{"id":1870,"date":"2014-06-10T14:47:42","date_gmt":"2014-06-10T21:47:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/?p=5695"},"modified":"2023-08-29T16:40:44","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T23:40:44","slug":"gay-pride-month-movies-rocked-filmmakers-world","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/gay-pride-month-movies-rocked-filmmakers-world\/","title":{"rendered":"LGBTQ Pride: Movies That Rocked Their World [Updated]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">June is always LGBTQ Pride Month, and traditionally it&#8217;s been both a time for reflection on gay\u00a0history and struggles (originally created to commemorate the Stonewall riots of June 1969),\u00a0along with a\u00a0colorful, pride-ful celebration of many important\u00a0achievements and milestones. Since <em>Independent Lens<\/em> is\u00a0naturally a film-centric space, we decided to honor the occasion by reaching out to a few filmmakers who&#8217;ve made documentaries for <em>Independent Lens<\/em>, asking them to contribute their own picks for the gay-themed films (fictional or documentaries) that affected them most profoundly. A few films deservedly get mentioned twice, but it&#8217;s an appropriately diverse list. [<em><strong>updated 2020<\/strong> and 2016; originally posted 2014<\/em>]<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><em>[2020 new additions:]<\/em><\/p>\n<p><b>Tom Shepard<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, co-director of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.unsettled.film\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unsettled<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (PBS&#8217;s DocWorld):\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;During my senior year of college, mired in premed classes way over my head, I enrolled in a continuing education seminar on documentary film. The first night of class, the instructors popped a VHS tape of <strong><em>The T<\/em><\/strong><\/span><strong><i>imes of Harvey Milk<\/i><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman into the player.\u00a0 The next 90 minutes were transfixing.\u00a0 I felt myself float above the class and into the screen. I\u2019d never quite experienced an endeavor in which craft, social history and political change could intersect so powerfully in one sitting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;We went on to watch most of Marlon Riggs\u2019 body of work; <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tongues Untied<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Black Is Black Aint <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">were my favorites. That class\u2014and those films\u2014were a game-changer: it\u2019s not an accident that, not long after, I tore up the med school applications and began looking for video production and journalism classes. Kudos to those instructors\u2014Philippe Roques and Ken Jacobson\u2014for opening new doors for me. Film is powerful and can change lives. It certainly has changed mine.&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Times of Harvey Milk - Trailer\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/miGYCk3vA-M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p><b>Daresha Kyi, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">director of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mamabearsdoc.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mama Bears <\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chavela:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;The first time I watched Tim Curry strut about in a bustier, ripped pantyhose and high heels as he seduced Brad and Janet with equal lust and zero shame in <\/span><b><i>The Rocky Horror Picture Show,<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I was turned on and turnt out!\u00a0 Who was this wild, sexy beast who so perfectly mirrored my own eccentric ethos, this shameless hussy who sang, danced and seduced us all with absolute aplomb?\u00a0 As a 15-year-old in Dayton, Ohio who usually felt like a fish out of water, &#8216;Frankie&#8217; was exactly what I wanted to be, free to love whomever I pleased.\u00a0 Walking out of the theater at 2am after a midnight screening, I knew I had found not only my first queer icon, but I had found <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">my people!<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Dressed in our silly, outrageous costumes, my friends and I would get high as kites and join all the other merry misfits to sing at the top of our lungs, spray each other with water, throw toast at the screen, and do the time warp again and again (and again.)\u00a0 This cult classic awakened my undying love of androgyny (hello, Prince!) and taught me how much fun it could be to let my freak flag fly high.\u00a0 I was never the same.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Rocky Horror Picture Show | #TBT Trailer | 20th Century FOX\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4plqh6obZW4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;My next queer movie crush was <\/span><b><i>Desert Hearts<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the first mainstream lesbian love story I saw where the lovers weren\u2019t punished for being gay and the actors had genuine chemistry\u2014which made the sex scene both warm and tender and hot! It wasn\u2019t a big, splashy movie like<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Rocky Horror<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> but the way it normalized lesbian love felt revolutionary at the time. I\u2019ve fallen for many more innovative lesbian films since, but a<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">s the\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lesbian Film Guide<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> states, &#8216;It is no exaggeration to say that in 1985\u00a0<\/span><b><i>Desert Hearts<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was the film many lesbians had waited for all their lives. For the first time in cinema history here was a movie which was an unashamedly romantic lesbian love story, aimed primarily at a lesbian audience.'&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;After nursing a lifelong infatuation with Langston Hughes\u2019 poetry and persona, <\/span><b><i>Looking For Langston<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was another film I didn\u2019t realize I needed until I fell under its hypnotic spell.