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?

Portrait of Jason
1967
6.5/10

The Celluloid Closet
1996
7.2/10

Disclosure
2020
7.8/10

Welcome to Chechnya
2020
6.9/10

The Last Repair Shop
2024
7.4/10

To Be Takei
2014
7.2/10

Miss Representation
2011
6.9/10

Frida
2024
6.7/10

Love, Gilda
2018
7.2/10

Feminists: What Were They Thinking?
2018
7.5/10

This Changes Everything
2019
6.2/10

Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction
2013
6.9/10

As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
2000
7.7/10

Love, Marilyn
2013
6.6/10

The Crash Reel
2013
7.3/10

Howard
2018
6.8/10

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
2018
5.9/10

Cameraperson
2016
6.7/10

Shawn Mendes: In Wonder
2020
8.2/10

Beyoncé: Life Is But a Dream
2013
7.8/10
Quiet Riot: Well Now You're Here, There's No Way Back
2014
8/10