Airbnb Delves Further Into Content Business With First Feature Film

Tech goliath Airbnb is venturing further into the content business with its first feature film.

The home-sharing platform has developed, financed, and produced Gay Chorus Deep South, which will premiere next week at the Tribeca Film Festival, Variety reports. The movie, directed by David Charles Rodrigues, follows a 300-member gay men’s chorus from San Francisco — led by conductor Tim Seelig — on a 10-day tour across the south back in 2017, where they sought to spark conversations about civil rights and also discuss personal challenges in the wake of a wave of anti-LGBTQ laws in Southern states and the divisive 2016 election.

Airbnb creative head James Goode told Variety that the company wanted to create the film, which was two years in the making, because it aligned with its corporate values of celebrating people from all walks of life. “Airbnb is in the space of telling stories of belonging and acceptance,” he told the outlet.

When the film premieres on April 29, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus will perform at the Tribeca Film Festival — after which the film will roll out to Reel Out Charlotte, the QDoc Queer Documentary Film Festival, and the Montclair Film Festival. After that, Goode told Variety that it could end up on a streaming platform, though no plans have been finalized. “We will want as many people as possible to see this film. How that happens, we don’t know yet.”

While Airbnb doesn’t have any other films in the works, it does publish a magazine with Hearst six times per year dubbed Airbnbmag.