\u00a0 The cinematography, costumes, set design, and stunningly beautiful men, combined with Langston, James Baldwin, and Essex Hemphill\u2019s words and Isaac Julien\u2019s unique aesthetic sensibilities was EVERYTHING.\u00a0 Seeing black male love so lushly and lavishly celebrated was such food to my soul that the images of two elegant, tuxedo dressed black men dancing together and that fine mutha with the wings, I mean &#8216;the Angel,&#8217; hold a permanent place in my psyche as &#8216;epitomes of beauty.'&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Looking for Langston - Trailer - ASNIFF 2016 - Absurde S\u00e9ance\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3h-jIrbWEZ4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Speaking of beauty, I have to give a nod to the wonderful <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wachowskis debut film <\/span><b><i>Bound<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the first mainstream movie to have a lesbian <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">r<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">elationship at its heart without homosexuality being central to the plot. As a sign of things to come from these talented transgender sisters, it was clear evidence of how far out of the box their clever minds dwell. This smart, stylish and subversive neo-noir flipped the script and played upon audiences\u2019 assumptions about women, men and gender with sass and panache. In the best role of her career, Jennifer Tilly, whose voice became high-pitched and &#8220;girly&#8221; whenever she spoke to men, and deeper and more natural when she spoke to Gina Gershon\u2019s Corky, perfectly embodied a woman whose innate intelligence has been underestimated her whole life. Although at times the film was excessively violent, I can\u2019t tell you how excited I was to see two women ride off into the sunset after literally getting away with murder.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Patrick Sammon, director of <\/b><b><i>Codebreaker<\/i><\/b><b>, co-director of upcoming <\/b><b><i>Cured:<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Pride Month this year is happening at a difficult but transformative moment in our history. Hundreds of thousands of protesters are courageously marching in the streets, demanding racial justice and systemic change. Of course, the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights is a very different fight with very different roots, but stories from our community\u2019s ongoing movement for equality offer timely lessons about how social change is created.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I want to highlight three of my favorite documentaries about LGBTQ people working to build a more just and equitable society. I\u2019m a bit biased on the first because it was co-directed by my <em>Cured <\/em>co-director and friend Bennett Singer. Bennett and his co-director, Nancy Kates, chronicle the life of civil rights pioneer Bayard Rustin in <em><strong>Brother Outsider<\/strong><\/em>. Rustin, a visionary activist and strategist has been described as \u201cthe unknown hero\u201d of the civil rights movement. He was a disciple of Gandhi and a mentor to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Also, he worked as the chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. In addition, Rustin courageously lived as an openly gay man during a period of virulent homophobia. His life and legacy \u2014 as relevant now as ever before \u2014 provide inspiration for challenging bigotry and standing up for justice.<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin - Trailer - POV | PBS\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FxhYrUsh-FE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p><em><strong>&#8220;The Freedom to Marry<\/strong><\/em>, directed by Eddie Rosenstein, documents the decades-long struggle to legalize marriage equality in the United States. This film\u2019s protagonist is Evan Wolfson, whose singular vision and stubborn persistence paved the way for the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s historic 2015 ruling that gave LGBTQ Americans the freedom to marry. This victory didn\u2019t happen by accident. It wasn\u2019t inevitable. As the film explores, this victory resulted from decades of work by literally millions of people across the country to change the hearts and minds of Americans \u2014 and with it the laws of the land.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>&#8220;How to Survive a Plague<\/strong><\/em> [photo above] examines the early years of the AIDS epidemic. Death and fear and anger motivated a group of activists to fight back against a government that was largely ignoring the epidemic as it ravaged the gay community. David France\u2019s documentary highlights the efforts of two activist organizations \u2014 ACT-UP and TAG \u2014 as they forced action by the federal government. Combining civil disobedience from the outside with strategic pressure from the inside, members of these two groups were instrumental in speeding up the development of the life-saving drugs that turned HIV from a terminal illness into a chronic disease.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These three films offer inspiration and insight about how to build coalitions, exert public pressure, reshape public opinion, attract support from powerbrokers and ultimately bring about lasting change.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>S. Leo Chiang<\/strong>, filmmaker, <em>A Village Called Versailles<\/em> (<em>Independent Lens<\/em>), <em>Out Run<\/em> (PBS WORLD Channel),<a href=\"https:\/\/timemachinefilm.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em> Our Time Machine<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I saw Ang Lee\u2019s <strong><em>The Wedding Banquet<\/em><\/strong> at a matinee show in a multiplex in San Jose, California when it was first released. I had immigrated to the US from Taiwan several years before as a high schooler, aware of my sexuality but struggling deep in the closet. Now in college, I had just come out to myself and my friends, but not yet to my parents. I was blown away by the film. <strong><em>The Wedding Banquet<\/em><\/strong> is a comedy, but I sobbed through most of the movie. It was indescribably cathartic to have my life experiences validated by images on screen for the very first time. I finally understood what it was like to really be seen.