A chronological look at films by, for, or about gays and lesbians in the United States, from 1947 to 2005, Kenneth Anger's "Fireworks" to "Brokeback Mountain". Talking heads, anchored by critic and scholar B. Ruby Rich, are interspersed with an advancing timeline and with clips from two dozen films. The narrative groups the pictures around various firsts, movements, and triumphs: experimental films, indie films, sex on screen, outlaw culture and bad guys, lesbian lovers, films about AIDS and dying, emergence of romantic comedy, transgender films, films about diversity and various cultures, documentaries and then mainstream Hollywood drama. What might come next?

The Celluloid Closet
1996
7.2/10

Disclosure
2020
7.8/10

The Last Repair Shop
2024
7.5/10

Heart of a Dog
2015
6.5/10

To Be Takei
2014
7.2/10

Love, Gilda
2018
7.2/10

Welcome to Chechnya
2020
6.8/10

This Changes Everything
2019
6.2/10

Frida
2024
6.8/10

Miss Representation
2011
6.9/10

Feminists: What Were They Thinking?
2018
7.5/10

In the Realms of the Unreal
2004
7.2/10

Howard
2018
6.8/10

Love, Marilyn
2013
6.6/10

Halftime
2022
6.9/10

Beyoncé: Life Is But a Dream
2013
8.0/10

Fuck
2006
6.4/10

Tupac: Resurrection
2003
7.9/10

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
2018
6.0/10

A Decade Under the Influence
2003
7.9/10
Sex & Water
2018
1/10