for yourself nobody will," one gang member said in the trailer. "I've been stabbed two times, I've been shot," said another.
"You had two options either to run or to fight, and we chose to fight," another gang member explained.
Members of the LGBTQ community are more likely to be the targets of hate crimes than any other minority group, according to the New York Times. Murders hit an all time high for transgenders in 2016, which was the deadliest year on record for them.
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