&#8221;<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Wedding Banquet Official Trailer #1 - Winston Chao Movie (1993) HD\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5kVkRhXt3S4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>Macky Alston<\/strong>, who directed <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/love-free-or-die\/\">Love Free or Die<\/a>\u00a0(Independent Lens,\u00a0<\/em>2012),\u00a0winner of the Special Jury Prize at the\u00a02012 Sundance Film Festival, writes:<\/p>\n<p><em>French trailer for Fassbinder&#8217;s Querelle <\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first queer film to rock my world I never saw. It was [Rainer Werner] Fassbinder&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0084565\/reference\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>Querelle<\/i><\/a>. I loved the poster and all the film stills I could find from it so much, I think that, by the time I could get my hands on it, I didn&#8217;t want to be disappointed. I wanted the film I fantasized it to be to hold my imagination, rather than [be] something that fell short. The first queer film I actually <em>saw<\/em>, or at least first film with gay love in it, I watched in a hotel room after midnight with my first love sleeping by my side. We were young and dreaming of freedom. As my love slept, I watched\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0084293\/reference\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Making Love<\/em><\/a>\u00a0[1982, directed by Arthur Hiller; starring Harry Hamlin, Michael Ontkean, and Kate Jackson], and for the first time on the television that had once given me <em>The Brady Bunch<\/em> I saw a path I could follow.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"p3\">Filmmaker <strong>Roger Ross Williams<\/strong>, whose powerful documentary\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/god-loves-uganda\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>God Loves Uganda <\/em><\/a>aired\u00a0on <em>Independent Lens<\/em>, wanted to point out several films that had an impact on him:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0091725\/reference\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Parting Glances<\/a><\/em>\u00a0had a huge influence on me because it was the first time I saw the reality of the HIV\/AIDS crisis and gay life in NY on the big screen.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0091578\/reference\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">My Beautiful Laundrette<\/a>: &#8220;<\/em>This film about race and sexuality made me realize that a well-made film could be political, entertaining, and sexy all at the same time.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) | Film4 Trailer\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/k_uVUBcHjzk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0104036\/reference\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>The Crying Game<\/em><\/a>: &#8220;I was blown away by the dialogue this film sparked around gender, both good and bad.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt1049400\/reference\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Outrage<\/em><\/a>: &#8220;This provocative documentary [by <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/invisible-war\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Invisible War<\/a><\/em> director Kirby Dick] about the destructive hypocrisies of closeted gay politicians who lobby for anti-gay legislation was the spark that got me thinking about my film <em>God Loves Uganda<\/em>.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Yoruba Richen<\/strong>&#8216;s film <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/new-black\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>The New Black<\/em><\/a> [<em>Independent Lens<\/em>] explores the issue of gay marriage from within the African American community, and she&#8217;s also producing the documentary <em>The Fire This Time<\/em> about young African American lesbians who were threatened and attacked in the West Village of New York City. Richen told us a few films come to mind when thinking of gay-themed features and docs that stayed with her:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/itvs.org\/films\/brother-outsider\/\">Brother Outsider<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>the Bayard Rustin documentary, was really seminal to me.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My friend Rodney Evans\u2019s film <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/brothertobrother\/\"><i>Brother to Brother<\/i><\/a>, set during the Harlem Renaissance.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Marlon Riggs\u2019s documentary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/pov\/films\/tonguesuntied\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>Tongues Untied<\/i><\/a>: \u00a0&#8220;What was powerful about it when I first saw it (I saw it again more recently) was the intersection of race and sexuality, how he explored the lived experiences of race and sexuality in that film were things I hadn&#8217;t been seen in any film before.<\/p>\n<p><i>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0118125\/reference\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Watermelon Woman<\/a><\/i>, Cheryl Dunye\u2019s film, which I remember seeing in the theater in the \u201890s, was really important to me in terms of both storytelling and in terms of seeing a lesbian character at the forefront at the story, interpreting our history.