In the wake of last week's profile on '60s Sunshine Pop outfit Twinn Connexion, perhaps you found yourself asking "where are the gay twin acts in contemporary pop music?" The answer is New Zealand. And, this week, at Outfest in Los Angeles.

Leanne Pooley's documentary The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls -- which screens on Wednesday, July 14 and Saturday, July 17 -- chronicles the improbable yet long and happy career of Lynda and Jools Topp. Their promotional materials bill them as "the world's only comedic, singing, yodeling lesbian twin sisters," but Billy Bragg sums the siblings up best as an "anarchist variety act." Because not only do the sisters admit that a great deal of their act is made up on-the-fly, but they're rabble rousers.

They've been highly visible in New Zealand politics for decades, so even as Untouchable Girls introduces the wider world to their songs and comedic characters, it doubles as a crash course in how hot-button issues have played out on the other side of the world, as the Topp Twins have played a crucial role in campaigning for a Nuclear-Free NZ, Maori Land Rights, Homosexual Law Reform, and other causes.

Musically, the Topps' blend of folk, country and pop should resonate with fans of the Indigo Girls and the Murmurs; they'd be a welcome addition to any Lilith Fair lineup. Their comedic characters -- Camp Mother and Camp Leader, the Bowling Ladies -- aren't quite as polished, but as any well-versed student of pop culture will tell you, they have a very different sense of what's funny Down Under. Such is the breadth of the Twins appeal at home that they even had their own prime time TV series, and Lynda's Camp Mother character almost won the Auckland mayoral elections in 1998.

Yet whether they're channeling their assorted alter-egos or serving at judges at regional farm fairs, the sisters are always impressively down-to-earth -- which makes the sudden twist of fate in the narrative arc at the top of Act 3 especially heart-wrenching and, like the rest of the film, inspiring.