&#8221;<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Watermelon Woman - Trailer\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jYyRYngh9oc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Johnny Symons<\/strong> is a Bay Area documentary filmmaker whose films\u00a0include <a href=\"https:\/\/itvs.org\/films\/daddy-and-papa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Daddy &amp; Papa<\/em><\/a>, the <em>Independent Lens<\/em> film <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/asknot\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Ask Not<\/em><\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/itvs.org\/films\/out-run\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Out Run<\/em><\/a> (WORLD Channel&#8217;s DocWorld). Symons writes:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When I think about LGBT films that most influenced me, I think back to myself at age 23. I had recently arrived in San Francisco, was immersed in gay and HIV activism, and dreamed of one day being a documentary filmmaker. I remember two stunning film screenings\u2014both at small, packed movie houses in the Mission District\u2014that particularly inspired me. The first was the world premiere of <em>Tongues Untied<\/em>, an experimental, politically charged, and intensely personal film about the black gay male experience by renowned Bay Area filmmaker Marlon Riggs. A few months later, I saw the West Coast premiere of Jennie Livingston\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0100332\/reference\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Paris Is Burning<\/em><\/a>, which documents New York\u2019s underground &#8216;ball&#8217; scene, where contestants compete for trophies, glory, and a chance to transcend their often marginalized lives. The response to both films was staggering\u2014thundering applause that helped launch them on to widespread acclaim both inside and outside of the LGBT community.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Together, these films illustrate how two directors can tackle similar subject matter\u2014race, culture, community, violence, HIV, and the use of performance as a means of liberation and transformation\u2014using dramatically different approaches. <em>Tongues Untied<\/em>\u00a0is alternately forceful and humorous, angry, and poignant, unpredictable and carefully crafted\u2014a call to action made specifically by and for the black gay male community. In contrast, <em>Paris Is Burning<\/em> is an ethnographic exploration of ball culture made by a white lesbian, marked by intimate interviews and compelling observational footage on and off stage. To me, the films were a testament to the fact that both insiders and outsiders can tell moving and powerful stories through documentary.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Nearly 25 years have gone by since then. Marlon Riggs died in 1994, his life and brilliant career tragically cut short by AIDS. Jennie Livingston hasn&#8217;t made another feature documentary. But these two films continue to be legendary, capturing a critical moment in LGBT history and continuing to inspire filmmakers, performers, and activists.&#8221;<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tongues Untied Trailer\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S2T0UdNaWlo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"PARIS IS BURNING Trailer\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qiTYzZ8OHtU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For\u00a0<strong>David Weissman<\/strong>, who himself made two seminal films about gay history, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/we-were-here\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>We Were Here<\/em><\/a> and 2002&#8217;s\u00a0acclaimed\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cockettes.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>The Cockettes<\/em><\/a> (co-directed with Bill Weber), it&#8217;s not as much a film that comes to mind as a film festival:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I remember going to the very first Gay Film Festival in San Francisco in early 1977. \u00a0There were about 50 of us, maybe 100, watching a few short films projected on a Super 8 film projector, with sound from a portable cassette tape recorder that never quite remained in sync with the films. 37 years later, it&#8217;s mind-boggling how the world has changed, with this year&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.frameline.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Frameline San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival<\/a> screening hundreds of films from around the world with an extraordinary range of styles and subject matter.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I participate in the LGBT film world not only as a filmmaker\u00a0but also as co-programmer (with Russ Gage) of QDoc in Portland, Oregon, which is the only film festival in the world devoted exclusively to LGBT documentaries. So while I think it&#8217;s important to think about <em>what<\/em>\u00a0we watch, I also want to encourage our community to think about <em>how<\/em>\u00a0we watch. It&#8217;s remarkable to have access to so many\u00a0quality LGBT films, both documentary and narrative, on PBS, HBO, and elsewhere, and streaming. But there is nothing like the experience of watching those films on a big screen, with a room full of other LGBT folk sharing our laughter, tears, and inspiration as we watch our history, culture, politics, and all our diverse stories as told by so many extraordinary filmmakers.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you&#8217;re fortunate enough to live somewhere with an LGBT Film Festival, support it, and enjoy!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a trailer David put together for the 1995 Frameline festival:<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Short, Short Trailer\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/72939488?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>June is LGBT Pride Month and we&#160;<span>honor the occasion by asking a few filmmakers who&#8217;ve made documentaries for&#160;<\/span><i>Independent Lens<\/i><span>&#160;to&#160;contribute their own picks for the gay-themed films (features or docs) that affected them most&#160;profoundly.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":20557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1338,939],"tags":[],"topic":[1247,1239,1288],"class_list":["post-1870","blog","type-blog","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film-history","category-lists","topic-cinema","topic-identity","topic-lgbtq"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>LGBTQ Pride: Movies That Rocked Their World [Updated] | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Renowned filmmakers who made films about LGBTQ stories give us their top picks for the gay-themed films that had a big impact on them.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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